Category Archives: small poems

Just past sunrise . . . 4 small poems

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Two of my haiku and two tanka were published in Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society, Volume 27, No. 2, 2017:

 IMG_4490

 

 

autumn morning—

sweeping away all

that drifts inside

 

 

washed up

in the sudden flood –

a baby’s shoe

 

 

just past sunrise

a single scull

glides down the river. . .

a flash of what it was

to be young

 

 

the tight cord slaps

against the flagpole

all night long

I dream of a father

who used few words

 

 

My thanks to Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy, the editor of Blithe Spirit, for selecting these four poems for publication.

Dark pebbles… (a tanka)

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tanka moonbathing 16

 

Note: Published by poet and artist, Pamela L. Babusci, Moonbathing is a journal of women’s tanka.

Some colorful and ‘edible’ haiku

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An online haiku journal I love is brass bell: a haiku journal. It is curated by Zee Zehava, herself an excellent haiku poet and teacher. This journal sends out a “theme” for the month’s submissions, and the results are always a delight to read. Recently I had several haiku appear under two different themes.

brass bell: a haiku journal, May 2017
Theme: Colorful Haiku

 

 

children now gone 
no red wagon 
to break the fog

 

flashes of azure wings
two bluebirds wake
the grey morning

 

 

brass bell: a haiku journal, April 2017
Theme: Edible Haiku

 

tasting a word
as I say it aloud —
gnocchi

 
the soft velvet
of apricots
against our lips

   

pierogi day —
pinching loose ends
of dough & memories
   

 

 

 

colored pencils

~ ~ ~

My thanks to Zee Zehava, curator of brass bell: a haiku journal. To read a full issue of this journal, please go to: http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com

Jasmine tea . . . (a tanka)

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Skylark Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

 

from slabs
of common clay
delicate cups
that hold the scent
of jasmine tea

 

Mary Kendall  (c) 2017

 

steamy tea

 

Tundra swans . . . (a tanka)

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A new tanka just published in Skylark, Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

 

 

whistling wings    
of Tundra swans
over the marshes
. . . what is this power
you hold over me

 

(c) 2017 Mary Kendall

 

gerald plowman photo

Tundra Swans by Gerald Plowman

Whispers and unmarked graves

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These three senryu and the single kyoka were published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga, Issue 21, March 2017. It is always such a joy to have a poem selected to appear in this important journal of senryu. While senryu are frequently amusing and clever, they can also be dark or serious.

 

1.

slave burial ground
. . . only whispers
and unmarked graves

 

2.

evening news –                                
the tragedies of life
our common thread

 

3.

winter thaw –
finding a way back
from heated words

 

4.                                                                                

morning doves
cooing their way
through the garden…
I, too, never saw
the neighbor’s cat