My very first tanka sequence was published in RIBBONS: Journal of the American Tanka Society, Winter 2016: Volume 12, Number 1. My thanks to editor, David Rice, for suggesting to me that these three tanka would work best in a sequence.
Category Archives: tanka
The meaning of sanglant…
A story in the NY Times story last Sunday said, “France is spending nearly 1 millions euros a day on the heightened security, part of a renewed surge in European military spending as governments declare terrorism a permanent risk.”.
.
One million euros a day to combat terrorism. What a high price for liberty! The words, “Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité” are known to most of us. The French fought long and hard for democracy, and still, the battle continues. Part of democracy is tolerating dissension, but dissension can come at great risk and price. The French (and other democratic countries) are committed to fighting terrorism at great financial cost. Sadly, this means also at a cost of human lives. Still, there is no other choice…freedom must be protected by all who believe in democratic rule.
The following tanka was written as a reflection on the real cost of defeating oppression. It is a brief poem by choice.
a wash of red
under café tables
in silence
we learn the meaning
of sanglant
For your reference:
Article:
Bits & Pieces
I had three haiku published in issue #61 of hedgerow, a journal of small poems last week.
old nest box…
a flurry of blue birds
before the snow
(hedgerow #61)
roasted chestnuts–
how could I forget
your laughter?
(hedgerow #61)
.
my dog leaps
into still night water
to fetch the moon
(hedgerow #61)
Dream Time 2
This tanka art piece is the second in my Dream Time series of poems. To read the first poem in the series (on this blog), follow this link:
As you’ll notice the two poems are quite different in style and content, but I’ve grouped them together in Dream Time since both were written while poised on that slender edge of dreaming into another time and place.
A Special Word of Thanks:
A big thank you to my dear husband, Ritchie D. Kendall, who took this photograph on a hill in Greenwich in 2013 when we were living in London.
Crow on a Willow Branch, Japanese woodprint, Library of Congress woodprint
Small Poems for a Cold Winter Day
In my last posting here, I put up a new haiga that was just published in cattails, January 2016, the journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, but I was really very fortunate this time round in having three other poems published in the same issue: a haiku, a senryu, and a tanka.
cattails, January 2016, haiku, p. 8:
winter—
each day closing in
on itself
cattails, January 2016, tanka, p. 4:
chased away
by a gang of crows
the red-tailed hawk—
being different
is never easy
cattails, January 2016, senryu, p. 9:
black Friday—
the vultures circle
round and round
Winter Night Sky (a tanka)
Starry Sky (c) Kayaga
how could the moon
show its face
without light
…how could the stars
sing us songs?
A Poet in Time 