Winter nights (haiku)

 

Presence Issue 68, November 2020

 

 

winter nights—

dreaming of blackbirds

on snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thanks to the editors at Presence for publishing this haiku.

 

 

 

 

 

September roses (a haiku)

 

I am blessed with another haiku published in a favorite journal I love to read: hedgerow: a journal of small poems, issue # 132

 

 

 

September roses
the stone wall
hidden between us

 

 

 

 

 

(c) 2020 Mary Kendall

 

ghosting myself . . . (tanka)

 

 

Ribbons 16:3 (fall 2020)

 

 

 

ghosting myself
by looking away . . .
     the mirror                        
no longer a friend
I care to see

 

 

 

(c) Mary Kendall, 2020

 

 

Note: This pretty hand mirror was crafted in Germany and sold on Etsy.com.

snow day

 

The Heron’s Nest, XXII.4, December 2020 published one of my haiku:

 

 

snow day–
a crackle of fire
in our stories

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer (a tanka)

So careful a gardener, he patiently weeds between the pebbles.

 

This tanka is dedicated to my dear husband, Ritchie Kendall.

 

each day you kneel
and work in the garden
I can think of nothing
more prayer-like
than this

 

 

Published in the Tanka Society of America Members’ 2020 Anthology.

 

 

Still the roses bloom…(a tanka)

 

.

 

the chiming clock
begins to wind down . . .
five months of quarantine
yet still the roses bloom
and red birds sing

 

 

.

This tanka was published in October, but obviously was written in early summer. We are now nine months into this pandemic. Writing is a wonderful relief as we isolate ourselves. Like so many poets, I find my writing has been changed by the pandemic.

cattails:
The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, October 2020 issue