Two tanka of mine appeared in the last issue of Ribbons, the journal of the Tanka Society of America.
Ribbons, Fall 2017: Volume 13, Number 3
still collecting dolls
into her old age
a special name for each –
and one story
she refused to tell
Tanka Café, Fall 2017: theme was “paper”
a book propped
by the pillow on my knees,
page after page
I ease into someone
else’s life
A one-line haiku published in
Acorn, A Journal of Contemporary Haiku,
#39, Fall 2017~
winter static the crackle of your silence
~
Under the Basho is an excellent and unusual haiku publication. It is unusual in that submissions and acceptances continue on a rolling basis through the year while other journals have very strict reading periods. It is also unusual in that the journal is divided into various haiku subcategories such as “Traditional haiku,” “Hokku,” “Modern Haiku,” “One-Line Haiku,” “Concrete Haiku,” and “Poet’s Personal Best Haiku.”
This is the second time I’ve had the good fortune of having haiku in Under the Basho in three categories: Modern Haiku, One-Line Haiku and Poet’s Personal Best Haiku.
Here are my three in the Modern Haiku group:
I have two in the One-Line Haiku group:
And I have one selected in the Poet’s Personal Best Haiku category. Poems in this group are haiku or senryu that have already been published:
It is a wonderful way to end the year by having six haiku chosen to appear in this journal. My thanks to the editors for selecting these haiku.
Also appearing in Skylark, a Tanka Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017 is this piece of Tanka Art. The photograph was taken by me in the cemetery of Holy Trinity Church (where William Shakespeare is buried) in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK in 2015.
This tanka was published in Skylark, a Tanka Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017:
The following tanka is dedicated to the courageous people who participated in the “Moral Mondays” in my home state of North Carolina. They risked arrest for gathering at the State Legislature to protest unfair and discriminatory legislation being passed. These protests were non-violent and led by the Reverend William J. Barber.
Moral Monday –
arm and arm linked
you choose to step
into the darkness
to find the light
This rengay was published in Skylark, a Journal of Tanka,
Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017
DAY’S END
Mary Kendall & Bill Waters
stillness – MK
violet fades
to black
the scratch of a match BW
as I strike it
a flicker MK
of memory starts
then stops
turn of the tide . . . BW
how hard it is
to let go
a limb of driftwood MK
pulled back to sea
fair nights or foul BW
the lighthouse beam
shining
It is always a real honor to be invited to write responsively with a poet I admire. In this case, poet Bill Waters asked if I’d like to write a rengay with him. I love Bill’s poetry and his originality. I had read many rengay, but I’d never written one. Of course trying out a new form is always both fun and a challenge, so without hesitation I agreed. Bill had written rengay with other poets, so I depended upon him to keep me on track, and he did. The process of linking and shifting in responsive writing is the best part of the process. Having this rengay accepted for publication in Skylark, a Journal of Tanka edited by Claire Everett was another honor for both of us. Thanks, Bill, for this invitation.
Note: For more poetry by Bill Waters, please visit his websites:
Bill Waters~~Haiku/
Haiku + Tanka, Haibun, Rengay, & More:
https://billwatershaiku.wordpress.com
Bill Waters~~ Not Haiku (blog within a blog): https://billwatershaiku.wordpress.com/bill-waters-not-haiku/
A Poet in Time 