Proceeds from sales of this book will go to Zoeglossia - A Community for POETS with Disabilities.
My thanks to the editor, Hannah Soyer, for including the following tanka sequence in this anthology:
Afflicted
as if I were
this ash-filled burl,
black veins
of decay winding through
my body like a river
hares boxing
in the flush of dawn . . .
it seems
impossible to defeat
an opponent I can't see
a raven
believed it could fly
through me
unaware that I am glass,
pretending to be sky
I have learned
how to keep silent . . .
these pebbles
under my tongue
seasoned with rue
Publication Credits
1st verse: Commended Tanka, Mandy's Pages, The Burning Issue 2020 Tanka Contest
2nd verse: Red Lights 15.2, June 2019
3rd verse: 3rd Place, 2020 San Francisco Int'l Competition for Haiku, Senryu and Tanka
4th verse: Cattails, April 2021
