Thursday, July 14, 2016

Cattails, January 2015

spewing lava
a volcano erupts
between us


early frost
a gazing ball reflects
white roses


another egg
in the falcon's nest
rising moon


midwinter
ribbons of aurora
u n f u r l i n g
we tie up the loose ends
of our divergent lives


the goodbye
i never said
at dawn
a bull elk bugles
on the hillside


your fingers
played a symphony
in my hair
when I was a cello
and you were the bow


Tanka Editor's Choice:

A wonderful "short song" (tanka) composed by Debbie Strange from Canada, in which we not only hear the symphony played by two lovers, but where the lyrics of this write present in a musical fashion. I cannot stress enough the importance of line 2, 4, and 5 being of nearly equal length to create a melody like this author has accomplished
—an'ya, cattails principal editor






Cattails, January 2016

dusty sky
refugees make kites
from plastic bags


bagpipes skirl
across the prairie
Dad goes home


midnight sun
will you miss me
when I'm gone


in the hills
cattle lowing between
silences


aftermath
a skunk forages
in fireweed


the dry ache
of a long goodbye
how do we
reach the other side
with the bridge washed out


Tanka Editor's Choice:

This Editor's Choice is by Debbie Strange from Canada, and it demonstrates a songlike rhythm which is pleasing to the ear and desirable in the tanka form. However I chose it not only for the melody but for its contents and its juxtaposition as well. Representative of an aching heart after a long goodbye, we are left to wonder how to reach the other side with the bridge washed out. Metaphoric in its content, leaves a reader to believe in that old saying that "love always finds a way".

—UHTS cattails tanka editor an'ya, USA






Note: This issue also contains a lovely review of Warp and Weft, Tanka Threads by an'ya which may be accessed via the book's title page of this blog.






Red Lights, Vol. 12, Number 2, June 2016

kittiwakes
wheeling the blue beyond
calling, calling
a glimpse of your face
before you slipped away


at cliff's edge
waves roiling below
I stand
eye to eye with gulls
unafraid of flight


on the shore
jellyfish sailors
stranded
my hopes deflating
with these pink balloons

Paper Wasp 22 (2), 2016

the sound of rain
millions of monarchs
taking wing


morning chill
the dark field aglow
with pumpkins


above the marsh
a swarm of gnats spins
dusk into night

NeverEnding Story, July 2016

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu


empty nest
on the for sale sign
mourning doves


Selected Haiku
2015 Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum Haiku Contest


Chen-ou Liu's comments:

Technically speaking, L1, "empty nest," provides a "scent link" (in Basho's sense of the phrase) to L3, "mourning doves." And the doves' soft, drawn-out calls effectively enhances the tone and mood of the poem.

Hedgerow Poems, Number 85, July 2016

Resident Artist







Poems without images published as follows:

1) brass bell, September 2015
2) Frameless Sky, June 2015
3) brass bell, November 2015
4) Failed Haiku, May 2016



Daily Haiku, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, July 2016

rocky ledge
a wolf with the moon
in its mouth


3rd Place
Irish Haiku Society
7th International Haiku Competition 2015

Daily Haiku, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, July 2016

stone cairns
a faded cap drifts
downriver


1st Place
HSA 2015 Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest
Frogpond #38:3, Autumn 2015

Atlas Poetica, Number 25, July 2016

a bird gone quiet
in the tender hollow
of your throat
I miss you more than words
can say I miss you


basking seals
on the breakwater
steam rises
from our sleek bodies
into otherness


an ant
pushing the universe
up this hill
in a water droplet
I find my inner strength


prairie dawn
an exaltation of larks
on barbed wire
ancestral blood pinging
along the gravel road home

Friday, July 01, 2016

World Haiku Review, June 2016

(theme eros and agape)


button moon
we undress each other
in the dark

Zatsuei Haiku of Merit
Vanguard Haiku Category


crescent moon
a scar on the curve
of your belly

Hon. Mention
Vanguard Haiku Category


fireflies
so many reasons
to shine

Hon. Mention
Shintai Haiku Category


mending fences
the scent of sagebrush
on your fingers

Hon. Mention
Shintai Haiku Category





JapanTanka Poets' Society,The 8th International Tanka Festival Competition, 2016

two deep valleys
in a mountain's shadow
village children
pleading at day's end
for one more shaft of light


Certificate of Merit
Conferred by The Tanka Journal
(300 entries)

Shamrock, Number 34, June 2016

shining wind the halt and sway of evergreens


frosted dawn
crows spill across
the horizon

Prune Juice, Issue 19, July 2016

frogspawn
the way you wriggle
out of lies


a fox
in the hen house
your affair


blood-streaked
arms and legs flailing
we relearn
the complicated steps
of the mosquito Macarena

Presence, Number 55, June 2016

coastal trail a rainbow appears in the orca's breath


lambing season
swirls of fog become
a wolf pack


rising wind
a volley of ducks explodes
from the marsh


snowy owls
drifting over prairie
northern lights




North Carolina Poetry Society, Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award, 2015

fog weaving
between fence posts
a coyote's song

Hon. Mention
Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award 2015
Pinesong, Volume 52, Awards 2016


Judge's Comments:

I awarded honorable mention to this haiku for its deft juxtaposition of senses both visual and aural. I like where this haiku led me: piano (fence post), pianist (fog) and music produced by the combination of those two images (coyote's song). Each reader's interpretation of a haiku is unique and based on the reader's own experience. Where does this haiku lead you?

—Roberta Beary



Moonbathing, Issue 14, Spring/Summer 2016

barnacles
cling to foam-flecked rocks
e x p o s e d
at my lowest ebb
I yearn to let go

Hedgerow Poems, Number 82, June 2016

Resident Artist




Poems without images published as follows:

1) cattails, May 2016
2) cattails, May 2016
3) Undertow Tanka Review, Issue 7, 2015
4) The Bamboo Hut, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2014


Haiku Society of America, Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest, 2015

stone cairns
a faded cap drifts
downriver


1st Place
2015 Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest

A Splash of Water, Haiku Society of America, Members' Anthology 2015

water lily
the way you close
your hands to pray


World Haiku Association
122nd Haiga Contest 2014

Sailing Into The Moon, Haiku Canada Members' Anthology, 2016

merlot moon
fires burn somewhere
close tonight


Asahi Haikuist Network, November 2015

Frameless Sky, Issue 4, June 2016

smudged sunrise
the length of a bittern's neck
among rushes


ever-changing
this topography
of hills and dales
our ageing bodies
fit together, still


for hovers
over sawtooth mountains
when I reach
the furthest pinnacle
will I finally see

Failed Haiku - A Journal of English Senryu, Issue 7, July 2016



Daily Haiku, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, December 2015

night drive . . .
a deer leaps over
the moon


Gems Anthology 2014

European Haiku Society, June 2016

weathered barn
the silence of cobwebs
in moonlight


Hon. Mention
European Haiku Prize