Trying hard to hold on … (two tanka)

 

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Red Lights, Volume 13, No. 2, June 2017

 

 

peeling an orange

in one long strand –

trying hard to hold on

to all I remember

of those now gone

 

 

 

a wooden pew

empty and waiting . . .

colored light

from stained glass

cupped in my hands

 

My thanks to editor and poet, Marilyn Hazelton, who published these tanka in the most excellent Red Lights.

Just past sunrise . . . 4 small poems

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

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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.

A respite … (tanka)

 

tanka in eucalypt

 

Note:  This is the very first time one of my tanka have appeared in the Australian tanka journal, Eucalypt.  My thanks to the new editor, poet Julie Thorndike.

Dark pebbles… (a tanka)

 

 

tanka moonbathing 16

 

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

Jasmine tea . . . (a tanka)

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)

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