[chorus frogs]

the piping
of chorus frogs
in snow . . .
the winter of my life
melts into music


The Bamboo Hut 1: 1, August 2013

Chinese translation

To see a Chinese translation of my award-winning  "harvest mouse" tanka, please visit NeverEnding Story, the first English-Chinese bilingual haiku and tanka blog, edited by Chen-ou Liu. (Chen-ou has previously translated six of my other tanka, which may be seen by clicking my name at the bottom of his "harvest mouse" post.)

shafts of sun

raising the blinds
I let your words
pass through me—
sunlight streaming
through an empty glass

~Fire Pearls 2, summer 2013

I wake 
to find myself
invisible—
dust motes shimmer
in a shaft of sun


~A Hundred Gourds 3:2, Dec. 2013

TSA Anthology

Tanka Society of America to Publish 2014  Anthology—Free to Members

The Tanka Society of America (TSA) has announced plans for a 2014 members' anthology, scheduled for release this autumn. For this year only, current members will receive a complimentary copy.

M. Kei, widely known tanka poet and publisher of Keibooks, will edit the anthology.

The submission window opens on February 15 and closes on April 30. Details are posted at the TSA website and also will be published in the Winter issue of Ribbons, the official TSA journal.

If you're not a current (2014) TSA member, consider joining or renewing your membership today!

thistledown

reading to mother

on her deathbed

the books I loved at five—

            the rabbit burrow

            safe around us

the shell

of a box turtle,

split open and empty. . .

where did it go,

my fear of death?

footsteps

falling like syllables

in the rhythm

of an ancient rune

I outrun the dark

windsong

under the eaves

of a house

where once I lived. . .

this old bone flute, my body

wind in the grass

on Big Yellow Mountain. . .

over the granite

bones of my mother

I lay my body down

             ~red lights 10:1, Jan. 2014