Failed Haiku, Volume 6 Issue 68

So happy to have two collaborative split sequences published in the latest issue of Failed Haiku! Here's one. So honored to write this with Susan Burch. Thank you so much, Bryan Rickert, for publishing this. You can read the full issue here. https://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue68.pdf

Pandemic Special (Tanka Society of America)

Watch the video I made for the Pandemic Special compiled by Susan Burch!

Congrats

to all the poets who are included in this wonderful collection, a daily post of tanka to celebrate National Poetry Month, April 2021. Contributing poets in order of appearance are Debbie Strange, James Chessing, Sara Ellison, Steve Black, Margaret Chula, Grix Seven, Alexis Rotella, Marc Thompson, Marilyn Humbert, Keitha Keyes, Chen-ou Liu, Pris Campbell, Peggy Hale Bilbro, Jenny Angyal, Lesley Anne Swanson, Marcyn Clements, Seren Fargo, Michelle Brock, Julia Wakefield, Cynthia Anderson, Charles Harmon, Tish Davis, Carol Raisfeld, Susan Weaver, Susan Burch, Sheila Sondik, Mary Davila, Adelaide B. Shaw, LeRoy Gorman, and Christine L. Villa.

San Francisco International Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka Contest 2020

So honored to be the tanka judge for the HPNC's San Francisco International Haiku, Senryu, Tanka Contest 2020. Congratulations to Susan Burch, Margaret Chula, and Debbie Strange. Here are the winning poems and my commentaries. 2020 | mysite (hpnc.org)

*Click the photos to enlarge. 

Per Diem for September 2020: Mental Health/Illness

 Abundance is waking up in the morning with your haiku up on The Haiku Foundation website. Thanks to Susan Burch for selecting my haiku and to Marta Majorka Chociłowska for sharing this poem on Buds of Haiku on Facebook.

Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Tanka Society of America

I made this video for Tanka Society of America. It's a compilation of taiga posted from April 1-21, 2020 on the Tanka Society of America Facebook page to commemorate the 20th anniversary of TSA. Contributing poets in order of appearance are Julie Anne Thorndyke, Bing Bingham, Debbie Strange, Pat Geyer, Pamela A. Babusci, John Martell, Izumi Shikibu, Ignatius Fay, Susan Burch, Xenia Tran, Pris Campbell, Alexis Rotella, Anne Benjamin, Carol Raisfeld, Michael H. Lester, Christine L. Villa, an'ya, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Julie Kelsey, and Marilyn Ashbaugh.

*Compiled by Susan Burch

Here is the taiga I contributed. 

Where Tanka Prose Grows 2019 (First Place)

I still can't believe that I won first place! I had two tanka written for the prose and I keep changing my mind. Too bad I can never know if I still would have won if I submitted the other tanka. Thank you so much to Amanda DCosta and Susan Burch for organizing this contest every year. 

Hope you enjoy my first attempt in submitting to this contest!

Eclipsed

     As soon as my eyes are closed, I’m swept into a library of dusty memories. The heaviest book from my crammed bookshelf easily slips between my hands. I’ve no choice because it opens itself and I’m instantly wearing my green and white uniform. Over and over, I stumble on the same sentences. I grasp for more words from a poem which I know I’ve memorized a hundred times. Nothing comes back to me. All I can gather are beads of sweat.

Then I miss the bus. Or did I just ride the wrong bus? Someone is waiting for me at home. He's now pacing back and forth while I’m going around in circles. Should I call and say I’m running late? Why can’t I remember anybody’s phone number?

I scurry in and out of shopping malls. Where’s the red dress I saw the other day? I rummage through a stack of clothes bins and squiggle my way deep into the bottom. Deeper…Deeper… Before I know it, I find myself running to a bus stop. I’m so relieved to see four-wheel vehicles leading to somewhere… But where is home? I try to fly. I know I could fly at one time. Maybe this time I would.

“What’s happening here? Why am I at the wrong side of the freeway? I’m going back to Oroville!!! We are supposed to be on our way to Sacramento?” his voice an octave higher.

I wake up from a haze, wondering which one isn’t real. 

a spiral

winding to the center

of a moon shell . . .

that time when I lived 

in a world of paper dolls

***Comment by contestants: This is an interesting tanka prose that presents a dreamlike state to the reader. The title and tanka work too.   I like the fact that the title has more than one meaning. I am not sure the last line of the prose is needed. One quibble is I was distracted by the several question-mark sentences in the second paragraph.

Click the link here to the website so you can see the other winners and enjoy their tanka prose as well.

Tanka Poets on Site (August 26 prompt)

     A million thanks to Susan Burch! My poetry birthday fest is over at Write Me a Birthday Poem, but she still wrote me a tanka as she responded to a prompt on Tanka Poets on Site.

 

     Here is what she wrote:

descending

in the hot air balloon

I inhale deeply...
feeling that last breath of sky
stamp me with sunshine

 

 

dedicated to my friend chrissi villa in lieu of a birthday haiku...

And here's a lovely response from Kathy Uyen Nguyen's. I am also grateful for this offering.


with the last breath
of the coral skies
I write the beat
of my name inside
the palm of your hand
 

 

 

prompt: hot air balloons

See comments here. 

 

Angry Tanka by Atlas Poetica

     Just haven't found the time to post this yet. I have actually enjoyed the angry tanka collection so much. Thank you, Susan Burch, for coming up with Angry Tanka as a special feature section of Atlas Poetica. I'm so honored to have my tanka included among 25 poems you have chosen. 

 

you found me
after five failed marriages
why is there a pause
when I ask you
if I am your best wife

 

      For those of you that haven't read it yet, here's the link. I have so many favorites, but these are my top five:
  
after his sulking
after his insults
after his tantrums
I accidentally spill bleach
on his shirt

Margaret Chula, USA


unsettled argument
I serve the soup
neglecting
to warn him
how hot it is

Sylvia Forges-Ryan, USA


last night's 
storm still brewing
her voice 
growing more defiant
with each "fine"

Shloka Shankar, India


that time 
you called me
by her name
after all these years
the burning in my belly

Debbie Strange, Canada

the fingernail cut

you left deep

within the tomato’s skin . . .

so, this is how you want

to end our one-month fling

Kathy Uyen Nguyen, USA