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ATLAS POETICA

A Journal of Poetry of Placein Contemporary Tanka

Number 7 Autumn, 2010

ATLAS POETICA

A Journal of Poetry of Placein Contemporary Tanka

Number 7 Autumn, 2010

M. Kei, editorAlex von Vaupel, technical director

ISSN 1939-6465 Print ISSN 1945-8908 Digital

2010Keibooks, Perryville, Maryland, USA

KEIBOOKSP O Box 516

Perryville, Maryland, USA 21903AtlasPoetica.org

[email protected]

Atlas PoeticaA Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka

Number 7 �— Autumn 2010

Copyright © 2010 by Keibooks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers and scholars who may quote brief passages.

See our EDUCATIONAL USE NOTICE at the end of the journal.

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka, a triannual print journal, is dedicated to publishing and promoting ne poetry of place in contemporary

English tanka (including variant forms). Atlas Poetica is interested in both traditional and innovative verse of high quality and in all serious attempts to assimilate the best of the

Japanese waka/tanka/kyoka/gogyohka genres into a continuously developing English short verse tradition. In addition to verse, Atlas Poetica publishes articles, essays, reviews, interviews, letters to the editor, etc., related to tanka poetry of place. Tanka in translation from around

the world are welcome.

Published by KeibooksPrinted in the United States of America, 2010

Print Edition ISSN 1939-6465Digital Edition ISSN 1945-8908 [PDF & HTML versions]

AtlasPoetica.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial

World Tanka, .........................M. Kei 7

Innu .................................................... 15

.................French / Français 9, 11, 12, 15

.....Spanish / Español 9, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19

.....................Lithuanian / Lietuviu kalba 7

Romanian / Român ......... 21, 22, 23, 24,

25, 26, 28

Dutch & Flemish / Nederlands &

...................Vlaams 30, 33, 34, 36, 65

...............................German / Deutsch 38

...............................................Hebrew 36

Chinese / !" ..................................... 29

Japanese / #$%................................. 60

..............................................Luganda 39

................................................English 40

...................................................Fante 42

....................................................Ewe 43

.............................................Afrikaans 44

..................Twi (Akuapem) 45, 46, 47, 48

Articles

Review: Weaver Birds, by Amelia Fielden

and Saeko Ogi,reviewed by Patricia

..............................................Prime 49

Review: A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds,

by Margaret Van Every, reviewed by

...................................Neil Schmitz 52

Review: The Time of This World,

by Kawano Y ko, reviewed by

..................................Patricia Prime 54

Chronology and Tanka, Kisaburo

Konoshima, translated and edited by

.................................David Callner 58

Bespreking Take Five. Best Contemporary

Tanka 2008 & Take Five. Best

Contemporary Tanka Vol. 2,

.............................by Paul Mercken 65

Obituary : Kawano Y ko,

...........................by Amelia Fielden 69

..................................Announcements 70

.......................International Resources 73

.........................Biographies in English 78

.......................Educational Use Notice 83

World Tanka

Wow! ¡Caramba! Incroyable! What else can be said about an issue

that features tanka in Innu, Lithuanian, French, Spanish, Romanian, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Luganda, Fante, Ewe, and Twi? We have lled the entire issue with tanka in translation from around the world. Especially exciting are the contributions from Africa where tanka will have a new home in the Rough Sheet Tanka Journal edited by Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah of Winneba, Ghana. Equally exciting is the continued development of tanka groups in Australia and a new tanka group in México.

Some of the voices in ATPO 7 are well-known but gain new resonance when speaking languages other than English. Other voices are unknown and represent fresh and different approaches to tanka. By grouping presentations together by language or geography, shared traits and differences can be observed both within and without tanka communities. Together they illustrate the extraordinary suppleness of tanka, yet they carry the heaviest of weights: the emotions of the human heart. Nothing is exempt from the poet�’s eye. Violence in México, the heartaches of a nursing home, shanty towns in Africa, crime, exile, superstition, governmental folly, and yes, those old standbys, love and nature are all here. Technology, baobab trees, and kisses intermingle.

ATPO has always welcomed voices from around the world. The addition of Special Features on the website at <http://AtlasPoetica.org> showcasing

particular communities has been very well received. Current exhibitions of Romanian tanka, Canadian tanka in French and English, and Australian and New Zealand tanka, illustrate the national voices as well as the individual accomplishments of the poets. However, many tanka poets are working in languages or in areas where there is not much support or interest in tanka, so this issue was conceived as a venue to present as diverse a range as possible of tanka poetry. Like rare butteries, tanka in languages such as Twi, Innu, Hebrew, and Lithuanian are rarely seen, and illustrate tanka�’s ability to express the experiences of people around the globe.

In addition, non-ction articles, r e v i e w s , a n n o u n c e m e n t s a n d international resources further expand the scope of the issue. Sadly, not all news is good news: Japanese tanka poet Kawano Y ko passed away recently. An obituary by her friend and translator, Amelia Fielden, is included.

Readers and poets are all likely to nd something to interest, provoke, or inspire them in these pages.

~K~

M. KeiEditor, Atlas Poetica

Ghadamis River, Libya. This scar on an arid landscape is the dry riverbed of the Ghadamis River in the Tinrhert Hamada Mountains near Ghadamis, Libya.

Cover Image courtesy of Our Earth As Art by NASA <ht tp://ear thasar t .gs fc .nasa .gov/index.htm>.

A t l a s P o e t i c a �• I s s u e 7 �• P a g e 7

The Fight, La Bataille, Gin as, La Pelea

Zoa Barisas

Zoa Barisas, French translatorZoa Barisas & Joe Klemka Lithuanian translators

Zoa Barisas, Spanish translator

branches thrashin the chill gale�—in the room their harsh words�— he makes his bedon the couch

les branches s�’agitentdans la rafale glacée�—dans la chambre leurs mots durs�—il fait son litsur le divan

�šakos bra�ška�šaltam veji�—kambari ju a�štrus �žod�žiai�—jis klojas lovaant sofos

las ramas se tuercenen el viento helado�—en el cuarto sus palabras duras�—él hace su camaen el sofa

thunderstorm last nightold oak split in two�—on the mirrorin lipstick�“goodbye�”

nuit d�’orage hiervieux chêne fendu en deux�—sur le miroiren rouge à lèvres�“adieu�”

vakar nakti perkunijasenas a�žuolas skylis i du�—veidrodilupu pai�šeliu�“sudiev�”

noche de tormenta ayerviejo roble partido en dos�—en el espejoen lápiz de labios�“adiós�”

the waves rush against the rocksand breakand again rush and break�—�“come backcome back to me�”

les vagues s�’élancent sur les rocherset se brisentet de nouveau s�’élancent et se brisent�“reviensreviens à moi�”


~The Fight, cont.

bangos trenkia i uolasir du�žtair i�š naujo trenkia ir du�žta�—�“sugri�šksugri�šk pas mane�”

las olas se precipitan contra las rocasy se quebrany de nuevo se precipitan y se quebran�“vuelvevuelve a mí�”

morning stillnessin the fogtwo egrets�—he makes coffeefor two

calme du matindans le brouillarddeux égrettes�—il prepare du cafépour deux

ryto ramybebaltoj miglojdu garniai�—jis paruo�še kavosdviem

paz de la mañanaen la nieblinados garzas�—el prepara cafépara dos

branches wavein the mild breeze�—in the room their soft murmurs�—the bed sighsunder their bodies

les branches ondulentdans la brise légère�—dans la chambre leurs doux murmures�—le lit soupiresous leurs corps

�šakos svyrinejalengvan vejeli�—kambari ju �švelni �šnyb�ždejimai�—lova atsidustapo ju kunais

las ramas se muevenen el viento ligero�—en el cuarto sus dulces murmuros�—la cama suspirabajo sus cuerpos

~Ajijic, México

Zoa Barisas gime Montreali. Kai ji turejo penkius metus jos familija persikelo ant farmos Saint Paul de Joliette parapijoj. Namie kalbejo lietuvi�škai. Jos mama pasakojo pasakas apie senus karalius ir kunigaik�š ius ir ilgas vainas. Vienoliny kur ji mokynos kalbejo pransu�žiskai. Apsivede su Angliku i�š Yorkshire ir gyveno Anglijoj. Dabar gyvena Ajijic miesteli, Mexikoj. �Širdies namai vis Lietuvoj.

Joe Klemka Joe Klemka gime Montreali, lietuviu tevu sunus. Mokynos prancu�žiskos mokyklos Quebeki ir universitetos Halifaxi ir Ottawoj. Jis mokyno Meteorologiju, Ledo studiju ir Juru Istoriju Kanados Coast Guard Kolegijoj, Nova Scotia. Mokslo laiku va�žiavo kelius kartus Auk�šton Arktinien. Jis ir jo �žmona gyvena Sydney miesti, Cape Breton saloj.


The Music From Your Mouth / La Musique de ta Bouche

Terry Ann CarterMike Montreuil, French translator

in sickness and in healthso many years agoyour hippie hairlongon our wedding day

en santé et en maladietoutes ces années passéestes cheveux hippieslongsle jour de notre mariage

so much worryabout your transplanted organno timeto appreciatethis cherry petal season

tant de soucipour ton organe grefféaucun tempspour appréciercette saison de pétales de cerisiers

toplessI serve youbreakfast in bedwishing the grapefruitwere larger

seins nusje te sersun petit déjeuner au litespérant que les pamplemoussessoient plus gros

I peel the grapefruitinto a perfect treble clefthe discordof frequent migrainesand nausea

j�’épluche le pamplemousseen une parfaite clé de solla discordedes migraines fréquenteset de la nausée

despiteangry wordsI still hearthe musicfrom your mouth

malgrédes mots de colèrej�’entends encorela musiquede ta bouche

so longsince you have smiledif only Cassiopeiacould lightyour way

si longtempsdepuis ton dernier souriresi seulement Cassiopéepouvait illuminerton chemin

~Canada


Les haïkus et tankas de Terry Ann Carter sont publiés dans divers revues à travers le monde. Elle a aussi reçu plusieurs prix internationaux pour ses haïkus. Elle a rédigée, avec Marco Fraticelli Carpe Diem: Anthologie Canadienne Du Haïku/Canadian Anthology of Haiku (Les Editions David/Borealis Press) 2008.

Mike Montreuil vit dans la vielle ville de Gloucester avec sa famille et leurs chats. Ses haïkus, tankas et haibuns en anglais et en français ont été publiés à travers le monde.

My Mother, Ma Mère, Mi Madre

Zoa BarisasZoa Barisas, French translatorZoa Barisas, Spanish translator

lunch away from the care home�—at the Grey Goose restaurant

my old mother stops on the way into kick the stone

that holds the door open

déjeuner hors de l�’hospice�—au restaurant de L�’Oie Grise

ma vielle mère s�’arrête avant d�’entrerpour donner un coup de pied à la roche

qui maintient la porte ouverte

comida fuera de la casa de ancianos�—en el restaurante El Ganso Gris

mi mamá se para antes de entrarpara dar una patada a la piedraque mantiene la puerta abierta

in the common rooma man with his pants on backwardreaches out for my mother�’s breast

�“noooo . . .�” she says with a coy smile�—I wish I could make her young again


~My Mother, cont.

dans la salle communeun homme avec ses pantalons de reversétend sa main vers le sein de ma mère

�“non�…�” elle dit avec un sourire coquet�—comme j�’aimerais la voir jeune de nouveau

en la sala de estarun hombre con sus pantalones puestos al revés

extiende su mano hacia el seno de mi mamá�“noooo . . . �” ella dice con una sonrisa coqueta�—

como me gustaría verla de nuevo joven

after my visitmy mother and the other patients

huddle around meas the nurse unlocks the door�—

my chest tight with held back sobs

après ma visitema mère et les autres patients

se pressent contre moipendant que l�’inrmière débarre la porte�—

mon coeur serré refoule les sanglots

despues de mi visitami mamá y los otros pacientesse amontonan alrededor de mí

mientras la enfermera abre la puerta con llave�—mi corazón duele con lágrimas retenidas

no other visitors this Sundaythe male patients latch on

to my three young sonsto talk baseball and politics

�“and how is your mother�” my mother asks me

pas d�’autres visiteurs ce dimancheles hommes s�’attachentà mes trois jeunes ls

pour parler baseball et politique�“et comment va ta mère�” me demande ma mère


~My Mother, cont.no hay otros visitantes este domingo

los hombres se acercana mis tres hijos jóvenes

para hablar de baseball y de política�“y cómo va tu mamá�” me pregunta mi mamá

my mother beams when she sees usthough she no longer knows who we are

my son spoons mashed potatoes into her mouthand talks about the old farm

to give her the sound of his happy voice

ma mère se réjouit quand elle nous voitmême si elle ne sait plus qui nous sommes

mon ls mets des cuillerées de patates pilées dans sa boucheet parle de la vieille ferme

pour lui donner le son de sa voix heureuse

mi mamá se alegra cuando nos veaa pesar de ya no saber quienes somos

mi hijo pone cucharadas de purée de papa en su bocay habla del viejo rancho

para compartir con ella su voz feliz

my rst trip to her home countryI sprinkle her ashes under pine trees

by the Baltic Sea�—my mother leaves me

for the last time

mon premier voyage au pays où elle est néej�’éparpille ses cendres sous les pins

près de la mer baltique�—ma mère me quittepour la dernière fois

mi primer viaje a su país natalesparcillo sus cenizas bajo de los pinos

a la orilla del mar báltico�—mi mamá me dejapor la última vez

~Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, and Juodkrante, on the Curonian Spit, Lithuania


Zoa Barisas est née a Montréal. Quand elle avait cinq ans sa famille a déménagé a une ferme a Saint Paul de Joliette. La langue parlée a la maison était le lituanien. Sa mère racontait des histoires de rois, de chevaliers et de batailles épiques. La langue parlée au couvent était le français. Elle s�’est mariée avec un homme du Yorkshire et vécut en Angleterre. Maintenant elle vit a Ajijic, au Mexique. Le pays de son coeur demeure la Lituanie.

Zoa Barisas nació en Montreal. Cuando tenía cinco años su familia se cambió a un rancho en la parroquia de Saint Paul de Joliette. El idioma hablado en casa era el lituano. Su mamá contaba cuentos sobre viejos reyes y sus caballeros y guerras épicas. El idioma en el convento era el francés. Ella se casó con un hombre del Yorkshire y vivió en Inglaterra. Ahora ella vive en Ajijic, México. El hogar de su corazón sigue siendo Lituania.

Janick Belleau

Janick Belleau, English translatorYvette Mollen, Innu translator

L�’Innu partageson quartz météoritiqueavec deux Blanches �–son peuple et le cratère Manicouagan *tous deux « l�’�œil du Québec »

(* cratère visible depuis la Lune et formé par un astéroïde tombé il y a plus de 200

millions d�’années. Ce tanka est aussi traduit en innu �– langue du peuple autochtone originaire de deux régions québécoises

(Côte-Nord et Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean) et de Terre-Neuve-Labrador.)

the Innu shareshis meteorite stonewith two white women�—his people and the Manicouagan crater *both the « eye of Quebec »

(* crater clearly seen from space and formed by an asteroid fallen more than 200

millions years. This tanka is also translated in Innu, the language of the indigenous people

living mainly in two regions of Quebec (North-Coast and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean)

and in Newfoundland-Labrador.)

Matinueu innuUtashinimAshit nenua nishu kakusseshishkueuaUtinnima kie anite Tshishe-ManikuakanE nishiht « Upishtikueiau ussishiku »

Vieux-Quitoterrasse sur le parvisil vient vers moisur ses mains et ses moignonsen lambeaux je me lève

historic Quitoterrace on the squarehe comes towards meon his hands and legs stumpsfalling to bits I get up


~Belleau, cont.

Jour de recyclageconcert de gazouillis urbainsun déjà-vule réveil de la jungleau temps du carnaval

recycling dayconcert of urban chirpsa déjà-vuthe jungle�’s awakeningat carnival time

~Montréal, Canada

Janick Belleau : Poète, rédactrice culturelle et conférencière. Articles et exposés traitent, en grande partie, de la contribution des femmes à l�’avancement du tanka et du haïku.

Yvette Mollen : Directrice, depuis 2003, du secteur de la langue à l�’Institut Tshakapesh à Sept-Îles, anciennement nommé l�’Institut culturel et éducatif montagnais (ICEM), où elle travaille notamment pour la sauvegarde de la langue innue.

Margaret Van Every

Margaret Van Every, Spanish translator

To Tolucalet�’s take the scenic short cuton treacherous mountain roads.I fear the curves and cloudsless than yesterday�’s shootings.

Para Tolucavamos a tomar el atajo escénicoen caminos peligrosos de montaña.Temo las curvas y nubesmenos que los tiroteos de ayer.

From under a truckbeside the ring roadthe better half of a man,his round, brown buttocksemerging from slipped jeans.

Debajo de un camiónal lado del periféricola mejor mitad de un hombre,sus nalgas redondas y marrones,saliendo de vaqueros deslizados.

Lining our highwaysplastic shrines to young martyrswho sacriced allto trees, cliffs, or ditchesin the name of speed and booze.

A los lados de nuestros caminoshay santuarios de plástico para mártires

jóvenesque dieron el sacricio supremoa los árboles, acantilados o las zanjasen el nombre de la velocidad y el

alcohol.

Scorpion shoeson a bedside pedestalwill walk youto the bathroom at nightarmored against la cola picotaza.*

(*the stinging tail)


Zapatos para alacranesencima de un pedestal junto a la camate guiaránal baño por la nocheprotegido de la cola picotaza.

Mexican lawwill bless the marriage,be it straight or gay.She sees no kinks in the knothowever it is tied.

La ley mexicanabendecirá el matrimonio,sea hetero o gay.Ella no ve torceduras en el nudocomo quisieras atarlo.

Now that brujismo*is outlawed here,magos** and curanderos*** too,how will I win your heart,and if I can�’t, how will I cure mine?

(*witchcraft, **wizards, ***healers)

Ahora que el brujismoes ilegal aquí,los magos y curanderos también,¿cómo ganaré tu corazón?y si no puedo, ¿cómo curaré el mío?

~México

Margaret Van Every vive y escribe in San Antonio Tlayacapan en el Lago de Chapala en Jalisco, México. Ha publicado un libro de tanka sobre la vida y la cultura mexicana que se llama Una Almohada Rellena con Diamantes

(Librophilia 2010). <http://www.librophilia.com>

Mel Goldberg

Mel Goldberg, Spanish Translator

I rush throughthe closet ofmy mindpausingat my favorite shirt

ando de prisaa traves del armariode mi mentedeteniendomecon mi camisa preferida

~México

Mel Goldberg, después de graduar de la Universidad en California, enseño en California, Illinois, Arizona y en Inglaterra. En 1990 publicó un libro de poesía y de fotografía, The Cyclic Path. En 2001 publicó Sedona Poems para el centenario de Sedona, Arizona. Su novela, Choices, y su libro de cuentos, A Cold Killing, son disponibles en Kindle. Sus cuentos y poemas han sido publicados en revistas y en publicaciones electronicas en los Estados Unidos, México, el Reino Unido y en Australia. Durante seis anos vivio en una casa rodante viajando entre Alaska y México. Ahora vive en Ajijic, Jalisco, México


Rob MohrLinda Moore Spanish translator

that woman is freeto wanderbut at nightsleepslocked in a cage

esa mujer es libre a desviarsepero por nocheella duermeencerrada en una jaula

tomorrowis my dayto sleepwhen she comesI�’ll be gone

mañanaes mi díapara dormircuando ella vienehabré ido

rain walksacross the lakewhile on the horizonlightningruns down the rainbow

la lluvia caminaa través del lagomientras en el horizonteel rayo relámpagocorre por el arco iris

the church bell ringscalling us to worshipwhile across the streeta dog peeson the minister�’s door

la campana de la iglesia suenapara llamarnos a adorara la vez por otro lado de la calleun perro orinaen la puerta del pastor

I fall in lovecrossing the lawnas she wavesto the manstanding beside me

me enamorocaminando por el pradomientras ella saludó con ademanesal hombreparado a mi lado

~Ajijic, Jalisco, México

Rob Mohr, tanto pintor como escritor, empezó su carrera profesional como maestro de la pintura, el dibujo, la estética, y la historia del arte en varias universidades de Carolina del Norte y Carolina del Sur. Después de terminar su contrato en el Cuerpo de Paz, Rob, orientado por las enseñanzas de Paolo Freire, trabajaba con las comunidades indígenas marginalizadas por Sud y Centroamérica, ut i l izando la educación no-formal para ayudarle a la gente a comprender su potencial individual y comunitario. Después de esta experiencia, Rob y su esposa Linda se radicaron en Ajijic, México, para pintar y escribir. Inspirado por la enseñanza de su amigo Jim Tipton, Rob ha llegado a entender y querer el poder de la analogia expresado por tanka.


Linda Moore, la esposa de Rob quien compartía su trabajo en Latinoamérica, es historiadora del arte y maestra de español. Ella ha traducido la poesía de Antonio Otzoy (Guatemala) del español al inglés, y ha redactado unos libros de amigos en Ajijic. Actualmente, está escribiendo una novela histórica que toma lugar en Yucatán.

James TiptonMartha Alcántar, Spanish translator

That woman in Limawas always her very best in bedlate Saturday afternoonsjust before she leftfor Confession.

Esa mujer en Limafué siempre la mejor en la camaen las tardes avanzadas de los sábadosjusto antes de salirpara Confesión.

Her unapologetic nipplestaught me everythingI needed to knowabout the ner pointsof Catholicism in Peru.

Sus pezones sin disculparseme enseñaron todolo que necesité saberacerca de los puntos más nosde Catolicismo en Perú.

Is it me or her crossthat tonight has the placeof most importancebetween her darkPeruvian breasts?

¿Es mí o su cruzque esta noche tiene el lugarde más importanciaentre sus oscurossenos peruanos?

~Lima, Peru

In Guadalajaramy nephew in second gradeannounces to his class:�“My new house is very ugly . . .but it has a bathroom.�”

En Guadalajarami sobrino en segunda gradoanuncia en su clase:�“Mi nueva casa es muy fea . . .pero tiene un baño.�”

In the hospital in Guadalajarathe green gownsmade for Mexicansfall only two inchesbelow my crotch

En el hospital en Guadalajaralas batas verdeshechas para mexicanoscaen sólo dos pulgadasdebajo de mi entrepierna.

~Guadalajara, México


~Tipton, cont.

She makes loveas if she werestill swimming at duskin that warm bayat Guayabitos.

Ella hace el amorcomo si estuvieranadando todavía en el crepúsculoen esa tibia bahíaen Guayabitos.

~Guayabitos, México

To loveone woman wellis the wayto love all womenwell.

Amar biena una mujeres la manerade amar a todas las mujeresbien.

~Chapala, México

How is it possibleto have such strong desirefor a Japanese tanka poetin her fortieswhom I have never met?

¿Cómo es posibletener tan fuerte deseopor una poeta japonesa de tankaen sus cuarentasa quien nunca he conocido?

~Ajijic, México

One summer nightI found the perfect womanbut by early morningmost of herhad already left.

Una noche de veranoencontré la mujer perfectapero temprano por la mañanala mayor parte de ellaya se había ido.

~Telluride, Colorado

That mountain roadkept breaking offinto different directionsuntil nally at duskI realized it was my life

Ese camino en la montañano paraba de dividirseen direcciones diferenteshasta que nalmente con el crepúsculome dí cuenta que era mi vida.

~Frisco, Colorado

longingfor the new yearto beginwith you reading the paperin bed beside me

anhelocomenzarel nuevo añocontigo a mi ladoleyendo el periódico en la cama

~Denver, Colorado


James Tipton (Chapala, Jalisco, México) ha publicado más de 1000 poemas, cuentos y artículos, en varias revistas incluyendo Contemporary Literature in Translation, International Poetry Journal, Apicultura Moderna, Mundos Artium, American Literary Review, The Nation, Esquire, El Ojo del Lago, Lake Chapala Review, Living at Lake Chapala, y México Connect. Su obra ha sido traducida en varios id iomas�—español , i ta l iano, a lemán, portugués, francés, chino, japonés, polaco, danés, y noruego. Su colección de poesíHello a Letters from a Stranger (con introducción escrita por Isabel Allende) ganó el 1999 Colorado Book Award. Una colección de su tanka, Todos los Caballos del Paraíso, fue publicado por MET Press en 2009.

Martha Alcántar (Chapala, Jalisco, México) nació y creció en un pequeño pueblo en la costa del Pacíco en México. A mitad de su adolescencia se mudó a Puerto Vallarta donde continuó con sus estudios académicos. Ahora vive en Chapala, México, d o n d e d i s f r u t a l e ye n d o l i t e r a t u ra contemporánea, traduciendo poesía en Español, haciendo masajes y viendo muchas películas. Está casado con James Tipton y tienen una hija, Gabriela, dos perras, Chispa y Cookie, y su gata Manchas.

Cristina Rusu

Magdalena Dale, Romanian translator

Palide umbreîn acest amurg violeti noi tot mai str ini . . .

sunetul ploii din geamr zbate-n toat casa

Pale shadowsin this violet twilightand we are so different . . .the sound of rain in the windowis spread in the whole house

Nu ne-am r t citc utînd drumul spre noidin amintiri . . .cu un simplu gest întinzicutele de pe frunte

We didn�’t losein search for the way towards usfrom the memories . . .with a simple gesture you stretchthe wrinkles from the brow

~Romania

Cristina Rusu, n scut pe data de 17 mai 1972 în Ia i, locuie te în Ia i, România. Debut literar cu poeme haiku i tanrenga in revista Dor de Dor. Apari ii cu poeme haiku în antologia Greieri i Crizanteme, Editura Orion, Bucure ti, 2007, în revistele, LiterNet; Nota Bene, Literaturen vestnik �– Soa, Bulgaria, aprilie i mai 2010, cu poeme în revista Poezia, Editura Funda iei Culturale Poezia, Ia i, 2008. Ea este printre ce 25 de Poe i Romîni de Tanka publica i în Atlas Poetica în martie 2010. Poemele sale pot citite pe site-ul literar <http://www.agonia.ro>.


Drops of Rain

Magdalena Dale


Drops of rainover all these white owerswith wet leaves . . .pieces of my daydreamand my sakura yearning

Picuri de ploaiepeste aceste ori albecu frunzele ude . . .buc i din visul meui dor de sakura

On my wayso many fallen leaves . . .a cold rainand Indian summersuddenly sent away

În drum spre casatâtea frunze c zute . . .o ploaie recei vara Indian

imediat a disp rut

Summer rainover the thirsty earthmy hasty stepson my way to youI hold up my dreams

Ploaie de varpeste p mântu-însetatpa ii mei gr bi iîn drumul meu spre tinein la piept visele

So many dropsgathered on the leavesnear a owerI stop to listen tothe echo of the storm

Atâtea pic turiadunate pe frunzelâng o oarem opresc s ascultecoul furtunii

~Romania/România

Magdalena Dale s-a n scut i tr ie te în Bucure ti, România. Ea este membr a Societ ii Române de Haiku i membr a World Haiku Association condus de poetul Ban�’ya Natsuishi cu sediul în Tokio. A publicat în câteva reviste: Haiku, Albatros, Dor de Dor, Ribbons, Gusts, Kokako, Magnapoets, Modern English Tanka, Atlas Poetica, Ambrosia, moonset, Taj Mahal Review i revistele japoneze Ginyu, Hekian and World Haiku Association. Poemele sale au ap rut în câteva antologii ca: Fire Pearls: (Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart), Among the Lilies, Magnapoets anthologies: One Hundred Droplets, While the Light Holds i câteva antologii române ti. Poemele sale tanka i alte poeme au ap rut pe mai multe site-uri online. A publicat o carte bilingv de tanka Perle de rou /Dew pearls, împreun cu poetul Vasile Moldovan a publicat o carte bilingv de renga Mireasm de tei / Fragrance of lime i o carte bilingv de haiku Ecourile t cerii / The echoes of silence. Poemele sale pot g site pe mai multe site-uri literare online. A cî tigat c teva premii.


Vechiul Port Constantza / Old Harbor

Vasile Moldovan

Vasile Moldovan, Romanian translator

Vechiul port�—nimeni nu vinenimeni nu pleac . . . Doar vântul nemilosi valurile �‘nvolburate

Old harbor�—nobody comes innobody goes away . . .Only the frightful windand the whirling way

Un farîn largul m rii . . . În portiubita unui marinaruturând batista

A beaconfar in the ofng . . .In the harbora sailor�’s sweetheartwaving a handkerchief

Privindîn oglinda golfului . . .Un lotusî i deschide oareaspre inima ei

Lookingin the gulf mirror . . .a lotusopens its silent owerto her moved heart

~Constantza, Romania

Vasile Moldovan s-a n scut într - un sat din Transilvania la 20 iunie 1949. Este cofondator (1991) i pre edinte al Societ ii Române de Haiku (2001-2009). A publicat cinci c r i de haiku, Via Dolorosa (1998), Fa a

nev zut a lunii (2001), Arca lui Noe (2005) i Într- o zi de var . De asemenea, a publicat împreun cu Magdalena Dale cartea de renku Mireasm de tei.


erban Codrin

Alexandra Flora Munteanu, Romanian translator

Calea Lacteeîn strachina cu apaa tâmplarului�—m-asez la masa de lemncu lingura în mâna

The Milky Wayin the water bowlof the carpenter�—I sit at the wooden tablewith the spoon in the hand

Cascada urci explodeaz -albastru

cerul spre pamânt�—pianul i universulsub degetele tale

The waterfall gets upand the blue explodesthe sky to the earth�—the piano and the universeunder your ngers

~Romania

erban Codrin s-a n scut pe 10 mai 1945 Bucure ti, România. El a publicat câteva c r i de poezie clasic i de asemenea c r i de tanka i haiku: Dincolo de tacere/Aux

connd du silence/Beyond Quietness, editura Haiku, Bucure ti 1994; Între patru anotimpuri/Entre quatre saison/Between four seasons, editura Haiku, Bucure ti 1994; O s rb toare a felinarelor stinse/A fest of the Extinguished Street Lamps, editura Tempus Dacoromania

Comterra, Bucure ti 2005, Missa requiem, 1997, Scoici f r perle poeme zen,1997, Marea T cere antologie de autor. Poemele sale pot g site în câteva antologii na ionale i interna ionale.

Alexandra Flora Munteanu �– este membr fondatoare a Societr ii de Haiku-Constan a (1992-2007) i a Societr ii francofone Amis sans frontieres, Constan a; (1995-2002), membr a Ligii Navale Române; colabor ri la revistele: Albatros, Haiku, Tomis, Metafora, Civiscord, Dynamis, World Haiku Review.

Prezen e în antologii na ionale i interna ionale: Cântecul apelor, România (2004); Green peace, Japonia (2003); Vrabatz, Croa ia (2003); Meguro , 2004-2005, Bucure ti, on line, Romania; Flori de tei, Constan a, Romania (2006); Scoici de mare, Constan a, Romania (2007); Greieri i crizanteme, Bucure ti, Romania (2007). C r i publicate: Autori, gânduri, c r i (portrete de autori 2002); Semnele vremii, edi ie bilingv , (haiku, tanka, haibun), 2005; Haiku i despre haiku (haiku, eseuri, haiku al elevilor) 2007.

Premii: ABI (SUA)-mai multe titluri (1996-1998); Diploma Societ ii de Haiku ,2003; Honorable Mention, Albatros, 2005; Diploma pentru promovarea poeziei haiku în lume, Albatros, 2007; Diplom pentru fondarea Societ ii de Haiku- Constan a i a revistei, Albatros, 2007.


Marius Surleac

Marius Surleac, Romanian translator

sun hiding through clouds�—dismantled scream of the windinvoking the rainmy eyes sensing the morphineunder the kiss of the night

soare-ascuns prin nori�—demontat uier de vântinvocând ploaiaochii sim ind mornasub s rutarea nop ii

ight of rusty leaves�—a farmer aspiratingthe garden of fallI mime a V of birds beyondthe hedge of wrapped summer

zbor de frunze ruginii�—un fermier aspirgr dina toamneimimez un V de p s ridincolo de var

dolphins stir the mud�—within a restless circlefeast between shesto the shore shadows are stilltied to the surviving rite

delni agitând mâlul�—într-un cerc mi c torfestin între pe tila rm umbre xe-ntr-unrit de supravie uire

screams and some bells�’ waves�—burial of the dead onein nature�’s cofnacross the road, kids in treeseat the red juicy cherries

unde de clopot�—în sicriul naturiiînmormântarepeste drum copii în copacigust cire e zemoase

~Bucharest, Romania

Marius Surleac s-a nascut in August 1982, in Vaslui, Romania. Acum locuieste in Bucure ti. A debutat in antologie in 2003 in urma participarii la un concurs de poezie. Participa la cenacluri literare si publica poezie si proza in reviste precum: Convorbiri Literare, Oglinda Literara, Hyperion, Egophobia, Feedback, Novo Slovo (Serbia). A participat cu poeme la festivalul de poezie Muza Poetike-Pegasi 2010 (Albania). Publica de asemenea pe site-uri din tara si strainatate.


Luminita Suse

Luminita Suse, Romanian translator

I speed on burnt roadsto startle sparrowsinto hot airanything is betterthan cold at heart

accelerez pe str zi încinses ridic vr biileîn aerul erbinteorice este mai binedecât r ceal în inim

we standin heavy rainfalltalkingthe burden of the unsolvednally sifted drop by drop

st m i vorbimîn ploaie toren ialîn sfâr it strecur mproblemele nerezolvatestrop cu strop

the lakeunable to wash offpine reectionsmy beliefs stronglyopposed to warfare

lacul nu reu e tes înece imaginile pinilorreectate în elconvingerile meleîmpotriva r zboiului

autumnparades war colorsaround townthe fragrance of ripe quincespeacefully invades the house

toamnadeleaz culori de r zboiprin oraparfum de gutui coapteinvadeaz pa nic casa

in loveyou give blindlymore and moreresemblingVenus from Milo

în iubired ruie ti orbe tesem nânddin ce în ce mai multcu Venus din Milo

again searchinghis poetry volumefor a proof of lovethe dried leaf still holdingafter all this time

caut din nouîn volumul lui de poeziio dovad de iubirefrunza uscat e înc intactdup atâta timp

everywhere I lookforestsnever get tired of greenwish I were chlorophylland you�—my tree


~Suse, cont.

oriunde privescp durice nu se satur de verdea vrea s u cloroli tu - copacul meu

wearing a long skirtand hair coveredin Meteora monasteryprayer disrupted by barefeet clapping in ip-ops

port fust lungi p rul acoperit cu basma

în mân stirea Meteorarug ciunea întrerupt de sunetulpicioarelor goale în lapi

home after anotherpragmatic to the bonehectic workdayyour silent touchunfolds a poem

acas dup înco zi de muncpragmatic i nebunatingerea ta mutdezl n uie un poem

stars strewed all overas if a child wentheels over headstartling reiesinto vastness

stele împr tiate peste totde parc un copils-a n pustit în noaptei a ridicat licuricii

la cer

snowfall upon skylighttropical heat in bedsheetsour steaming eyeglassesentwineménage à quatre

ninge în lucarnc ldur tropical în patochelarii no tri aburi ise contorsioneazménage à quatre

winter solsticewe ght in year�’slongest nightthe day wasn�’t enoughto set the records right

solsti iu de iarnne cert m în cea mai lungnoapte a anuluiziua nu a fost de ajunss aplan m conictul

~Canada

Luminita Suse locuie te în Ottawa, Canada. Poeziile ei au ap rut în Bywords Quarterly Journal, Ditch Poetry Magazine, The New Stalgica Hymnal, The Broken City Magazine, Sage of Consciousness e-zine, Moonbathing: A Journal of Women�’s Tanka, i Ascent Aspirations Magazine. A primit locul trei i o men iune la concursul Flat Signed Poetry

Competition 2007 - Chocolate River Poetry Association, o men iune la Emerging From Shadows Contest �– 2010, i dou men iuni la The Open Heart Poetry Competition 2009 - The Ontario Poetry Society. Unul din poemele sa le s -a cal icat în nala concursului 2010 Descant/Winston Collins Prize for Best Canadian Poem.


M. Kei


when there areso many starsin the sky,why can�’t I ndone for me?

atuncea candexista atatea stele pe cer de ce nu pot gasiuna pentru mine

I show him how muchI love and desire him�—then he goes home to her.I want to hammer nailsthrough both of them.

îi ar t cât de multîl iubesc i-l doresc-apoi el merge la ea.vreau s bat cuieprin amândoi

high tides threatento overwhelm the dock;my daughter tells meabout the manwho hits her

uxul amenins inunde docul;sora mea îmi spunedespre b rbatulcare o r ne te

tidy and comfortable,this new woman of mine,pretty, too, and passionate;but she knows whymy eyes turn to the moon

noua mea femeie,îngrijit i confortabil ,dr gu i pasional ;dar ea tie pentru ceochii-mi se întorc spre lun

too tired to work,I lay down and dreamabout tropical islandswhere her brown formcomes swaying to me

prea ostenit s muncesc,eu m întind i visezla insulele tropicaleunde forma ei bronzatînoat spre mine

(English versions previously appeared in Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human

Heart. Perryville, MD: Keibooks, 2006.)

M. Kei este editor al revistei Atlas Poetica i redactor ef al publica iei Take Five: Best

Contemporary Tanka. De asemenea este autorul lucr rii Slow Motion: Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. În via a de zi cu zi el este un marinar de nav înalt i recent a publicat o trilogie de romane marin re ti înf i ând un protagonist gay, Pirates of the Narrow Seas. El este editorul noii antologii Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka and Gogyohka About Cats.


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Tomorrow, When Will You Appear?

Chen-ou Liu

Chen-ou Liu, Chinese translator

as silent and rmas the rocksI pine for you . . .the sun setsbut not my shadow

in the glowof sunset, the shadow and Iare companions:I dream of his lifehe longs for my heartbeat

raising the wine cupyou used to drinkI entice the moonfor her, with my shadow,will make a party of three

~A Room of My Own, Ajax, Ontario, Canada


Innig / Intimate

Geert Verbeke

Paul Mercken, Flemish translator

van ragjne mistis de zoute avondluchtrouwzang draagt soms veriemand legde bloemen neerop het graf van jouw ouders

briny evening skyof gossamer thin fogkeening carries farsomebody has put owerson your parents�’ grave

je opa woondevlakbij een pianozaakje hoort weer Chopinof een streepje jazzmuziekmaar daar hield oma niet van

your granddad livednear a piano storehear Chopin againor a bar of jazzgrandma didn�’t like

na het uitstrooiende duinenrij betredende pijn blijft bijtenveel getijen zijn nodigeer de stormen gaan liggen

after the scatteringto enter the rows of dunethe pain keeps bitingmany a tide is neededbefore the gales die down

in het reine zijnmet de emoties van thuisbeelden begroetenmet rouwen in gedachtenook dat is intens reizen

to come to termswith emotions from hometo greet statueswith mourning in mindthat too is traveling intensely

aan haar halskettingsimpele houten kralenbij zieke vriendenmee aan tafel gaan zittenmet verhalen en stilte

on her necklacesimple wooden beadsshe sits at the tableof sick friendswith tales and silence


~Innig / Intimate, cont.

ik zal heel stil zijnzegt haar zoon op het kerkhofwant mijn opa slaaptherfstbladeren ritselenop geplaveide paden

I�’ll be very quietsays her son in the graveyardfor granddad is asleepautumn leaves rustleon paved paths

het onkruid wiedenen tussen twee praalgraveneen muis begravende marmerzerk weerspiegelthet trillen van je handen

to pull out weedsbetween two mausoleumsand bury a mousethe marble cofn reectsyour trilling hands

de ornamentenkrijgen een inke poetsbeurtin rieten mandenessen wijn van Mendozamet pikante worsten

the ornamentsget a rub-upin wicker basketsbottles of Mendoza winewith spicy sausages

tijdens de rouwmiszwijgend de dienst verlatenje hebt echt geen zinin een zalvende lezingsterven spreekt voor zichzelf

leaving in silenceduring the servicein no moodfor an unctuous lecturedying speaks for itself

in het restaurantben je toch wat schutterigzo arm in woordenrouwen vertraagt het sprekenzeker tot na de kofe

in the restaurantyou falter a bitso poor in wordsmourning slows down speechat least till after coffee

uiteindelijk volgtnog één glas op het rouwenvermoeidheid slaat toeovervaakte kinderenvallen bij bosjes inslaap

in the end comesthe last after mourning pintweariness hits homedrowsy childrenfall asleep in droves

vers gebakken broodnaast ovenverse koekenaan lange tafelseen verstilde rouwmaaltijdmet wat omoerste stemmen


~Innig / Intimate, cont.

fresh baked breadand oven-fresh cakeson long tablesa hushed mourning mealwith some mufed voices

bij de crematiegeurig water sprenkelenterwijl rook opstijgtbloemenkransen neerleggentijdens het wierookbranden

at the cremationthe sprinkling of fragrant waterwhile smoke risesthe laying down of wreathsduring the incense burning

tijdens de rondganggedraai van gebedsmolensroffelende tromsherinneren aan de dooden het vergankelijk zijn

during the processionthe turning of prayer millsrolling drumsremind us of deathand of being transient

soms mijdt hij kerkenomdat de geur van wierookhet verleden wektliever loopt hij op het strandal heeft dit ook een verhaal

he avoids churchesbecause the smell of incensewakes up the pasthe prefers walks on the beachthough that too has a story

in het atelierstaan de boeddha�’s op een kasttussen droogbloemeninnig zijn de avondenmet veel herinneringen

in the workshopbuddhas sit on a cupboardbetween dried owersintimate are the eveningswith many memories

na de rouwmaaltijdverdwijnt hij stil van tafelop de houten brugstaart hij zwijgend naar de koi�’sterwijl zijn lippen beven

the mourning meal donehe quietly leaves the tableon the wooden bridgehe tacitly watches koihis lips trembling

oudejaarsavondmet een glas wijn bijpratenmet broers en zussenma herleest de rouwprentjesvan het afgelopen jaar

new year�’s evecatching up with a glass of winewith brothers and sistersma rereads the obituariesof the past year


The tanka above are from INNIG, 2009, Geert Verbeke publisher (Tanka photo book).

De tanka hierboven komen uit INNIG, 2009, Geert Verbeke uitgever (Tanka & fotobook).

Geert Verbeke geboren in Kortrijk, waar hij nog altijd woont, 31 mei 1948. Kinderen: Hans (1969), Saskia (1972), Merlijn (1984) & Jonas (1986). Sinds meer dan 20 jaar hartsvriend van Joker-reisbegleidster Jenny Ovaere. Haikuholicus sinds 1968. Is agnost, republikein, fotograaf, tekenaar en schilder. Als dichter excelleert hij in het genre van de haibuns en de tanka�’s. Hij hanteert daarbij, als schrander en transparant schrijver, milde ironie.

Paul Mercken

Paul Mercken, Flemish translator

Al elf jarenstaan er acht verkeerslichtenop een kruispuntin het Belgische Kortrijkoranje te knipperen.

(Einde zomer zal dit euvel hersteld zijn, totale kosten 690.000 euro.)

Eleven years longeight trafc lightson a crossingin Belgium�’s Kortrijkare ashing orange.

(This will be remedied by the end of the summer at a total cost of more than 900,000

USD)

kersenbloesemshet koolmeesje heeft slechts oogvoor koekkruimelsop een bord over slangen:de mens, ze slaat ze dood

cherry blossomsthe titmouse has an eyefor crumbs onlyon a sign about serpents:man, she beats them to death

(Observed on the estate Rhijnauwen near my village Bunnik, The Netherlands)

Buitenlandeen vergeten meandervan de Scheldeverdronken land van beemdendijken en moerassen

(Over het gehucht Buitenland in de gemeente Bornem, België.)

Foreign Countriesa forgotten meanderof the Scheldtdrowned land of meadowsdikes and marches

(The hamlet Buitenland (�‘Foreign Countries�’) in Bornem, Belgium.)

Paul Mercken, Belgische nationaliteit, is geboren te Leuven, België, in de zomer van 1934, maar groeide op in het Limburgse Hasselt. Hij studeerde wijsbegeerte aan de Leuvense universiteit waar hij in 1959 promoveerde. Hij deed postdoctoraal onderzoek in Cambridge, Oxford en Florence en doceerde in de Verenigde Staten en Nederland. Aan de Universiteit Utrecht


~Mercken, cont.

legde hij zich toe op de geschiedenis van demiddeleeuwse wijsbegeerte en werd mediëvist. Hij heeft twee dochters, geboren in 1969 en 1970. Hij woont nabij Utrecht en is secretaris van de Haiku Kring Nederland. Hij noemt zich humanist en beschouwt dichten en de kunst van vertalen als krachtige middelen om bruggen te bouwen tussen mensen.

Maurice De Clerck

Maurice De Clerck, Dutch translator

de tram naar moscouamper één blik wisseleneen toevalstrefferprinses jouw naam ken ik nietwel het vuur in jouw ogen

a streetcar to moscouexchanging a knowing glancejust a lucky shotprincess your name I don�’t knowjust the re in your eyes

~Ghent, Flanders, Belgium

�“Moscou�” in de Tanka slaat niet op de Russische hoofdstad maar op een voorstad van Gent, ironisch eveneens �“Moscou�” genoemd. Die naam heeft historische wortels. Voor en na Napoleons nederlaag (Waterloo 1815) was er een detachement van het Russisch Leger gestationeerd in een streek bij Gent. De Russische soldaten verdedigden Gent en de Franse Koning Lodewijk XVIII, die gastvrijheid genoot in de stad, tijdens de rellen die toen uitbraken. Momenteel loopt er in Gent een tramlijn van het Hoofdstation tot �“Moscou�”. Het was in een rijtuig van die lijn dat de �“kortstondige ontmoeting�” met de �“Prinses�” plaatsgreep.

�“Moscou�” in the Tanka doesn�’t refer to the capital of Russia, but to a suburb of Ghent, ironically also called �“Moscou.�” This name has historical roots. Before and after Napoleon�’s defeat (Waterloo 1518) a detachment of the Russian Army was stationed in the elds near Ghent. The Russian soldiers defended Ghent and the French King Louis XVIII, staying as a guest in the town, during the disturbances at that time. Actually, there is in Ghent a streetcar line from the main railway station to �“Moscou.�” It was in a streetcar of this line that happened �“the brief encounter�” with the �“princess.�”

ouder dan Kongoherinnert zich Nkasi noghet Matadi-spoordat zijn vader hielp trekkenwant hij was ooggetuige

older than CongoNkasi still remembersthe Matadi trackshis father helped buildfor he was a witness


Notes by Paul Mercken

Etienne Nkasi, een van de bronnen voor David van Reybroucks 680 paginas tellende �‘Congo, een geschiedenis,�’ 2010, stierf in het begin van dit jaar. Hij was geboren in 1882 en heeft in detail het werk beschreven waaraan zijn vader deelnam tussen 1895 en 1898, het jaar dat het project werd beëindigd. Hij verbleef gedurende die tijd bij zijn vader. Zijn oom, Joseph Zinga, onthulde hem het jaartal van zijn geboorte. Hij was een Doopsgezinde bekeerling en catechist, opgeleid in de Livingstone Inland Mission in Palaba (1877-1884), waardoor hij de christelijke kalender kende.

He t i s onge loo i j k maa r h i j i s waarschijnlijk de oudste mens die men ooit gekend heeft. De auteur is erg overtuigend. Hij onderstreept dat Etienne nooit probeerde hem van zijn leeftijd te overtuigen maar dat dit uit zijn gesprekken naar voren kwam precies zoals alles wat hij daarnaast vertelde. Mensen en plaatsen zowel als historische gebeurtenissen van de negentiende eeuw, die hij nooit in school kan hebben geleerd, want hij was niet geschoold, doken in zijn geheugen op en bleken uiteindelijk altijd te kloppen. Dit is een dubbel wonder, want niet alleen leefde hij gedurende meer dan vijf kwart eeuw, maar hij wist zijn geheugen min of meer intakt te bewaren. Zoals de auteur zegt, vergat hij �– het kwam voor dat hij zijn bezoeker vergat �– maar vervolgens vergat hij weer te vergeten.

Etienne Nkasi, one of the sources of David van Reybrouck�’s 680 pages Congo, een geschiedenis (Congo, a history), 2010, died early this year. He was born in 1882 and described in detail the work his father took part in between 1895 and 1898, the year the project was nished. He stayed with his father during that time. He was told his year of birth by his uncle, Joseph Zinga, who was a Baptist convert and preacher, trained at the Livingstone Inland Mission in Palabala

(1877-1884) and therefore knew the christian calendar.

It is unbelievable but he is probably the oldest human being ever known. The author is quite convincing. He insists that Etienne never attempted to convince him of his age but that it came out of their conversations just as everything else he told. People and places as well as historical events from the nineteenth century he could never have learned in school, not being an educated man, popped up in his memory and invariably checked out to be accurate. It�’s a double miracle, for not only did he live more than ve quarters of a century, but he kept his memory more or less intact. As the author says: he did forget �– it happened that he forgot he had a visitor �– but then again he forgot to forget.

Maurice De Clerck is op 13 okt. 1934 geboren in Gent (Vlaanderen, België).

Hij studeerde Pedagogiek en Psychologie aan de Universiteit Gent. Gedurende 6 jaar werkte hij als Assistent in de Neuro-Psychiatr ische Kl in iek van dezel fde Universiteit. Nadien funktioneerde hij als Kl in isch Psycholoog in een Neuro-Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis waar hij instond voor psychodiagnostiek en psychoterapie. In november 1995 ging hij met pensioen.

Reeds tijdens zijn studies was hij geïnteresseerd in de Japanse kultuur en geschiedenis, en meer speciaal in het Boeddhisme en Zen. Die interesse leidde tot het kweken van bonsai en �‘last but not least�’, het schrijven van Haiku, Tanka, Senryu en Kyoka. Tanka van hem verschenen in �“Aan het woord�”, een tweejaarlijkse uitgave van Haiku Kring Nederland/Haikoe-Centrum Vlaanderen, en één werd er opgenomen in ATPO 1.


Bep Grootendorst

Paul Mercken, Dutch translator

Op tantes toiletrealiseer ik mehaar eenzaamheidals ik al die kruisjesop haar kalender tel.

On aunt Jo�’s toiletI realizeher lonelinessas I count the crosseson her calendar.

~Almere, The Netherlands

Mierenzuurmag tegen reuma helpenmaar in je blootjein een mierennest zittenis ook niet alles.

Formic acidmay remedy rheumatismbut try and sitbare assedin an ants�’ nest!

~Amersfoortse berg, The Netherlands

B e p G r o o t e n d o r s t , w o n e n d i n O o s t k a p e l l e , N e d e r l a n d , s c h r e e f beroepshalve vele brieven en verslagen in het Nederlands en de moderne talen. Nadien als bestuurslid van een historische vereniging ook artikelen over geschiedenis en genealogie. Werd in 1989 bestuurslid van een kleine schrijversvereniging in Zeeland en schr i j f t s indsdien vooral gedichten, waaronder de laatste jaren veel haiku. Won

enkele prijzen in Nederland en België. Werk van haar hand verscheen in meer dan 80 verzamelbundels. Maakte in eigen beheer enkele bundeltjes. Meer ligt op stapel.

Mel Goldberg

Mel Goldberg and Rebecca Kowalsky, Hebrew translators

the full moonis differentwhen I seefootprintsin the snow

~Jackson, Wyoming

he-ray-ach hahm-lowhe-no shown

kah-sher ah-nee row-aheek-voteb�’shelleg

my ink penin the washcreates poemson the towelI cannot read


~Goldberg, cont.

aht hadeen shel-eeb�’key-beese

yo-tzayr she-reemahl ah-mah-ge-vote

ah-sher e-n�’nee ekol l�’ko-row

a gossamer gownshimmering in sunlightthe riverhoversover a precipice

~Nevada Falls, Yosemite National Park, Wyoming, USA

chot-tee hah-di-neem shel hah-sheemlahmin-tsin-tsom bik-rono hach-moh

hah-narmeer-chop

mel ham-doron

soldiers gatherspeaking broken bonestheir languagethe empty facesof children

chi-eleem-lom nas-peemmid-borim b�’ets-mote sheh-bo-reem

besh-po-teemhaf-reh-tso-m hah-rihk-rihm

shel eel-deem

the tree stumpdiscloses its historyreminding ushow much we do not knowabout our children

~Palmer, Alaska, USA

bol-hatzah-cho-shawp aht ha-hos-tow-row

sh�’lowmits-cheer l�’no

ch�’mo ee-n�’no yeed-eemoh-dote eel-d�’no

6 .1985 1985 . , , . ,

.

- , ,

.


~Goldberg, cont.

.

,�“The Cyclic path�”

�“Choices�”.

Mel GoldbergMel Goldberg and Peter Bernhardt, German translators

my pencilwrites wordsthat teach meburied wisheslive

Mein Bleistiftschreibt Wörterdie mich lehrendass begrabene Wünscheleben

when I awokeI saw my poemssleepingin bedat my feet

Als ich erwachtesah ich meine Gedichtebei meinen Füßenim Bettschlafen

I read menusin restaurantshopingthey will tell mesomething important

Ich lese Speisekartenin Restaurantsin der Hoffnungdass sie miretwas Wichtiges sagen

my friendtreasures meI remember herwhen she was youngand beautiful

Meine Freundinschätzt michIch erinnere mich an sieals sie jungund schön war

in DecemberI mournthe poemsI didnot write

Im Dezembertrauere ich michum die Gedichtedie ich nichtgeschrieben habe


M e l G o l d b e r g g ra d u i e r t e vo n d e r Universitaet mit einem Master of Arts Diplom in Englisch. Er war als Lehrer in Kalifornien, Illinois, Arizona und als ein Fulbright Austausch Lehrer in England beschaeftigt. 1990 hat er ein Buch mit Gedichten und Fotograen, The Cyclic Path, veroeffentlicht. Im Jahr 2000 publizierte er Sedona Poems fuer die Sedona, Arizona, Hundertjahrfeier. Sein Roman, Choices, und sein Buch von Kurzgeschichten, A Cold Killing, sind beide auf Kindle erhaeltlich. Seine Geschichten und Gedichte erscheinen in Zeitschriften und online in den USA, México, Grossbritannien und Australien. Sechs Jahre lang wohnte und reiste er von Alaska nach México in einem Wohnwagen. Er lebt jetzt in Ajiic, México.

Peter Bernhardt wurde in Stuttgart geboren und ist dort aufgewachsen. Seine juristische Laufbahn in den USA schloss das Schreiben, Redigieren und Zivilprozesse ein von seinen Tagen als Chefredakteur des Tulsa Law Journal durch die Jahre als Rechtsanwalt in Privatpraxis und fuer das U.S. Bundesjustizministerium. Die ungewoehnlichen Lebenserfahrungen bilden die Grundlage seines ersten Romans, The Stasi File: Opera and Espionage. Der Roman war in der Endausscheidung fuer den Preis "Buch des Jahres 2009" und wurde in das Bestseller Chart der vom British Arts Coucil gesponsorten Site <http://www.youwriteon.com> aufgenommen. Der Roman ist erhaeltlich bei Amazon/Kindle. Peter Bernhardt schreibt gerade an Teya�’s Kiss: Opera and Artifacts, dem zweiten Roman in einer geplanten Serie. Der Autor kann ueber seine Website <http://sedonawriter.tripod.com> erreicht werden.

Margaret Van EveryDamascus Kafumbe, Luganda translator

ery ellipse�—full moonsetin these mountainsno differentfrom sunset

enkulungo eyefaananyiriza omuliro�—amagwa g�’omwezi ogw�’egabogabomu nsozi zinosi maawufuku magwa g�’enjuba

distant thunderrain curtain advancingour wayover the lakenever arrives

~Jalisco, México

laddu ey�’ewalaeggigi ly�’enkuba lyolekeragye tuliwaggulu w�’ennyaniaterituuka

Listen to the poems at Tanka Central: <http://www.themetpress.com/

tankacentral/readings/>

Damascus Kafumbe avvuunudde ebitontome ebitali bimu ebimanyiddwa nga 'tanka' ebya Margaret Van Every mu Luganda, olulimi olw'Abaganda abasibuka mu Uganda. Amanyiddwa nnyo nga omuwandiisi w�’ennyimba, omuyimbi, era omukugu mu by�’okukwata ennyimba z ' a y i m b a n g a a k u b a e b i v u g a eby�’omubukiika dyo bw�’eddungu elya Africa, bye yeebajjira n'emikono. Kafumbe asibuka mu Kampala, Uganda, naye kaakano abeera mu Tallahassee, Florida, nga amaliriza emisomo egya diguli ey�’okusatu mu ethnomusicology mu Florida State University.


Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah

s a i l i n g in the seao f y o ur fa ded l i f ei hear the engine of your heartbea t i ng aga in s tthe i ce b e r g

the air s m o kingwi th s n o wthe blizzardno trace ofmemoryeven to t h e playgr ound

The moon oats in my wine�’s glass.Between usA shadow coming forwardAnd who to taste the red wineWe are still waiting.

pack ( ingyour skin youen) ter

along coldsha ( dowfall ) ing


~Ayiah Mensah, cont.

SHADES OF SEASONSPACKED IN THE BOOKCASEMY SON STANDS IN FRONTDOES NOT KNOW WHICH ONETO PICK AND SIT DOWN

EMBRACING HER WAISTTHE BARK OF BAOBAB TREEI REMEMBER TO CUT & PASTEMY KISSING& REMAIN SILENT

an incandescent lava fountain�—the sun turnsbloodred�—my memoriessmoulder

father bill has arrived has his bath has his breakfast having readingnephews&nieces play his toes& behind his war times i sketchthe greeen plainsstretching out from his jaws

building a poem from scraps of april . . .i see my ghost waking up in a tanka- or -i compare you with the wingfailure of gull:thus, my lies mix with the rains

these young & green cabbage runners along the mainroadjust how painfultheir eyes must bein the nightfacing HEADLIGHTS

~Winneba, Ghana



Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Fante translator

w4ab4 no dua mu�—

dua no ntu�…..mponedwinsaeb1n nyi

no ho ay1 dur

he has been put in the stocks�—the tree�…�…cannot grow�—what a handiworkis this�—she is expecting a child

aho4f1w tu

w4 ture no mu�—

may1 tumm

anaa tutuw�—twaber

beauty fadesin the gardenI am very blackor dust�—harvest time

woekur wo tsir do ky1nse

wohwehw1 d1

hw1dze yi y1

anhwea anaa oho!

your head has been roofed withiron sheetsyou search to see whethera spyglass issand or not

kukubenkuka �— nyew!August bosomw4

nkwans1n mu

food of tanka�—yes!August monthis in a soup-pot

Nokwar, asaw yi y1 f1w!

Kyr1 me kwan a Juvenal

fa do no mu.Anna ndua nyinaApo anaa?

Truly, this dance is beautiful!Show meThe path Juvenal took.Is it that all the treeshave shed their leaves?

~Winneba, Ghana



Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Ewe translator

Fi8 sia,

Blewuuê le to 2om.

Yi `g4 t8e

Nye l7me gbl8.

The evening,SlowlyThe sun is setting.Go straight aheadI am indisposed.

E5o ga ewo tututu.

Ele kukum,Miame, 2usime,

Viviti doùt4,

Dzome.

It is exactly ten o�’clock.It is dying,Left, right,It is very dark,December.

Lalavie.Man4 anyi, didie o.

Le 5ea 5e titian,

Le e5e nu5o 5e nuwuwu,

^leti le 2i2im.

Wait a little,It will not last long.In the middle of the year,At the end of his speech,It is a moonlight night.

^letiviwo le kekl8m.

Gbe 2eka

Matr4 va laa.

Anye mael eve tso asia,*, edidi.

The stars are glittering.One dayI shall be back soon.It is about two miles from here,Yes, it is far.

Dadaa tsi ùt4

Amea 2eke mekpena 2e eù o.

Edze es4sr�—

G4me 5e

Adee nye sia.

Her mother is very oldNobody helps her.She has beenStudying itFor six years now.

~Winneba, Ghana


Maria Steyn

Maria Steyn, Afrikaans translator

Chopin Etude . . .from the windows I watchjacaranda bloomsclaim this city of fencesin an abandon of purple (1)

Chopin Etude . . .deur die vensters sien ekhoe jakaranda bloeiselshierdie stad van mureverower in �‘n purper gloed

old wives�’ tales . . .or was it a tokoloshewho slidfrom the moonlit baobabto weave his mischief? (2)

ouvrou stories . . .of was dit �‘n tokkelossiewat op �‘n maanstraaluit die kremetart gegly hetom hier onheil te kom toor?

power outage . . .the silence of autumn starsinside the housetiny spills of candle waxon an old book�’s cover (3)

kragonderbreking . . .die stilte van herfssterrein die huisklein poeletjies kerswasop �‘n ou boek se skutblad

low summer lightthrough sweet thorn treesone cow�’s milkswishing into a pailby the clay and thatch hut (4)

lae somersondeur soetdoringbomedie enkel koeise melk skuimend in �‘n emmerby die klei en gras hut

railway tracksglitter in the setting sungold threadon which suburban trainsrun home to shanty towns (5)

treinsporeglinster met sonsonderganggoue draadwaarop Metroblits treinena townships huiswaarts keer

~South Africa

(1 Kokako Tanka Contest, Commended, 2007)

(2 Tanka Cafe: Member�’s Choice, Ribbons, Spring 2009)

(3 Eucalypt, "Earth Hour" Challenge, 2008)(4 Eucalypt "Year of the Ox" Challenge,

2009 - slightly altered version)(5 Eucalypt Issue 2, 2007)

Maria Steyn woon in Johannesburg, Suid-Afrika. Sy behaal �‘n BA Honneursgraad in Filosoe, maar het �‘n beroep in taalonderrig gevolg wat haar in die middel-tagtigerjare na Soweto geneem het en daarna na verskillende nie-rassige privaatskole. Haar tanka en haiku is in verskeie internasionale tydskrifte en bloemlesings gepubliseer.


M. Kei

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Twi (Akuapem), translator

spitting up bloodand writing tankaI think I knowa thing or twoabout Shiki

metew ntasu a mogya w4 mu

saa tanka yi a mekyer1w yi

mesusuw s1 menim

bere bifa Shiki ho

the secret shameof my disease�—my shock whena college friend dies of it�—I know why she never told

m�’hintas1m a 1y1 aniwu

no ne me yare�—mehodwiriw mees1 yare no kum me sukuu adamfo�—

mihu nea enti a abeawa anka ho as1m

Melville�—not the great white whalebut your restless heartI�’ll take with me andbury in the sea

Melville�—ny1 bonsu k1se taa

nanso ne koma y1 den

me de no b1k4 na

masie no w4 po mu

grandmawas a veteranthe red of hercofn ag still crimsonafter all these years

Me nanabeaw4 osuahu pii

frankaa k44

a esi n�’adaka so noda so y1 k44 m pii akyi

it hardly seemsa new year,no frogs chorusits anthem,no crickets sing its glory

afe yi ntes1 afe foforo,

mp4tor4 nsu

afe foforo dwom nni h4,

ak1t1kire nnto ne anuonyam dwom no

~Maryland, USA

M. Kei y1 Atlas Poetica ns1mma nhoma no

samufo ne Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka

nhoma no samufo panyia. $ne Slow Motion:

Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack nhoma no kyer1wfo. $y1 adwuma w4 po so hy1n tenten

bi mu na nansa yi ara w4atintim ne nhoma,

Pirates of the Narrow Seas, a ekura af7 horow

ebi1sa a 1ka fa obi a 4y1 gee ho asem. $no

ne Catzilla Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyohka About

Cats nhoma foforo no samufo.


Bob Lucky

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Twi (Akuapem) translator

I�’m trying to seethe point of staying�—if I sitjust so the moonoats in my tea

(Eucalypt 2, Summer 2007)

Mesusuw honea enti a 1s1 s1 meka ha�—s1 metena ase aes1 4sramtew me tee no ani

strollingdarkened streetsafraidof what I might seethrough broken blinds

(Eucalypt 7, Autumn 2009)

Menantew br1ww4 akwan a sum ahy1 mu mamesuro s1mehunea w4nhu

slicing off the crowncutting out the eyespineapple vendor�—she points the knife at meand names her price


otwitwa ti no mu nketewatutu aniwa noaborob1 wura�—de ne sekan no kyer1 me sona 4b4 ne bo

I�’m tiredof being nicetodaymy rudeness will bloomlike Rafesia arnoldii


Mabr1ne papa a mey1nn1

ahantan a mey1 no b1k4 sote s1 Rafesia arnoldii

this morning,not wanting to thinkthe honeymoon�’s over,I shake the milk bottleand the lid ies off again


anopa yi,menp1 s1 mesusuw s1adapen a edi aware ekyi no aba ewiei,mewosow nufusu towa nona ne ti no tu bio

Bob Lucky te Hangzhou a 1w4 China, 1h4 na 4kyer1 abak4s1m. N�’awens1m y1 nea e pue ns1mma nhoma ahorow pii mu. Watu k4 Ethiopia.


Sanford Goldstein

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Twi (Akuapem), translator

hospitalized again:I walk this narrow corridorin the autumn dawn,and once more the sudden giftof a stranger�’s friendly face

Meda k1t1 so bio w4 ayaresabea:

mefa 4kwan hihiaa so

w4 adekyee w4 asusow mu,

mporim aky1de

a e 4h4ho a 4y1 y4nko anim ni

before the mirrorin his dead mother�’slong red dress,he feels, he sadly admits,she looked much better in it

(Prune Juice 1. Winter 2009)

ogyina ahwehw1 anim

hye ne maame owufo no atadetenten k44,

abrante no gye tom awer1how mu s1,

ne maame ho y1 f1

tryingto remain again and againgrandfather-peripheral,the long-ago parent in mebursting at the stitched seams


Megyiname nanso s1

nanabarima a ne ho nhia pii,4wofo a o tetet te me mu no

y1 pii dodo

allthat noisy machoat the next tableand I writethis brief poem


ne nyinaa4ho4denfo a 4te1te1 mu

a 4te pon ho

mekyer1w

saa awens1m ketewaa yi

let my deathbe non transitional,unnoticed;let my three tanka in backtake the driver�’s seat one by one

(Eucalypt 7, Autumn 2009.)

Ma me wuny1 4kwan a

obiara nhu;ma me tanka abe1sa a megyaw no

nfa hy1nkafo agua

~Niigata, Japan

Sanford Goldstein awens1m a 1ne tanka

y1 nea w4atintim w4 nhoma ahorow mu daa

b1y1 mfe b1boro aduanan ni. $ne akyer1wfo

afoforo akyer1 tanka a Japanese tanka

awens1m akyer1wfo kyer1w no ase ak4 kasa

foforo mu.



Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Twi (Akuapem) translator

m�’ano popoe,na me ho nyinaa wosowee �—w4kura kuruwa bi a nsu a emu adwo wom

na 4maa me bi nom �—

4p1 bere

my lips quiveredand my whole body shook�—you had a jug of cool waterand offered me to drink�—Harmattan

akokoaa no de ahurusi k1se,

na mehwehw11 mu hw11

bere p4tee anaa bere ko a

4sram no

y1 ne enum ma

the baby rejoices greatlyand i search for the timeor exactly whenthe moonlls its mouth

wow4 akyirikyiri

na mentumi mm1n w4

wo wurm sukookobra ma y1n di

atririms1m w4 asusow mu

you are too farthat I cannot come closeryou lily of the eldcan and let us cultivateintimacy in this spring

meti munsusansos4

f-w

me

running waterin my headlickswetme

nkukukakaa�—w4 adakato no mu no

na metowdanfo no dina me ne no anantew mase

odds and ends�—in the empty boxI namea friendI have walked with from the start

~Winneba, Ghana


REVIEWS & ARTICLES

Atlas Poetica welcomes book reviews and non-ction articles relevant to poetry of place. We accept non-ction submissions year round.

Review: Weaver Birds, by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi

Reviewed by Patricia Prime

Weaver Birds by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi. Ginninderra Press, 2010. PO Box 3461, Port Adelaide 5015, Australia.<http://www.ginninderrapress.com.au> 139 pp. ISBN 978 1 74027 607 8

It has been an interesting experience to read, for this review, the work of two talented tanka poets. The poets are of different backgrounds: Amelia Fielden is an Australian poet and translator of Japanese literature. Saeko Ogi moved to Australia from Japan after the death of her husband and has been teaching Japanese for twenty-ve years. Weaver Birds is their rst creative collaboration. It contains tanka they wrote to each o the r th rough 2009, each poe t composing in her rst language, then translating and responding to the other poet�’s tanka. The collection covers the

twelve months of the year, showcasing both poets�’ different perspectives and commonalities.

There are similarities in their writing. Their English/Japanese translations are homogenous; technique is very similar, as are the themes, and what is made of them echo each other. One has a clear sense of the legacy of Japanese tanka in this collection, and a long shadow of tradition lies across their poems. The two poets write about love, nature, time and relationships over the passage of a year. Their tanka are personal and profound, which is to say that you need to not merely read their words but their minds! The poems cast a spell over the ordinary, and hold truth up to the light.

The tanka are drawn from a year-long correspondence and they make up an intriguing, moving and impressive body of work. The language is informal and prosaic, conversational often. The speakers are predominantly reective, mulling over memories of family, nature and places visited. Indeed, the tanka are often anecdotes of rural or urban life, dealing with people, animals and incidents, recalled, reected on and


brooded over by intelligent people full of sympathy with those they speak of. Here are two examples of this kind of tanka, one from each poet:

here, beside the seawhere you were livingI hear youin the voices of thosewho celebrate your life

Saeko Ogi

in the beginningthe scent of the oceanSydney�’s blue skiesmy grandmother singingher Irish lullabies

Amelia Fielden

These anecdotal tanka frequently involve aging and death:

I sense youwhenever I entera libraryor secondhand bookstoremy father, the reader

Amelia Fielden

shouldn�’t I let goof Garfunkel recordsI never listen to,together with those dreamsof my younger self

Saeko Ogi

Both poets contribute many tanka about nature, particularly animals:

living in my homewithout a companion�’s voiceI enjoythe occasional intrusionof next door�’s cat

Saeko Ogi

every nightsome dog barking nearbysirens soundingurban emergencies:homestay in Setagaya

Amelia Fielden

Tanka allows the poets to evoke and speculate on the unexpected and unearned beauty of the natural world, a kind of grace that exalts the everyday for a brief time. Such tanka have in common with others a sense of the suggestiveness, the transcendent implications of particular experiences. The following tanka mark the poets delight in the small details of life:

drinking inthe nostalgic smellof Canberra rainbefore it stops againin no time at all

Saeko Ogi


after night raina silver sickle moonon grey sky . . .such delight these daysin the details of life

Amelia Fielden

Here are wise poems on love and loss, longing and regret, aging and death; beautifully observed, affectionate tanka about the poets�’ Australian and Japanese backgrounds; sharply witty tanka about human frailty; tanka that look back to the past and forward to the future, all expressed in language that is superbly balanced and nely judged.

Many of the recorded experiences are simply themselves, presented without amplication, but rich in some kind of ambiguous signicance:

childhood partnerin playing jacks, my brother . . .though he has gonethe sleeves of his sweatercomfort and warm me

Saeko Ogi

Children�’s Day:we senior citizensbathe in the warmthof this lively chatter,this hustle and bustle

Saeko Ogi

One tanka, among many, that well represents Fielden�’s art is

why wear black?let�’s illuminate winterwith ame colours . . .and please, no white liliesat my funeral

Amelia Fielden

Note the largely informal language, the free rhythm, the gure, the sorrow, the transience.

Saeko Ogi�’s tanka is notable for its references to the land of her birth, Japan. She made the life-changing decision to seek permanent residence in Australia, but often she remembers her home and gives us some nostalgic tanka:

as I observethe chrysanthemumsburied in dead leaves,my mind xes on eldsof spring rice sprouts

Saeko Ogi

This ne new collection of tanka is rich in the themes that have made the works of these two ne poets so admired. The collection reviewed here is representative of both poets�’ work and is both contemporary and traditional, containing personal lyrics that can light up the material and emotional world, and give it a powerful resonance. Weaver Birds makes one realize what powerful and engaging poets both Fielden and Ogi are: it is a substantial addition to the work of two of the best and subtlest of contemporary tanka poets.


Review: Margaret Van Every�’s A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds, Tanka on La Vida Mexicana

Reviewed by Neil Schmitz

With its syllabic restriction, its lines at ve, tanka, American tanka, demands compression, must have always a certain irony, a certain rue, therefore has special effects the formalist admires. Tanka gives us epiphanies, distillations, gives us the click of a camera, this moment, this very moment, caught here forever. Personal narrative, a life, written in tanka poetry, is perforce a series of poetic instances, each instance itself, for separate pondering, yet the whole of it, the sets of instances, a single long poem, a nal summary statement.

Mexican proverbial speech gives Margaret Van Every her title: A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds. Some Mexican says: �“The gringa protests / she has no fear / of the thief who comes in the night, / but why does she sleep / on a pillow stuffed with diamonds?�” In a sense, this is the exemplary speech of native speakers commenting on the delusions of the master class, its hypocrisies, also adding a note of menace. Mexican proverbial speech knows where the diamonds are. When Mexican proverbial speech makes off with a treasured ring, it leaves behind a message written in awless English: �“�’Theft�’ does not exist / in the Mexican lexicon. / The goods in question / are merely liberated / or redistributed.�” The

title is indeed taut with oxymoronic tension.

Pillow stuffed with diamonds is also a gure from Holocaust language, the pillow you clutched as you were shoved into a boxcar in Budapest, so that one looks from the title to the rst tanka and sees a very somber beginning: �“Crossing this frontier, / hearts pound, palms sweat, / We dread we�’ll get the red light, / strangers will unlock our bags, / rie through our secrets.�” Central European mid-century experience, expatriation, exile, living within walls, an alienated minority, living always slightly menaced, alert to looks and gestures, everywhere informs Van Every�’s Mexican life. We step from its context, what secrets are in their bags, and then we are in country, desert and mountain, the country instantly sexualized. �“Beyond the river, / desert stretches out full length, / sensuous woman who hates sex. / Mountains thrust up / to indifferent sky.�” Add sex to the menace. A later set of tanka deftly deal with this issue. Here it is, rst image, extraordinary phrasing, again oxymoronic in its statement, the erotic ideal of a certain Latin machismo, yet also recumbent majesty, desert and mountain. You crossed the frontier, bags (with their diamonds) not searched, and here you were, in this country.

No long prosy sentences, no connectives, no context, personal narrative in tanka poetry does without these helpful devices. Its narrative ow is cinematic, the writer visualizes, does visual thinking, and we can see the tanka as frames, as shots, in a sequence. For example, tanka 7-10 bring us to a market and we are abruptly among beggars, the rst a little girl: �“In the crush of the market / a tug at your sleeve. / Invisible waif, / barefoot on cobblestones, / earns


her next comida.�” A blind beggar holds his English sign: �“This is a good day but I can�’t see it.�”

There is a jostle of beggars, it might be said, before the writer can turn to the jouissance of the market, the next set of tanka. The last beggar is a woman: �“This beggar doesn�’t beg; / her cup does all the asking. / Her job is to smile. / Tissue folded in the cup / mufes the unseemly clink.�”

What does this shot, this frame, say? You are thinking about it, and, cut, we are in the exuberance of the market: �“To the tianguis / for frutas y verduras! / To the tianguis / for amor de vendedores! / Sonrisas y besos gratis!�” The market tanka are almost bilingual, languages mingling, Mexican voices, the cool Anglo of the principal narrator. We have crossed a frontier, come into this strange desert and mountain country, come past these medieval beggars, probably beggar artists, the silent one with the tissue in the coin cup, into the teeming vivid market which is, to a very large extent, our nal destination. We are at home here.

Next, again a radical cut, not at home here: �“The gate that keeps them out / keeps us in. / Like alacranes, those beyond the pale / will come to us over the wall.�” A mid-century central European spectre positively looms in this set of tanka. The wall will not sufce. A Mexican voice in these tanka calls the narrator �“gringa, �” her only name in A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds, a depersonalizing name, and this speaker also knows what�’s in the gringa�’s pillow, transportable wealth, the refugee�’s hoard. This critical Mexican speaker has other hard things to say later in the text. In tanka 55: �“Lunching gringas / ravenous

for the fat life, / choose México / to pile high the plate, / followed with cajas para llevar.�” Parasites. It has the dull clangor of an obscure anti-semitism. A treasured ring goes missing. In the street, vigilance. Still, �“los hombres incognitos / stalk the gringa home.�” Gringa names the problem in A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds, says not-Mexican, in this narrative, this Mexican life. As we shall see, Van Every returns to it at the end of her poetic narrative.

What follows are vignettes from an ordinary double life, at once expatriate, retired, gated, yet also out there in country, in town, in the countryside. Though an ill spoken �“gringa�” recurs, these tanka mostly register the pleasures of inhabitation. �“Every day the dust! / She icks water on the oor / then deftly wields / her broom of bundled branches / before earth reverts to dust.�”

We see schoolchildren at play. We are in town at a restaurant. Other expatriate, retired, gated people eat here. �“Some have ed the cold. / some, humidity and heat. / Others left the stress�— / to nd they can�’t endure / the ennui of Paradise.�” In the bedroom, wafted through an open window, the odor of jasmine and skunk. It is a montage of takes, this section of tanka, some of which are immensely quiet, not all displeased with st i l lness. I l ike: �“Hurricane blown by, / lake a pewter mirror. / An egret rests / in stark arms of a dead tree. / Dad and son scavenge the littered beach.�” It is a �‘Mexican�’ life reported here, a life in México, the México of horses and goats, of curious rubbish, the writer�’s eye catching the instance.

In the nal tanka those original Mexican guys, Moctezuma, Chac Mool,


and Huitzilopochtli, address the writer. Gringo/gringa has a history. Cortez and his little army come into ancient México, �“expats with beards from afar.�” Some part of present day ancient México still believes Quetzalcoatl will rise from Lake Chapala, is still living an unsubdued Mexican life. These last several tanka mark the writer�’s distance from that deep Mexican thing, Indian memory, the heart on the platter �“at pyramid�’s peak, �” blood memory, and yet suppose, for all that, still, a Mexican life. In the last poem the wr i te r addresses these Mexican divinities: Moctezuma, Chac Mool, Huitzilopochtli: �“Will this be my home / or will I always be gringa? / My heart is open / on Huitzilopochtli�’s platter. / What more is there to give?�” It is a prayer, a poet�’s prayer. What they will say to it, how they will answer this prayer, more poetic narrative, more tanka, will disclose.

Will I always be gringa? The writer will do the radical Mexican thing. México is to answer �“What more is there to give?�”

A Pillow Stuffed With Diamonds is a transnational narrative, that of an American Mexican life, written in the form of Japanese tanka poetry. It is dialogical, bilingual, polyphonic really, and yet, curiously, no one is named in the text. There is a Raúl and a Chuy, but that is pretty much it. We are right there in that market, coming in past the beggars, the last cup with its tissue cushion, but where is this market, in what town, where in México? Desert and mountain. Look for the region that looks like a �“sensuous woman who hates sex.�” Google that. Van Every refuses to answer the identifying questions, who are you, where do you live. It is a distinctive

feature of the text. We have to see it as part of a cultural negotiation going on in her poetic project. So there she is, not-gringa, beautifully put in this book. What is next? What does México say?

Review: The Time of This World: 100 Tanka from 13 collections of Kawano Y ko

Reviewed by Patricia Prime

The Time of This World: 100 Tanka from

13 collections of Kawano Y ko, selected by Oshima Shivo, translated by Amelia Fielden & Saeko Ogi. Modern English Tanka Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 2010. ISBN 978-193539815-8. $US9.95

The Time of This World contains translations by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi of 100 tanka selected by well-known poet and critic, Oshima Shiyo, from thirteen of Kawano Y ko�’s major collections.

The tanka range from the love lyrics of Kawano Y ko�’s earliest published book to the thoughts of a young mother living in the USA, to the mature reections of later years when she was confronted by the death of her mother, and the resurgence of her own cancer, rst diagnosed in 2000.


The Time of This World is a poetic page-turner in the best possible sense as each tanka, stark, haunting and beautiful, ventures into a key stage of the poet�’s life. Love, laughter, loss, illness and death ll this collection with energy and insight, which encourages and rewards reection.

The range of interests in Kawano Y ko�’s tanka is enviably wide, as is the way in which she overcomes the challenges of the tanka form to achieve its delights. Her tanka reveal a great depth of understanding of the memories, thoughts and events of her life. We are also presented with many moving insights into personal and family life and the love that animates it at its best, as we see in the following two tanka from the collection Like a Forest, Like a Wild Beast (1972):

after the birththis mother is hearingdeep in her earsthe clear-toned shrillof a kanakana cicada

your lipsopened to start speaking,are moist�—don�’t marry meyet a while

The world of marriage is revealed in Bindweed (1976):

close to the lampI wiped dust from your eye�—unbidden came

the vivid realization�‘I am a wife�’

stretched againstyour slumbering back,my armthis lonesome nightseems to link us

In The Cherry Blossom Forest (1980), Kawano Y ko invites us into the emotional space of bringing up children and we see how distraught she becomes at the father�’s punishment of the children:

holdingyou two childrenin my armsI still have space to includeyour father�’s emotions

hitting youhitting the kids�— oh,my hand�’s on re . . .frantically loosening my hairI go off to bed

In The Spirited Male (1984) she writes about life with her husband and children:

this, nothing but thisis our family�—the two kidsin place between uswe climb the hill path


Koh (1991) sees the young mother living temporarily in the USA:

even in the kitchena US map on the wall . . .it�’s as if we havelived in this countrysince our forefathers�’ time

In Time Passes (1995), the poet�’s children are growing up and she recalls the rift which has arisen between herself and another:

we spoke ofthe one who had left usbeing more distantthan a dead person�—at night, the white magnolia

Again we see the poet�’s child in Vital Forces (1998). Her son is becoming a man and is able to do small jobs for her around the home:

is thiswhat a son is?a whole head tallerhe is hammeringthe nail for me

The tanka in Home and Family (2000) take on a more relaxed attitude, for here the poet writes about other members of the family:

a nephew comestwo nieces come, then

another nephew�—I add more square biscuitsand set them out

To Walk (2001) concentrates on Kawano Y ko�’s illness as she strives to recover from surgery:

no-one knowsmy chest was cut openhorizontally�—I put on a shawl,walk through the light snow

In My Tanka Diary (2002), time has passed and the poet gradually becomes aware of the aging process and way in which her body is losing its former tautness:

when I graduallyraise my bodyfrom its prone positionI am consciousof my sack-shaped stomach

Markers of the Seasons (2004) sees the poet trying to overcome her loneliness: she compares herself to an �‘empty bucket�’ and has now only the mundane chores, such as carrying home a cabbage, to keep her occupied:

chatting too muchI am left with nothingand now Iroll aroundlike an empty bucket


what will lonelinessnally do to me?beneath the blue skyI go alongcarrying a cabbage

In Garden (2004), the poet�’s children have left home:

now that we arejust the two of us again,we eat our mealswith piles of bowlsand plates behind us

The poet is confronted with the death of her mother in The Maternal Line (2008):

being with this personin the time of this world,foreheadpressed against foreheadI pass into her

living creaturesare all alonewhen dying,and even for dyingone needs strength

The intensity of the tanka is assisted by pace. These tanka snap and crackle wi th shor t breathless l ines . The

appearance, every now and then, of a longer line seems to be in tune with the emotional rhythm of the story behind the tanka, as we see in the following poem:

on a windy daywhen I leave the house,�“hey you�” callthe groves from both sides,squeezing me between them

Kawano Y ko�’s words in this collection will surely invigorate all who read or wr i te tanka. She i s an immediately accessible poet, and one who has established a rm reputation

over many years. Kawano Y ko�’s poetic voice draws on the tradition of Japanese tanka. The tanka spark off each other, creating a journey from cover to cover that should not be missed.


Chronology and Tanka

Kisaburo Konoshima

David Callner, Japanese translator and editor

The �‘Chronology�’ and tanka appeared in Hudson : A Collection, by Kisaburo Konoshima, translated by his grandson, David Callner, (2004). Hudson was originally published in Japanese by Hakuyo Shoin in 1970. Callner has annotated the Chronology slightly.

April 26, 1893 �– Konoshima was born in Yamato-mura, Gifu prefecture (Konoshima believed he was actually born in 1892, and that his parents were late in registering his birth) to Mitsugoro and Fude Konosh ima . K i saburo Konoshima was the youngest of seven children, ve boys and two girls. Mitsugoro and Fude Konoshima were farmers as were all of the people in their village. Kisaburo�’s grandfather�’s family owned a great deal of land and they were known as the House of Niemon. Mitsugoro was poor at business affairs and gradually lost most of the family land. By the time Kisaburo was born the Konoshimas were barely making a living as farmers.

Konoshima attended grammar school in Yamato-mura for eight years (grammar school was divided into two four-year periods) from the age of six, missing one year because the family could not afford to send him. Konoshima also briey a t t e n d e d a g ra m m a r s ch o o l i n Hachiman. The pr incipal of the Hachiman Higher Elementary and Junior High School was a former samurai of the

Aoyama Clan (the clan that had ruled the Hachiman area from a castle there) n a m e d S h i g e r u J o h a r a . J o h a r a encouraged Konoshima to continue his education and urged him to pursue an academic life.

1908 �– At the age of f teen Konoshima left for Tokyo to attend high school with the dream to "Study Under Adversity and Rise Up in the World". He took a job in a Setagaya post ofce for seven sen a day plus food and lodging. About six months later Konoshima heard about the Aoyama Gakuen Roudo-Kai, a Tokyo high school where students could work and go to school. Konoshima worked his way through high school, and later through college as well, delivering milk with a pull-cart mornings and evenings. He would get up at three o�’clock every morning to milk and care for the cows and prepare the milk for delivery.

Konoshima rst met Yoshi Tomita, later to become his wife, at the Aoyama Gakuen Roudo-Kai. She continued to work there while Konoshima transferred to another branch, and the two began corresponding.

1913 �– Konoshima graduated from Tokyo�’s Seijou Chuugaku (the equivalent of today�’s high school). He considered going into medicine but was discouraged by his teachers who told him it would be


too difcult to work his way through medical school. Eventually he decided to go into teaching and enrolled in Kyoto�’s Doshisha University. Yoshi Tomita meanwhile returned to her home and under pressure from her family married a man named Maruyama. The marriage las ted only s ix months , and a t Konoshima�’s suggestion she enrolled in Doshisha University�’s nursing school.

Konoshima never forgot the hardships he endured to secure an education, and up to his death he sent money to his native village where he established scholarships for needy students.

October 12, 1915 �– Konoshima and Yoshi Tomita were married at the Doubo-Kyokai Christian Church in Kyoto.

1919 �– As soon as Konoshima graduated Doshisha University with a degree in Economics he received many teaching offers. He accepted a position at the Shokumin-Gakko in Tokyo. The Shokumin-Gakko was founded by Hisae Sekiyama to prepare students for emigration, something that Sekiyama and his backers thought necessary in a post-war depressed and overpopulated Japan. Konoshima taught political economics.

After teaching at the Shokumin-Gakko for two years Konoshima was sent by the school on an eighteen month tour of inspection, scouting schools, living and working conditions in Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. Konoshima then returned to the Shokumin-Gakko and taught for another year.

1924 �– Konoshima�’s next assignment was to tour the United States. He left for America the January after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Konoshima had become disenchanted with teaching

at the Shokumin-Gakko, partly because of bickering within the university. En route to America he reected on his professional life. He felt strongly that he was inadequate as an educator. He determined to resign from the teaching profession and to live from his own sweat and the soil.

Directly after landing in America Konoshima found work as a laborer on a farm in Stockton, California. He then sent for his wife and four children to join him. After working as a laborer for eleven years Konoshima and his family moved to Santa Clara, California, where he and another Japanese man began their own independently managed farm.

1941 �– When Konoshima�’s enterprise had reached the point of being well under way, the Pacic War broke out. Submitting to the decree that all people of Japanese descent vacate the coast, the partners were forced to sell the fruit and truck farm for a pittance.

Konosh ima �’s f ami ly was r s t consigned to a stable at the Santa Anita race track and then moved to the relocation camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. They were conned there for four years.

1946 �– In January following the war�’s end, Kisaburo and Yoshi moved to New York city where they found work as domestics. From then on Konoshima devoted himself to his children�’s schooling, all the while writing his poetry.

1950 �– Konoshima became a member of Cho-on. Cho-on is a poetry society founded in 1915, in Kamakura, Japan.


December 1955 �– Konoshima and his wife were naturalized as American citizens.

March 1963 �– Konoshima retired, and for the rest of his life composed tanka and cared for his collection of Japanese art and antiques. This collection is now part of the Herbert R. Johnson Museum a t Co rne l l Un ive r s i t y. Konoshima lived in New York City.

1970 �– Konoshima and his wife moved to Philadelphia to live with their daughter and son-in-law, Carolyn and

Richard Callner, and later moved with them to Albany, New York.

1978 �– Konoshima and his wife moved to the warmer climate of Honolulu to live with their daughter, Sumiye Konoshima.

October 6 , 1984 �– K i saburo Konoshima died in Honolulu at the age of ninety-one, two years after the death of his wife.

1951

�� ¡¢£¤¥¦§¨© ª«¬® ¯°J±¦I ing a snowball and it bursts against a tree trunkscattering with a whack my spirits brighten

²³´µ¶·©¦¸¥¹º»®¼½¶¨¨.:¾¡A little monkey earnestly polishes an empty canas I stand there pondering verse

¿²À¥ÁÂÃ®ÂÄ¬Å JÂÆµÇÈ¦ÉÅÊAs the darkening from a cloud crossing the skynow and then a passing loneliness shades my heart

Ë#ÌEU#ÌÍ8¶·©¦£Î#Ï#µHÐ´¬Ñ½ÒYesterday is a dream �— tomorrow an illusionI think I shall live this one day in earnest


1952

ÓÔÕÂÖµ×ØÀ¥ÙÂÚ¯°ÛÜÎÝÞßàThe spring breeze caresses my tipsy face in passingO my youngest daughter marries this evening

áZÂâ°9ãÌ¿��£äåÅæÂ9�®¬çèÌéêOur six children are all estranged from the worldfor being their father�’s children �— concludes my aged wife

ëÂì£íîÌïð³Õñò³�°Åó£¿ ôõZÌößProstrate on the roadside �— a dead body or a drunkard?with sidelong glances New Yorkers go by

÷øÂùú¬�® ôõûüýÂþÂ9ãtÿNew York has become a lthy mass of noiseseven million children of God live here

!"#ãµ$B¬�%ñ&ZÌ'(£)¦£à*+%,ò Freedom and equality are national policybut the black man suffers discrimination just to ride a train

1955

--£./0/1Ò23Â4Ì(¥5673³·©¥On stone steps rests a tramp �— the church door is closed tightthe summer sun goes down

1956

à�8ò°9Â:;¬<¥=£³³¬>?ñ¯°!�¨ÔMy sister weeps that this is our nal meetingI laugh "ha ha" �— but my voice is hollow


1958

"#î¦.£$%¾&'ÂEÂ�£�®Å³Ì(£)ò I awake to nd myself weepingwhat the dream was about I have already forgotten

1960

*+,-°��£./0Ð:1Â.234#5Vá#America is brought to shame before the worldon the anniversary of evil disgrace �— August six

²¬6�³¡�³¡£3µ+7ÁÌÓÂÓµ8Ð9Ì:µ;ÌîSky and sea divide the sun half and halfthe clouds emit ames �— the waves oat blood

<²µ&¥=Å> d³à¾?@£A®·7BC£?¦A large gull sweeps in blackly across the blue skydescends onto the water and shines absolutely white

1964

DE`FGHIJÂK«L£ïµM?·¦þÌ`�®At the end of joy and anger �— love and hatred �— pleasure and sufferingGod is love who gives us death

NO¶¬¨.µP¶Ð&ø· QRÂSP�¥ TÿA single withered leaf follows me making noiseas I walk the early-autumn street with nothing to do

1965

UàÅ q�VÂWÇ¬XÒò¡YZ�[\Ø¬]^_Ì`Ò


When I reply �— "I don�’t do anything!"the cabbie laughs �— "That�’s a ne position!"

a,bcbµde£f?ghiZA¬�YZ°jk£lm¦With Christmas waiting just aheadnine little children and three adults are swallowed up in a re

nÂ!µoÅp¾Å³qrÅ�ê¥m® ï£q·®sãtuÌDid they search through the smoke?crouching in each other�’s arms my grandson and granddaughter are dead

MÐ <ÐvÅ w<Ðxµy? çÂzÌ{¥|µ},êI rise and weep �— lie down and weep again �— I change roomshow to dry up this old man�’s tears I do not know

1966

~�£��<³ê��/Ì�B&¥�V³³Over an ashen Hudson motionless with oating icethe evening moon rests on jet-black hill

�VÏ#µ�¨³&#¬�¾´³o£Ï#Â�»,î0¥Why not designate April Fool�’s a day not to lie?there should be one day a year for faith

1967

Ê´Ê´¬Ù3''È ��Â�/�£ç�ÂÖ�,�·®On a park bench bathed in radiant spring sunshineugly old faces are side by side


1968

�°��®�2¥»,´�ñ½¶��ÂÀ°¿�Åq¦.The world has its ways �— one must have pluck �— and so on I museas I straighten a crooked picture frame

²à<��/ÇEò.à��£E,ÿ�£�³ÿCry also the sky! Rage O Hudson!I too will rage �— together I will grieve

1969

�®�®¬��/µ³�¦çèµ�ÅF¾®.Ì��£ I hate my aged wife a little as she munches corn with a crunchingI with false teeth

1970

Ù§Â ®¡Å·¦¢·ê¿¹ÊÐ§£øà�¥¤ÒAfter a spring snow �— garden puddlesabsorb little snowakes without sound

¥ò&mm£¦£§�¦¨FÌV¨Âm£©,E£¨�°¦Unable to sleep �— before I know itfantasies pictured in the dark turn into dreams

ª�,¬+�H«µ¯òà¬7ª�,Â¬Ä£Ò¦mÒI have the same physiology as a bugon occasion I behave like a bug


Bespreking Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka 2008 & Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka Vol. 2

Paul Mercken

[English translation follows the Dutch original.�—Ed.]

Dit artikel verscheen al in Vuursteen, het eerste deel in de lente 2010, het tweede in de herfst. Aangezien alle gedichten tweetalig zijn, citeer ik de Nederlandse versie ervan in het Nederlandstalige artikel en de Engelse in het Engelstalige en vernoem ik de bronnen slechts in dit laatste.

1. M. Kei (USA), Sanford Goldstein (Japan), Pamela A. Babusci (USA), Patricia Prime (NZ), Bob Lucky (China) en Kala Ramesh (India) [red.], Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka 2008, Modern English Tanka (MET) Press, Baltimore USA 2009. $ 16,95 USD + $ 15,- verzendkosten (samen ongeveer �€ 21,60).

Het 238 pagina�’s tellende boek bevat 321 individuele tanka�’s, zes tanka series en vijf tanka-haibuns van in totaal 138 auteurs. De redactie selecteerde deze uit meer dan honderd Engelstalige bronnen ( t i j d s c h r i f t e n , b l o e m l e z i n g e n , wedstrijden, bundels, websites, online tijdschriften, blogs en dergelijke) en las meer dan 14.000 gedichten, alle in 2008 verschenen. Ze maken zich sterk zowat alle in dat jaar gepubliceerde tanka�’s te hebben bekeken.

A l ex i s Ro t e l l a , t oen nog de hoofdredacteur van Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka, getuigt dat ze na het lezen van deze boeiende anthologie

niet meer wist of ze een vrouw, een monnik of een pelikaan was.

Van Frans Terryn en Geert Verbeke van het Haikoe-centrum Vlaanderen en van ondergetekende van de HKN is één tanka elk opgenomen en vier van de uit de Filippijnen afkomstige maar in Nederland wonende Ella Wagemakers, geboren Sanchez (inmiddels ook lid geworden van de HKN).

Allerzielen.Een late vlinder daalt neerop je grafsteen;zou men ook in jouw wereldeenzaamheid kunnen voelen?

Frans Terryn

D i t g e d i ch t ve r s ch e e n a l i n Vuursteen, lente 2009, onder �‘Vonkjes�’, als eerste prijs van de Tanka Splendor Awards competitie.

ik mors wat wijnzodat ik je kan aanrakenonopgemerkt dacht iktot pa grijnzend vraagtof jij mijn liefje bent

Geert Verbeke

stofg door de klimzingen voor de zon die rijstNippons monnikenvreemder zaken zag men hierop die bergtop Sinaï


Paul Mercken

Vier tanka�’s van Ella Wagemakers gaan over het wees zijn, armoede, ouderdom en ziekte. Ziehier de tweede:

een knoop zettenin een oud hemdheel die tijdhet voortdurendgebrek aan alles

Ella Wagemakers

Mij viel het betrekkelijk groot aantal gedichten op over dood, ziekte en ouderdom. Wellicht leent tanka zich meer tot �‘negatieve�’ thema�’s dan haiku. Hier een in mijn vertaling:

Oude man�—eerst vraagt hijom te sterven,dan omeen broodje ham.

Alexis Rotella

2. M. Kei (USA), Sanford Goldstein (Japan), Patricia Prime (NZ), Kala Ramesh (India), Alexis Rotella (USA) & Angela Leuck (Canada) [red.], Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka Vol. 2 2009, Modern English Tanka (MET) Press Baltimore USA 2010.

Dit tweede volume telt 202 pagina�’s en bevat 387 individuele tanka�’s, zes tanka-haibuns en zes tanka series van in totaal 139 auteurs.

De samenstellers lazen meer dan 16.000 tanka�’s uit meer dan 140 bronnen. De inleiding, �‘Tanka in het elektronisch tijdperk�’, schrijft deze uitbreiding toe aan de groei van digitale

bronnen, waarvan Twitter alleen in 2009 meer dan 2.000 tanka�’s leverde. Twitter bereikt evenveel lezers als de MET Press, maar slechts voor korte duur. Gelukkig wordt dit euvel weer goedgemaakt door archiverende online tijdschriften zoals Dragony Archives, die daaruit weer herpubliceren.

Slechts één Nederlander en één Vlaming hebben dit volume gehaald: Alex von Vaupel uit Utrecht, zelf technisch directeur van Atlas Poetica, en de opnieuw Geert Verbeke uit Kortrijk.

jij wil pratenmaar ik heb nietste zeggenrond onze stiltevalt regen

herfst . . . de bladeren en al het andere uiteen zien vallen . . . telkens weer

Alex von Vaupel (mijn vertalingen, PM)

wind heeft vrij spelijspegels groeien sneltot scherpe naaldenpa neuriet een wiegelieduit lang vervlogen dagen

Geert Verbeke

De index is gerangschikt naar de éérste letter van de opgegeven naam, hetgeen voor westerse namen, dat is het overgrote deel , betekent dat de voorletters/voornamen de plaats in de index bepalen in plaats van, zoals gebruikelijk, de achternamen. Dit is gedaan met het oog op de multi-etnische namen waarvan lastig is vast te stellen


w e l k d e e l d e f a m i l i e n a a m vertegenwoordigt. Vooralsnog vind ik dit een onhandige oplossing.

* * *

Review Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka 2008 & T a k e F i v e . B e s t Contemporary Tanka Vol. 2

Paul Mercken

Paul Mercken, Dutch translator

This article appeared already in Dutch in Vuursteen, the rst part Spring 2010, the second Autumn 2010. Since all poems are bilingual, I have quoted their Dutch version in the Dutch article and I quote now the English version in the English article and I mention the sources only in the latter.

1. M. Kei (USA), Sanford Goldstein (Japan), Pamela A. Babusci (USA), Patricia Prime (NZ), Bob Lucky (China) and Kala Ramesh (India) [eds.], Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka 2008, Modern English Tanka (MET) Press Baltimore USA 2009. $16.95 USD + $15. + shipping to Europe (together approximately �€21.60).

This volume of 238 pages contains 321 individual tanka, s ix tanka sequences and ve tanka haibun by in total 138 authors. The editorial board made this selection from more than one hundred English-language sources (journals, anthologies, competitions, collections, websites, online journals, web logs and so on) and read more than 14,000 poems, all from 2008. They make

out a case for having read nearly all publications of that year.

Alexis Rotella, at the time still editor in chief of Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka, testies that after reading this fascinating anthology she didn�’t know any more whether she was a woman, a monk or a pelican.

Take Five contains one tanka each by Frans Terryn and Geert Verbeke of the Flemish Haiku Center as well as one by myself, a member of the Dutch Haiku Society, and four by Ella Wagemakers, née Sanchez, who originates from the Philippines but lives in the Netherlands and since became a member of the Dutch Haiku Society.

All Souls�’ Day.

A late butterycomes downon your tombstone;I wonder if lonelinesscan be felt in your world too

Frans TerrynFrom Tanka Splendor Awards, AHA

Books, Gualala Cal., 2008

Appeared rst in Vuursteen, Spring 2009, section �‘Vonkjes�’ (�‘Sparklets�’), rst prize of the Tanka Splendor Awards competition.

I spill some wineso that I can touch youunnoticed I thoughtuntil dad asks me grinningif you are my sweetheart

Geert VerbekeFrom Tanka, India: Cyberwit, 2008


dusty from the climbthey chant to the rising sunthe monks from Japanstranger things have happened hereon top of Mt. Sinai

Paul MerckenFrom Atlas Poetica, vol. 1, Baltimore

MD, 2008

Ella Wagemakers�’ four tanka are about being an orphan, poverty, old age and illness. This is the second one:

sewing a buttononto an old shirtall this timethe persistent needto make ends meet

Ella WagemakersFrom MET 2: 4, 2008

I was struck by the comparatively speaking large amount of poems about death, sickness and old age. Perhaps tanka lends itself better for �‘negative�’ themes than haiku. Here is one as an example:

Old man�—rst he asksto die,then fora ham sandwich.

Alexis RotellaFrom Looking for a Prince, MET Press,

2008

2. M. Kei (USA), Sanford Goldstein (Japan), Patricia Prime (NZ), Kala Ramesh

(India), Alexis Rotella (USA) & Angela Leuck (Canada) [eds.], Take Five. Best Contemporary Tanka Vol. 2 2009, Modern English Tanka (MET) Press Baltimore USA 2010.

This second volume has 202 pages and contains 387 individual tanka, six tanka haibun and six tanka sequences by in total 139 authors. The anthologists read more than 16,000 tanka from more than 140 sources. The introduction, �‘Tanka in the Electronic Age,�’ ascribes this phenomenon to the increase of digital sources, of which Twitter alone provided in 2009 more than 2,000 tanka. Twitter reaches as many readers as the MET Press, but is more ephemeral. Fortunately this is remedied by archival journals such as Dragony Archives, that republish tanka from Twitter.

Only one Dutchman and one Fleming made this volume: Alex von Vaupel from Utrecht, who is also technical director of Atlas Poetica, and once again Geert Verbeke from Kortrijk.

you want to talkbut i have nothingto sayaround our silencerain falls

autumn . . . watching the leaves and everything else fall apart . . . all over

again

Alex von VaupelFrom http://alexvonvaupel.com 2009

wind has free playicicles grow quicklyinto sharp needlesdad hums a cradle songfrom days long gone


Geert VerbekeFrom IJS = ICE. Foto en tankaboek by

Geert Verbeke, 2009

The index is ordered according to the rst letter of the names entered, which means that for Western names, by far the greatest number, the rst initial or rst name determines the place in the index instead of the last name, as is usual. This is done in view of the multi-ethnical names of which it is difcult to tell which is the given name and which the surname. So far this doesn�’t appear to me to be a handy policy.

Obituary : Kawano Y ko, 24 July 1946 �—12

August 2010

The multi-award winning Kawano Y ko stood in the forefront of Japanese post-war tanka poets. An intensely personal writer who always enlivened her poetry with events from her own life, Kawano had a long and distinguished career spanning more than forty years. Between 1972 and 2009, Kawano published fourteen large collections of tanka, three books of literary criticism, and several volumes of essays.

Her tanka ranged from the passionate love lyrics of �‘Like a Forest, Like a Wild Beast�’ (1972), to the thoughts of a young mother living in the USA; from the mature reect ions of �‘My Tanka Diary�’ (2002), to �‘The Maternal Line�’ (2008) where she confronts the death of her mother, and the resurgence

of her own cancer; and nally the more elegeic �‘Reed Boat�’ (2009), written in awareness of her short life expectancy, yet as always rejoicing in the beauties of life.

During her many years as a high-prole professional poet, Kawano also taught tanka composition, edited tanka for newspapers and journals, lectured on NHK television, was keynote speaker at conferences all over Japan, and served as judge for innumerable tanka contests.

Kawano was married to scientist and poet Dr. Nagata Kazuhiro, and together with Nagata led the prestigious Tower association of contemporary tanka writers, publishing a monthly journal of the same name.

Her rst tanka were written at the age of thirteen; her last at sixty-four, only days before her death. Composed in her hospital bed were 10 tanka for the Tower journal which was printed on 10th August.

�‘thrusting open the leaf-like door of my hospital room, here comes my daughter at half-past ten�’

Family and tanka poetry were Kawano Y ko�’s world, to the last.

Written by Amelia Fielden, Kawano Y ko�’s ofcial translator.

Note The Time of This World : 100 Tanka from 13 Collections by Kawano

Y ko, translated by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi, Modern English Tanka Press, Baltimore, 2009 is currently available from MET. The Maternal Line, by the same translators is to be published early in 2011, also by MET.


ANNOUNCEMENTS

At las Poet ica wi l l publ i sh shor t announcements in any language up to 300 words in length on a space available basis. Announcements may be edited for brevity, clarity, grammar, or any other reason. Send announcements in the body of an email to: [email protected]�—do not send attachments.

* * *

The Rough Sheet Tanka

Journal established in

Ghana by Jacob Kobina

Ayiah Mensah

The Rough Sheet Tanka Journal is seeking to feature new and emerging tanka poets and writers from Africa and the rest of the world where the art of tanka is not developed. It encourages tanka innovations in experimental, analytic, journalistic or prosaic forms while maintaining the lyric avours. It considers anything of tanka as long as it is not libelous, obscene, or unprintable. Submission is throughout the year and can be sent at <[email protected]>.

I am also running Kukubenkuka, a bar of food of tanka, where tanka poets and lovers can stop and enjoy everything of tanka, including books, chapbooks, pamphlets, leaets, calendars, greeting cards, postcards etc, tanka records, movies, performance, reading and shopping.

* * *

Book Note: First Winter Rain: Selected Tanka from 2006�–2010 by Denis M.

Garrison

6"x9" trade paperback, perfect bound,160 pages.ISBN 978-1-935398-21-9.Cover price: $13.95 USD.

Available by August 1, 2010 at http://stores.lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and www.themetpress .com/books tore /books.html

First Winter Rain: Selected Tanka from 2006�–2010 is the rst collection of tanka by Denis M. Garrison. It includes 252 poems from the ve-year period, the


majority standing alone and the rest in sets, strings, and sequences.

"What I am struck by is the depth and openness of Garrison�’s work, and a sincerity that raises his art high above the playing eld of today�’s tanka in English. I hadn�’t hoped to nd such a wealth of tanka in one book by a single author this season or next! First Winter Rain holds a breadth of felt experience you owe to yourself." �—Larry Kimmel, editor of Winfred Press

"First Winter Rain is a welcome new poetry collection from a master of the tanka form in English. Between these covers we nd individual tanka grouped in 8 themed chapters, where Denis Garrison�’s poetic virtuosity ranges across passionate love lyrics, strongly resonant tanka of place, and elegiac mood pieces. There are lush poems of peace, despairing poems of war; poems of hopefulness, poems of resignation; Garrison expresses succinctly the yin and yang of life, often within the one tanka . . . Following the individual poems there is a long nal chapter of enthralling tanka presented in sets, strings and sequences, within which each piece stands alone and also resonates with the next." �—Amelia Fielden, M.A., translator and poet, Australia

"Wide-ranging in subject matter, restless and probing in their inquiry of the human heart, Denis Garrison�’s tanka are somewhere near the fulcrum of all his efforts in poetry as editor, poet, and essayist. This generous, good man gifts us all with a lifetime of experience in the highs and lows of a well-traveled soul." �—Michael McClintock, President, Tanka Society of America

"First Winter Rain: Selected Tanka from 2006�–2010 charts [Garrison�’s] personal journey on the tanka pathway with poems that successfully explore the potential of this diminutive genre to capture the essence of all that is of moment to the human heart." �—Beverley George, Editor: Eucalypt: a tanka journal

"First Winter Rain is proof that tanka is not a hothouse exotic but a thoroughly naturalized American literary form that can thrive in the most demanding environments." �—M. Kei, author of Slow Motion: The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack

"Praise for First Winter Rain . . . Almost all of his tanka burst with the energy of the everyday and the experimentation of a curious mind." �—George Swede, editor of Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America, poet, editor and educator, the author of 31 collections of poetry.

* * *

5 Books by Australian translator and poet Amelia Fielden published in 2010

1) �‘THE TIME OF THIS WORLD : 100 TANKA FROM 13 COLLECTIONS BY Kawano Y ko�’, a representative selection by eminent critic Oshima Shiyo of the �‘best�’ tanka from almost 40 years�’ work by one of Japan�’s top-ranking postwar poets; translated by Amelia Fielden & Saeko Ogi; 44 pp; available from MET Press for $US 9.95 +postage

2) �‘BREAST CLOUDS�’ the new, award-winning collection by Japanese poet, Noriko Tanaka; one woman�’s journey in tanka through breast cancer,


and more; translated by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi; bilingual; hard cover; 213 pp; published by Tanka Kenkyusha, Tokyo; 1500 yen plus postage; enquiries t o t h e p o e t a t <[email protected]>.

3) �‘SNOW CRYSTAL * STAR-SHAPED�’ anthology by Mari Konno : snow, Hiroshima, the origins of man, nuclear power---an extremely diverse collection of tanka lyrics; trilingual; translated by Amelia Fielden, English, & Viktors Kravcenko, Latvian; 177 pp; published by Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo; 1500 yen plus postage; enquiries to the poet at <[email protected]>.

4) �‘WEAVER BIRDS�’, a year of responsive tanka by Amelia Fielden & Saeko Ogi : conversations between 2 poets from different backgrounds, each writing in her native language and translating the other�’s work; bilingual; illustrated by Saeko Ogi; 139 pp; published by Ginninderra Press, Australia; $US 20 pp; orders to Amelia at <[email protected]>.

5) �‘LIGHT ON WATER�’ an anthology of English tanka composed by Amelia Fielden; introduction by fellow Australian poet Julie Thorndyke, concluding: �‘Let us seize the banquet of poetry here laid out before us and devour every delicious morsel of it�’. 132 pp; published by Ginninderra Press, Australia; $US 20 + postage; order from the publisher at <[email protected]> or Amelia at <[email protected]>.

* * *

Government Recognition for M. Kei�’s Slow Motion

I have been crewing aboard historic wooden sailing vessels for some years now. I served my apprenticeship aboard a skipjack, and since I am a poet, I kept a log of several trips aboard that vessel in the form of short poetry. I published it as Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. I just discovered it has been listed as �‘Recommended Reading�’ by the Chesapeake Bay Program

<http://www.chesapeakebay.net/s u g g e s t e d r e a d i n g . a s p x ?menuitem=16529>.

"The Chesapeake Bay Program is a unique regional partnership that has led and directed the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay since 1983. The Chesapeake Bay Program partners include the s ta tes of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; the District of Co lumbia ; the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state legislative body; the Environmental Protection Agency, representing the federal government; and participating citizen advisory groups. For more, visi t our overview of the Chesapeake Bay Program."�—from �‘About Us�’, Chesapeake Bay Program

It�’s gratifying that the governments of the Chesapeake Bay region consider Slow Motion to be a signicant work of literature on the topic of the Chesapeake Bay�’s boats! Slow Motion can be purchased through the MET Press.

Enjoy!

~K~

M. Kei


INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES

EUROPE

United Kingdom

Anglo-Japanese Tanka Society York St John University

Lord Mayor�’s WalkYork YO31 7EX UK<http://www.geocities.jp/nichieitanka/index.html>

British Haiku SocietyBlithe Spirit JournalBHS Membership Sec�’y, Stanley PelterMaple House5 School LaneClaypole, Lincs NG23 5BQ UK<http://www.haikusoc.ndo.co.uk/>

France

Kirikino IlargianPoésie de l�’instant: Haïku et tanka, cinquainsPays Basque<http://www.kirikino.biz/>

Germany

Deutsche Haiku-GesellschaftHerr Georges HartmannSaalburgallee 39-41D-60385 Frankfurt am Main<[email protected]>

TankaNetzIngrid KunschkeSuedkamp 3, 32457Porta Westfalica, Germany<http://www.tankanetz.de/>

Chrysanthemum / BregengemmeHaiku, senryu, tanka

Editorial team: Gerd Börner, Klaus-Dieter Wirth, Dietmar TauchnerContact: Dietmar Tauchner <[email protected]><http://www.bregengemme.net/>

Belgium/Netherlands

VuursteenMevrouw Leidy de BoerSalieveld 167006 VR DoetinchemThe Netherlands<[email protected]>

Haikoe-centrum VlaanderenWaaienbergstraat 14 - 3090 OverijseSporthalplein 201 - 2610 Wilrijk<[email protected]><http://www.haiku.be>

Haiku Kring NederlandLedenadministratie HKN p.a.Dirk van 't HulGeldermanmate 19NL-8014 KN ZwolleThe Netherlands<[email protected]><http://www.haikukring-nederland.nl>

Southeastern Europe

Aozora ProjectAn international project for haiku poets, associations & magazines from South-East Europe. Some also publish tanka.<http://www.tempslibres.org/aozora/en/centre.html>

Croatia

Karolina Rije ka


<http://www.karolina-rijecka.com/index.html><http://karolina-rijecka.com/waka_poezija.html>

Romania

Constanta Haiku SocietyAlbatros JournalMs. Laura V ceanu<[email protected]>Aleea Garo ei 3, L79 B, sc. B. ap. 39, cod 900177 Constan a, România<http://www.tempslibres.org/aozora/mag/ehome.html>

Haiku the magazine of Romanian �– Japanese relationshipMr. Valentin Nicolitov<[email protected]>Bucharest, România

Revista literar BOEMA o pute i citi i pe site-ulADRESA REDAC IEI: Str. Al. I. Cuza, Nr. 45bis, Bloc Cristal, Sc. 2, Et. 3, Ap. 4, Gala i, 800010<[email protected]><[email protected]><http://www.boema.inforapart.ro>

Agonia - Ateliere Artistice<http://www.poezie.ro/index.php><http://http://english.agonia.net/index.php>

ASIA

Japan Tanka Poets�’ Society / Nihon Kajin ClubThe Tanka Journal1-12-5 Higashi-gotanda Sinagawa-kuTOKYO 141-0022, JAPAN<http://www.kajin.org/english.html>

AFRICA

Ghana

The Rough Sheet Tanka JournalThe journal seeks to feature new and

emerging tanka poets and writers from Africa and the rest of the world where the art of tanka is not developed. It encourages tanka innovations in experimental, analytic, journalis t ic or prosaic forms while maintaining the lyric avours.

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, editorPO Box AD 142Adabraka,Accra, Ghana<[email protected]>

OCEANIA

Australia

Bottlebrush Tanka GroupC o n t a c t : J a n F o s t e r

<[email protected]>This group formed in early 2009 and is

led by Jan Foster who is a member of both Bowerbird Tanka Group and Tanka Huddle. The format is a short workshop, followed by critiquing of members�’ work for future chapbooks

Tanka HuddleC o n t a c t : J u l i e T h o r n d y k e a t

<[email protected]>Location: North Rocks, Sydney, AustraliaMembership: An informal group that

meets monthly, after the Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers general meeting, to share and workshop tanka.

Format: Members take turns to share poems written to a monthly writing prompt. Supportive critique and workshopping aims to produce poems that demonstrate best practice of modern tanka writing in English.


Bowerbird Tanka GroupC o n t a c t : B e v e r l e y G e o r g e a t

<[email protected]>Location: Pearl Beach, NSW AustraliaMembership: unrestricted except by

geography, and the time constraints on the number of people whose work we can discuss. Usually limited to the rst 16 poets to register.

History: This group has met at irregular intervals, since the inception of Eucalypt in late 2006. The venue is Beverley�’s home within the coastal village of Pearl Beach, New South Wales, Australia.

Format: A whole day event. We workshop poems, discuss particular topics; and then write collaboratively in small groups presenting these for comment by the larger gathering.

Eucalypt / Eucalypt NewsletterBeverley George, EditorPO Box 37Pearl Beach NSW 2256 Australia<http://www.eucalypt.info/><[email protected]>

HaikuOz - The Australian Haiku SocietyWith links to tanka in Australia and

elsewhere.<http://www.haikuoz.org/>

New Zealand

New Zealand Poetry Society�‘Tanka Moments�’ in a ne lineLaurice Gilbert, EditorThe New Zealand Poetry Society Inc.PO Box 5283Lambton QuayWellington 6145<[email protected]><http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz>

Kokako<http://kokako1.tripod.com/>

Patricia Prime, Co-Editor42 Flanshaw RdTe Atatu SouthAuckland 0610New Zealand<[email protected]>-or-Joanna Preston, Co-Editor6 Ballantyne AvenueUpper RiccartonChristchurch 8041New Zealand<[email protected]>

BravadoGuest EditorsPO Box 13 533Central Tauranga 3141New Zealand<http://www.bravado.co.nz>

Valley MicropressTony Chad, Editor165A Katherine Manseld DriveWhiteman�’s ValleyUpper Hutt 5371New Zealand<[email protected]>

NORTH AMERICA

Gogyohka Society �– Five Line PoetryContact: Elizabeth Phaire<[email protected]><http://www.velinepoetry.com/>

Gogyohka Junction<http://gogyohka.ning.com>Contact: Timoty Geaghan at <[email protected]>

México

Tanka del LagoContact: James Tipton at <[email protected]> or


Margaret Van Every at <[email protected]>

Canada

Tanka CanadaGusts JournalKozue Uzawa at <[email protected]>44--7488 Southwynde Ave., Burnaby, BC, V3N 5C6, Canada<http://www.people.uleth.ca/~uzawa/TankaCanada.htm>

Revue du Tanka francophone2690, avenue de la GareMascouche, QCJ7K 0N6 Canada<http://www.revue-tanka-francophone.com/><http://editions-du-tanka-<francophone.blogspot.com/>

MagnapoetsAn online resource and bi-annual print

publication for all forms of poetry, including tanka. See the website for more information about bilingual French-English issue coming up.<http://www.magnapoets.com>

United States

Tanka Society of AmericaRibbons JournalSecretary/Treasurer Carole MacRury1636 Edwards DrivePoint Roberts WA 98281-8511 USA<[email protected]>

President Michael McClintock9230 N. Stoneridge LanFresno CA 93720 USA<[email protected]>

Dave Bacharach, Ribbons Editor5921 Cayutaville RoadAlpine, NY 14805 USA<[email protected]>

Established in 2000 by over a dozen founding members, the Tanka Society of America aims to further the writing, reading, study, and appreciation of tanka poetry in English. TSA is a nonprot volunteer organization that relies on the creativity and energy of its members to carry out its activities, which include conducting an a n n u a l o p e n I n t e r n a t i o n a l Ta n k a Competition each spring and publication of the quarterly journal, Ribbons, Tanka Society of America Journal, which features original tanka, articles, essays, translations, book reviews, and competition results.

TSA also publishes annual and biannual anthologies featuring tanka by members and, as a public service in cooperation with MET Press, maintains and regularly updates the Tanka Teachers Guide and the standardized Tanka Venues List.<http://tankasocietyofamerica.com/>.

Haiku Poets of Northern CaliforniaMariposa JournalSan Francisco International Competition

Publishes tanka and has a tanka category in their contest.<http://www.hpnc.org>

ONLINE RESOURCES

Tanka CentralThe mission of Tanka Central is to

promote the tanka form of poetry, to educate newcomers to tanka about the form�’s history and future, techniques and uses, and to work for wider publication of tanka in both specialty and mainstream poetry venues. In order to accomplish this mission, it is our intent to build this into a megasite that will be the best place to study tanka on the internet, with its own onsite resources, with


comprehensive links to other relevant sites, with connections to others who write, read, and publish tanka, and that can become the best source for nding places that publish tanka, calls for submissions, etc.<http://www.themetpress.com/tankacentral/index.html>

Tanka OnlineContact: <[email protected]>. An educational website that includes

articles and essays on how to write and edit tanka. The website also features interviews with guest poets, their poetry and the poetry of founding poets Jeanne Emrich (USA), Michael McClintock (USA), Margaret Chula (USA), Tom Clausen (USA), Mariko Kitakubo (Japan), and Amelia Fielden (Australia). Submissions by invitation only. Website updated twice yearly.<http://www.tankaonline.com>

Tanka News & Haiku HeadlinesContact: <[email protected]>MET Press operates this blog for the

information and convenience of the world-wide tanka and haiku poetry community. Tanka and haiku publishers, editors, poets, etc., are welcome to send in announcements for publication on Tanka News & Haiku Headlines. <http://www.tankanews.com/>

AHA Poetry Tanka Email ListWorkshop list for tanka.

<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Tanka/>

Kyoka Mad Poems Email ListKyoka, variously translated into English

as �‘mad poem,�’ �‘comic waka�’ and �‘humorous tanka�’ are to tanka/waka what senryu is to haiku: the lighter side of poetry, with few rules. Frequently satirical, bawdy, and just plain silly, kyoka is for poets who want to have fun.<http://groups.google.com/group/kyoka>

Tanka Prose ConnectionPosting and discussion of tanka prose,

that is, of tanka accompanied by prose of various genres: expository essay, journal, reportage, narrative episode, anecdote�—factual or ctional.<http://groups.google.com/group/the-tanka-prose-connection>

Tanka Round TableA private email discussion group

regarding tanka wri t ten in English. Membership is restricted and by invitation so that our discussions may be open and frank and yet private. The purpose of this group is the advancement of tanka in English. Our method is serious and civil conversation on all matters related to tanka in English. This is not a workshop group. Please contact the moderator if you would like to join.<http://groups.google.com/group/tanka-round-table>

TwitterMicro-blogging service with a large

micropoetry community. It hosts various curated journals and retweet services. Relevant hashtags include: #tanka, #kyoka, #gyogohka, #jtanka, #waka, #pentastich, #micropoetry.<http://Twitter.com>


BIOGRAPHIES

Alex von Vaupe l l ives in Ut rech t , Netherlands, with his many dictionaries and a balcony veg garden. His tanka appear in Atlas Poetica, Concise Delight, and Prune Juice. Two of his tanka won a Tanka Splendor Award (2009). Visit his website <http://alexvonvaupel.com>.

Amelia Fielden has translated or co-translated 15 collections of Japanese tanka and published six books of her own poetry. In 2007, she and Kozue Uzawa were awarded the Donald Keene Prize for Ferris Wheel, 101 Modern and Contemporary Japanese Tanka (2006). She divides her years between Australia, Seattle, and Japan.

Bep Grootendorst lives in Oostkapelle, The Netherlands. She wrote many letters and reports in her professional capacity and later on also, as a committee member of a historical association, articles on history and genealogy. She joined the committee of a small writers association in Zeeland in 1989. She won some prizes in the Netherlands and in Belgium. More than 80 anthologies contain work of her hand. She has published some volumes privately.

Bob Lucky lives in Hangzhou, China, where he teaches history. His work has appeared in various journals. He is moving to Ethiopia.

Chen-ou Liu was born in Taiwan and emigrated to Canada in 2002. He lives in Ajax, a suburb of Toronto. Chen-ou Liu is a contributing writer for Rust+Moth and Haijinx Quarterly. His poetry has been published and anthologized worldwide. His tanka have been honored with awards.

Cristina Rusu was born on May 17, 1972 in Ia i, România. She lives in Ia i, România. She started with haiku poems and tanrenga in Dor de Dor magazine. Her haiku poems can be found in the Romanian anthology Greieri i crizanteme (Publishing House Orion, Bucharest, 2007) and in some literary magazines: LiterNet; Nota Bene, Literaturen vestnik, Soa, Bulgaria and in Poezia magazine (Publishing house of Cultural

Foundation Poezia, Ia i, 2008). She was published among the �“25 Romanian Tanka Poets�” Special Feature in Atlas Poetica, March 2010. Her work can be found on the literary site <http://www.agonia.ro>

Damascus Kafumbe has translated tanka by Margaret Van Every into Luganda, the melliuous language of the Baganda people of Uganda. He is a well-known composer, vocalist, and recording artist of his own music on traditional sub-Saharan East African instruments, which he crafts by hand. Kafumbe is from Kampala, Uganda, and currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where he is nishing his doctorate in ethnomusicology at Florida State University.

David Callner was born in 1956. His youth was spent in France, England, Italy, and America. Since 1978 he has lived in Japan. He has written four novels and teaches English at Nagano University. He is a grandson of Kisaburo Konoshima and the translator of Konoshima�’s Hudson - a collection of Tanka.

Geert Verbeke born in Kortrijk, where he still lives, Flanders (Europe) on 31 May 1948. Father of four and husband of one! Children: Hans (°1969), Saskia (°1972), Merlijn (°1984) & Jonas (°1986). His soulmate is Jenny Ovaere, ex-teacher now companion for Joker travelling. Author of poetry, novels, meditations & fairy tales. Writes haiku since 1968.

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, born in 1968 in Ho, Ghana, and educated at University of Cape Coast, he is a vegetarian, artist, poet, journalist and teacher. He lives in Winneba, a centre of learning in Ghana.

James Tipton (Chapala, Jalisco, México) has published more than 1000 poems, short stories, and art icles in various magazines and anthologies, including Contemporary Literature in Translation, International Poetry Journal, Apicultura Moderna, Mundus Artium, American Literary Review, The Nation, Esquire, El Ojo del Lago, Lake Chapala Review, Living at Lake


Chapala, and México Connect. His work has been translated into various languages�—Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Danish, and Norwegian. His collection of poetry Letters from a Stranger (with a Foreword by Isabel Allende) won the 1999 Colorado Book Award. A collection of his tanka, All the Horses of Heaven, was published by MET Press in 2009.

Janick Belleau, poet, cultural writer and lecturer. Feature articles and presentations deal mainly with the contribution of women insofar as the advancement of tanka and haiku. Recent publication: D�’âmes et d�’ailes / of souls and wings.

Joe Klemka was born in Montreal to Lithuanian parents. He went to French schools in Quebec and later attended university in Halifax and Ottawa. He taught Metereology, Ice Studies, Maritime History at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Nova Scotia. During his teaching career he made several trips to the High Arctic. He and his wife now live in Sydney, Cape Breton Island.

Kisaburo Konoshima was born in 1893 in Gifu, Japan. He left his village for an education in Tokyo when he was fteen years old, and went on to become a professor of political economics at the now defunct Shokumin Gakkouin Kyoto. In 1924 he abandoned academia for the life of a farmer, and emigrated to California with his wife and children. In 1941 Konoshima was forced off his farm and he and his family were interned in the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming. Following the war Konoshima moved to New York City, where he devoted himself to his children�’s education and his poetry. In 1950 he joined the Japanese poetry society Cho-on, which published his entire opus of over fteen hundred tanka in the Cho-on quarterly, from 1950 to his death in 1984. In 1970 Konoshima published a collection of his tanka, ¼��/

in commemoration of his seventy-seventh birthday. That collection was translated into English and published as Hudson - a collection of Tanka, in 2004.

Linda Moore, Rob Mohr�’s wife who shared in his work in Latin America, is an art historian and

Spanish teacher. She has translated poems by Antonio Otzoy (Guatemala) from Spanish into English and has edited several books for friends in Ajijic. She is currently working on a historical novel set in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Luminita Suse lives in Ottawa, Canada. Her poetry appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Ditch Poetry Magazine, The New Stalgica Hymnal, The Broken City Magazine, Sage of Consciousness e-zine, Moonbathing: A Journal of Women�’s Tanka, and Ascent Aspirations Magazine. She got third place and honourable mention in the Flat Signed Poetry Competition 2007, Chocolate River Poetry Association, one honourable mention in the Emerging From Shadows Contest, 2010, and two honourable mentions in The Open Heart Poetry Competition 2009, The Ontario Poetry Society. One of her poems was shortlisted for 2010 Descant/Winston Collins Prize for Best Canadian Poem.

M. Kei is the editor of Atlas Poetica and editor-in-chief of Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka. He is the author of Slow Motion : Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. A tall ship sailor in real life, he recently published a trilogy of nautical novels featuring a gay protagonist, Pirates of the Narrow Seas. He is the editor of Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyohka About Cats.

Magdalena Dale was born in, and lives in, Bucharest, Romania. She is a member of the Romanian Haiku Society and of the World Haiku Association from Tokyo led by the poet Ban�’ya Natsuishi. She has published in several reviews: Haiku, Albatros, Dor de Dor, Ribbons, Gusts, Kokako, Magnapoets, Modern English Tanka, Atlas Poetica, Ambrosia, moonset, Taj Mahal Review and Japanese reviews: Ginyu, Hekian and World Haiku Association. Her poetry appeared in several anthologies such as: Fire Pearls: (Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart), Among the Lilies, One Hundred Droplets, While the Light Holds and several bi l ingual Romanian anthologies. Her tanka and other poems have appeared in more literary sites online. She has published a bilingual tanka book Perle de rou /Dewpearls, together the poet Vasile Moldovan a bilingual renga book Mireasm de tei / Fragrance of lime and a bilingual haiku book Ecourile t cerii / The echoes of silence.


Margaret Van Every resides in San Antonio Tlayacapan, a village on Lake Chapala near Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. She is the author of a book of tanka entitled A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds (Librophilia Press, 2010). <http://librophilia.com>

Maria Steyn lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a BA Honours degree in Philosophy, but followed a career in language teaching that took her to Soweto in the mid-eighties, and thereafter to various non-racial private schools. Her tanka and haiku have been published in numerous international journals and anthologies.

Marius Surleac was born on August 1982, in Vaslui, Romania. Now he lives in Bucharest. He debuted in 2003 in an anthology after participating to a poetry contest. He participated in literary circles and published poetry and prose in literary magazines such as: Convorbiri Literare, Oglinda Literara, Hyperion, Egophobia, Feedback, Novo Slovo (Serbia). He participated with poems at the poetry festival Muza Poetike-Pegasi 2010 (Albania). He also publishes on l i t e r a r y w e b s i t e s l i k e : < h t t p : / /w w w . r e d r o o m . c o m > , < h t t p : / /www.neopoet.com>.

Martha Alcántar (Chapala, Jalisco, México) was born and grew up in a village on the Pacic Coast of México. In her mid-teens she moved to Puerto Vallarta where she continued her academic studies. She now lives in Chapala, Jalisco, México, where she enjoys reading contemporary literature, translating poetry into Spanish, giving massages, and going to lots of movies. She is married to James Tipton and they have one daughter, Gabriela, and two dogs, Chispa and Cookie, and their cat Manchas.

Maurice De Clerck was born in Ghent (Flanders, Belgium), the 13 oct. 1934. He studied Pedagogy and Psychology at the University of Ghent. During 6 years he was attached as a Assistant to the Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic of the same University. Later on he worked as a Clinical Psychologist in a Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, where he practiced psychodiagnostic and psychotherapy. Since Nov. 1995 he is retired. During his studies he was already interested in

Japanese culture and history, especially in Buddhism and Zen. This interest led to growing bonsai, and last but not least, to write Haiku, Tanka, Senryu and Kyoka. He published Tanka in Aan het woord, a biennial issue by Haiku Kring Nederland/Haikoe-Centrum Vlaanderen, and 1 Tanka is published in ATPO 1.

Mel Goldberg, after graduating from the University in California, taught in California, Illinois, Arizona and in England. In 1990 he published a book of poetry and photography, The Cyclic Path. In 2001 he published Sedona Poems for Sedona, Arizona, centennial. His novel, Choices, and his book of short stories, A Cold Killing, are available on Kindle. His stories and poems have been published in magazines and on line in the United States, México, The United Kingdom, and Australia. For six years he lived and traveled in a motor home from Alaska to México. He now lives in Ajijic, Jalisco, México.

Mike Montreuil lives in the old city of Gloucester with his family and their cats. His English and French haiku, tanka and haibun have been published on-line or in print throughout the world.

Neil Schmitz is a professor of English at SUNY/Buffalo, the author of Of Huck and Alice and White Robe�’s Dilemma, and many essays on Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, and William Faulkner. He is presently teaching a course on expat literature, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, that crew.

Patricia Prime is coeditor of the New Zealand magazine Kokako and reviews editor of Stylus. She has published poetry in collaboration with fellow NZ poet, Catherine Mair. Ongoing work includes an essay on African poetry and an essay on haiku by Indian poets.

Paul Mercken, Belgian citizen, was born at Leuven, Belgium, in the summer of 1934, but grew up in Hasselt (province of Limburg). He did postdoctoral research in Cambridge, Oxford en Florence and taught in the U.S.A. and the Netherlands. He specialised in the history of medieval philosophy at Utrecht University and became a medievalist. He has two daughters, born in 1969 and 1970. He lives near Utrecht


and is secretary of the Dutch Haiku Association. He calls himself a humanist and regards poetry and the art of translating as powerful means to build bridges between people.

Peter Bernhardt was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. His legal career in the U. S. encompassed writing, editing and courtroom practice, from his law school days as editor-in-chief of the Tulsa Law Journal through years as a litigator in private practice and for the U.S. Department of Justice. He drew upon this unique combination of life experiences to craft the plot and characters of his rst novel, The Stasi File: Opera and Espionage - A Deadly Combination, a nalist for 2009 Book of the Year Award and a bestseller chart selection on the British Arts C o u n c i l s p o n s o r e d s i t e < h t t p : / /www.youwriteon.com>. He is currently immersed in the sequel, Teya�’s Kiss: Opera and Artifacts - A Deadly Combination. Visit him at his website <http://sedonawriter.tripod.com>.

Rebecca Kowalsky moved from Chicago to Israel in 1985 with her husband Yossi. A mother of six, she lives in Efrat near Jerusalem. A photographer since high school, she continues darkroom work in her own private studio. To stay on the cutting edge of her eld, she has ventured into the fascinating world of digital imagery. She attempts to capture and document the beauty of special moments, believing photography captures the heart, passion, and soul in the richness of life around us.

Rob Mohr, a painter as well as writer, began his professional life as a teacher of painting, drawing, aesthetics, and art history at universities in North and South Carolina. Later, after a term in the Peace Corps, Rob, guided by the teaching of Paulo Freire, worked with marginalized indigenous communities throughout South and Central America using non-formal education to help people understand their individual and communal potential. Out of this experience Rob and his wife Linda settled in Ajijic, México, to write and paint full time. Inspired by the teaching of his friend Jim Tipton, Rob has come to understand and love the degrees of analogy possible through tanka.

Sanford Goldstein has been publishing tanka

for more than forty years. He is co-translator of several collections of Japanese tanka poets.

erban Codrin born 10 of May 1945 in Bucharest, Romania. He published several books of classical poetry and also tanka and haiku books: Dincolo de tacere/Aux connd du silence/Beyond Quietness �– editura Haiku, Bucharest 1994; Între patru anotimpuri/Entre quatre saison/Between for seasons �– editura Haiku, Bucharest 1994; O s rb toare a felinarelor stinse / A fest of the Extinguished Street Lamps, ed. Tempus Dacoromania Comterra, Bucharest 2005, Missa requiem �– 1997, Scoici f r perle zen poems, 1997, Marea T cere an anthology of the author.

Terry Ann Carter has published haiku and tanka in journals around the world. She has won some international awards for her haiku. With Marco Fraticelli she co-edited Carpe Diem: Anthologie Canadienne Du Haiku/Canadian Anthology of Haiku (Les Editions David/Borealis Press) 2008.

Vasile Moldovan was born in a Transilvanian village on 20 June 1949. He was cofounder (1991) chairman of the Romanian Society of Haiku (2009). Vasile Moldovan published ve haiku books �– Via Dolorosa (1998), The moon�’s unseen face (2001), Noah�’s Ark (2003), Ikebana (2005) and On a summer day (2010). Also he published together with Magdalena Dale the renku book Fragrance of Lime.

Yvette Mollen, Director, since 2003, of the Innu language department at the Tshakapesh Institute in Sept-Iles, formerly known as the Montagnais Cultural and Educational Institute (ICEM), where she works in particular to safeguard the Innu language.

Zoa Barisas was born in Montreal, Canada. When she was ve her family moved to a farm in Saint-Paul de Joliette. The language spoken at home was Lithuanian. Her mother told stories of old kings and knights and epic battles. The language at the convent was French. She married a man from Yorkshire and lived in England and now lives in Ajijic on Lake Chapala in México. The heart�’s home remains Lithuania.


INDEX

Alexandra Flora Munteanu, 24Amelia Fielden, 69Bep Grootendorst, 36Bob Lucky, 46Chen-ou Liu,29Cristina Rusu, 21Damascus Kafumbe, 39David Callner, 58Geert Verbeke,30Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46,

47, 48James Tipton, 19Janick Belleau, 15Joe Klemka, 9Kisaburo Konoshima, 58Linda Mohr, 18Luminita Suse, 26M. Kei, 7, 28, 45Magdalena Dale, 21, 22, 28Margaret Van Every, 16, 39

Maria Steyn, 44Marius Surleac, 25Martha Alcántar, 19Maurice De Clerck, 34Mel Goldberg, 17, 36, 38Mike Montreuil, 11Neil Schmitz, 52Patricia Prime, 49, 54Paul Mercken, 30, 33, 36, 65Peter Bernhardt, 38Rebecca Kowalsky, 36Rob Mohr, 18

erban Codrin, 24 Sanford Goldstein, 47Terry Ann Carter, 11Vasile Moldovan, 23Yvette Mollen, 15Zoa Barisas, 9, 12

Our �‘buttery�’ is actually an Atlas moth (Attacus atlas), the largest buttery/moth in the world. It comes from the tropical regions of Asia. Image from the 1921 Les insectes agricoles d�’époque.


Educational Use Notice

Keibooks of Perryville, Maryland, USA, publisher of the journal, Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka, is dedicated to tanka education in schools and colleges, at every level. It is our intention and our policy to facilitate the use of Atlas Poetica and related materials to the maximum extent feasible by educators at every level of school and university studies.

Educators, without individually seeking permission from the publisher, may use Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka�’s online digital editions and print editions, as primary or ancillary teaching resources. Copyright law �“Fair Use�” guidelines and doctrine should be interpreted very liberally with respect to Atlas Poetica precisely on the basis of our explicitly stated intention herein. This statement may be cited as an effective permission to use Atlas Poetica as a text or resource for studies. Proper attribution of any excerpt to Atlas Poetica is required. This statement applies equally to digital resources and print copies of the journal.

Individual copyrights of poets, authors, artists, etc., published in Atlas Poetica are their own property and are not meant to be compromised in any way by the journal�’s liberal policy on �“Fair Use.�” Any educator seeking clarication of our policy for a particular use may email the Editor of Atlas Poetica, at [email protected]. We welcome innovative uses of our resources for tanka education.

Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyohka about Cats. Edited by M. Kei.

ISBN: 978-0-557-53612-2Language: EnglishPages 136Perfect-bound Paperback7.5�” wide × 7.5�” tallPrice: $14.00 (US)

Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyoka About Cats is an anthology of short ve line poems about the feline companions in our lives�—funny, friendly, or tragic, these short poems are portraits of cats who share their lives with us.

"Cats are highly evolved, intriguing, mysterious, ruled-by-no-one beings who are also mischievous bringers of unwanted gifts. Cats off to M. Kei for bringing us a collection of tanka that tears at our heartstrings one moment and has us giggling the next." �—Alexis Rotella, author of Black Jack Judy and the Crisco Kids


atlas poetica · 5/7/2019 · atlas poetica a journal of poetry of place in contemporary tanka...

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