Saturday, December 19, 2015

Eucalypt Distinctive Scribblings Awards

Eucalypt  
The Distinctive Scribblings Awards

             
The Awards recognise two outstanding poems from each issue of Eucalypt,
selected and appraised by winners of the Awards in the previous issue.


squiggly gum picSeveral species of eucalypts (gums) exhibit distinctive squiggles that result from moth larvae eating the live wood and leaving a scar that is revealed when the tree sheds its bark. This image of a gum with its insect-generated calligraphy, inspired the naming of the award. 



AWARD RECIPIENTS 


          Eucalypt  Issue 19, 2015
ancestral valley –
the way prayer flags
flicker light at dawn
I carry this in my heart
each time I leave home
                — Sonam Chhoki  
  



horseshoe –
the blacksmith’s hammer
singing on the anvil
beating out the rhythm
of long-lost luck

— Jenny Ward Angyal  

 











TSA Tanka-Prose Contest Winners

Special-event Tanka Prose Contest Winners

The Tanka Society of America is pleased to announce the winners of its first-ever tanka prose contest, held this 15th-anniversary year:

1st Place: Urszula Funnell (UK), "Checkmate"
2nd Place: J. Zimmerman (USA), "Ah Morelia" 
3rd Place: Claire Everett (UK), "The Window Poem"
Honorable Mentions: Jenny Ward Angyal (USA), "Gaps," and David Terelinck (Australia), "Carved in Stone"

Much appreciation goes to poet and editor Bob Lucky, who diligently served as judge for this blind-review contest. We're also very grateful to poet and TSA volunteer Susan Burch, who worked behind the scenes in helping us administer the contest, especially in building the judge's electronic file of anonymous entries. And a huge thanks, of course, to the sixty-nine poets from around the world who submitted entries.

To read the winning tanka prose pieces, please go to the TSA website. Note that the full judge's report, including contest commentary, will be published in the winter 2016 Ribbons. The judge's comments will be added after that to the website. 


Janet Lynn Davis
TSA vice president & contest coordinator, 2014-2015

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Advent calendars

decades
of advent calendars
my mother sent,
each marked with its year . . .
so many doors left open


~A Hundred Gourds 4:2, March 2015