Sunday, September 20, 2015

NeverEnding Story, September 2015

Cool Announcement: A New Release, Warp and Weft, Tanka Threads

My Dear Readers:

I'm happy to share with you this exciting news: NeverEnding Story contributor Debbie Strange just published her first collection of tanka, titled Warp and Weft, Tanka Threads (edited by M. Kei and available in print and ebook at Amazon), which "weaves tanka into short threads of three each, each triptych building into a larger sequence that tells the story of a poet with a raven's eye."


Selected Tanka:


at the stoplight
she squeegees
car windows
her scrawny arms tattooed
with poetry and addiction


my hands
tend the wild roses
upon your grave
in blood and blossoms
I sanctify your name


scattered
beneath the roses
these questions:
are you not more than ash
am I not more than rain


riding pillion
my heart
against your back
we unzip the highway
at the velocity of night


moonbeam quills
through our windows
transcribing
the grammar of shadows
into the poetry of light


at the top
of a ferris wheel
two spiders
spin neon orbs
into the night


a nimbus
around the frost moon
above us
the hushed wings
of a snowy owl

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Behind the Tree Line - Haiku Anthology, 2015


Haiku, Acorn, Number 33, Fall 2014




Wild Plum, Issue 1:2, Fall & Winter 2015

Haiga Corner



Haiku, Akitsu Quarterly, Summer 2015


The Bamboo Hut, Autumn 2015

a washboard road
woven between fallow fields
leads me backward
to a past so much smaller
than I had remembered


Irish dancers
their lightning steps flash
emerald-bright
phosphorescent waves
thunder at my feet


wrecking balls
expose long-held secrets
underneath
these crumbling facades
we are masterpieces


painting
my body with woad
I succumb
to the strange allure
of melancholia


scavenging
in the "nuisance ground"
black bears
catching the scent of me
catching the sight of them


note:  "nuisance ground" is a term used for a rubbish dump near a small town


On the Strand


our beach wedding
ribbons of dreams fluttering
from the old boat's mast

the singing sands
on a wind-strummed beach
you murmur my name

wet beach towels
we dance a fandango
in the hot breeze


Akitsu Quarterly, Fall 2015

goldenrod
the morning stiffness
in my spine





Thursday, September 03, 2015

Undertow Tanka Review, Issue 7, September 2015

the x-rays
of my flattened breasts
pressed roses
these black petals etched
with traceries of white


the sweater
mother knit for me
a rainbow
fading at the edges
her evanescent life


when we were girls
there was an unspoken rule
avoid loitering males
why was I ashamed when
he exposed himself to me


dead houseflies
litter my windowsill
blind-sided
not even compound eyes
see the way out of here


gulls nesting
on the cottage roof
fallen feathers
sprouting from my boots
today, my feet have wings


Honourable Mention
Undertow Tanka Review First Tanka Contest, 2015

NeverEnding Story, August 2015

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu


great blue heron . . .
leaning into the mirror
i become still


Cattails, May 2014


Chen-ou's Comments:

There is an analogical relationship subtly established between the great blue heron and the speaker. The description of the speaker's body posture, the mirror, and the state of mind in Ls 2&3 successfully carries symbolic significance.

NeverEnding Story, May 2015

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou-Liu


geese unzip the sky
a snowflake trembles
on your eyelashes


VerseWrights, 2013


Chen-ou's comments:

Debbie's use of the zoom-in technique is effective, and the contrasts between the two parts of the poem open up an interpretative space that allows the reader to co-author the poem.

The Heron's Nest, Vol. 17, Number 3, September 2015

summer camp
children sieve the sky
for tadpoles

Brasss Bell, September 2015

One-Line Haiku Issue


folding unfolding the origami of monarch butterflies

TanshiArt, 2015






Kokako, Number 23, September 2015

cactus flower
a prickle of fear
at the news


sun catcher
the flicker's tail
a yellow fan


a pod of orcas
rubbing bellies on stones
at low tide
another rare wonder
that cannot be explained


Blithe Spirit, Vol. 25, Number 3, August 2015

fool's gold
glitters in the sun
worthless
except for this nugget
my father gave me


in the barn
an old red barber's chair
spins tales
for raggle-taggle sisters
dizzy with summer magic


pink bear scat
the saskatoon berries
no one picked


Cultural Response Poem


music on the wind
an open field blossoms
with flower children


(The Winnipeg Folk Festival
Bird's Hill Provincial Park, Manitoba)

Atlas Poetica, Number 22, August 2015

Foundering


this is how
to make your deathbed
this is the way
you fold transgressions
into hospital corners

this is how
to write your death poem
this is the way
you hold your last breath
when the plug is pulled

Hedgerow Poems, Number 44, August 2015

Part 4 of the Resident Artist Collection...


The Altered Reality Series


I have a lot of fun enhancing my photographs with a variety of digital techniques. This gives me double the creative pleasure and helps to extend the reach of the original works...




Runner-up, British Haiku Society Tanka Awards, 2014/15
Soft Thunder Anthology, 2015




3rd Place, United Haiku and Tanka Society Second Annual "AHA" Awards, 2014
Cattails, May 2014
Forthcoming collection, "A Year Unfolding", from Folded Words in 2016




Moonbathing, Issue 11, Fall/Winter 2014




Honourable Mention, World Tanka Competition, 2013
Lyrical Passion Poetry E-zine, October 2013




Undertow Tanka Review, Issue 1, August 2014