Hot News: 66 Tanka Selected for One Man's Maple Moon, Volume IV

My Dear Friends:

I'm pleased to announce the following tanka selected for One Man's Maple Moon: 66 Selected English-Chinese Bilingual Tanka, Volume Four. The anthology is scheduled to be published in mid December. Each poet whose tanka is included in the anthology will receive a copy of  its e-book edition.

Please post to all appropriate venues. Your time and help would be greatly appreciated. And look forward to reading your tanka (see 2018 tanka anthology submission guidelines)

Happy Reading!

Chen-ou

Selected Tanka

what to do
with these old pillows …
each one
filled with the feathers
of a thousand dreams

Commended, 2015 Mandy’s Pages Tanka Contest

Susan Constable

a siren
comes and goes …
somewhere
a mother hugs her newborn,
a man outlives his son

Eucalypt, 19, 2015

Susan Constable
 
shiny pens and a stapler --
no one tells
the new hire
his desk is where
the suicide sat

Gusts, 17, Spring/Summer 2013

Michael Dylan Welch

as if on cue
insect song turns
adagio,
geese resume
their autumn path

NeverEnding Story, March 30, 2017

Brian Zimmer

no wind tonight
a puddle of silver
in the bay’s darkness,
a full moon
off the port bow

Heron Sea,Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, 2007

M. Kei

river gums
stranded by drought
the ghosts
of a life
that could have been

Gusts, 24, Fall/Winter 2016

Keitha Keyes

every time I see
a newly-built house
slight sadness
emerges
from nowhere

A Single Flower: 100 Bilingual Tanka 2003-2014

Kiyoko Ogawa 

in the blizzard's wake
I follow your funeral procession
to the cemetery
the whole point of your small life
lost in a flurry of snow

Certificate of Merit, 6th International Tanka Festival Competition

Susan Mary Wade
 
I can't stay here
... any more
like the sleeves
of an old sweater
your life unraveling

Ribbons, 12:1, Winter 2016

Susan Weaver
 
just enough water
for one cup of tea
she murmurs
to the empty chair
about a recurring dream

NeverEnding Story, September 26, 2017

Rajani Radhakrishnan
 
nothing works
not even a smile
tonight
three women walk
thru my cigar smoke

Biding Time: Selected Poems 2001-2013

H. Gene Murtha
 
mum smiling
in that old photo
with dad --
the perfect half
of a hazy moon

Blithe Spirit, 26:2, 2016

Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy
 
the strut
of a stag in rut --
your texts
dripping with love
for someone else

Skylark, Oct, 2015

Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy

icy wind
nicks to the bone:
inside the midnight deli
inside her loose wool coat
the naked hooker

Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life, 2009

Marian Olson
 
Auburn curls
around her floppy straw hat
everything about her
fresh as the beets she gathers
for borscht tonight

Honorable Mention, 2016 Stanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

Marian Olson

the jerk
of the up-pull
on the yoyo
again and again
you change your mind
    
Ripples in the Sand: 2016 TSA Members’ Anthology

Marianne Paul

one block away
from E-business conference
a man
with a shopping cart
talking to the sky

Honorable Mention, 2010 TSA International Tanka Contest

Fay Aoyagi

a supernova
the shared obsession
of young love . . .
wrinkled hands entwined
we stroll beneath the stars

red lights,  January 2015

Joyce S. Greene
 
end of summer
air hangs heavy over
a decaying seal
I too may disappear
under a burden of sighs

Haiku Heute, September 2006

Jane Reichhold

clouds of smoke
from a too-hot skillet --
my thoughts
swirl with the uncertainty
of what's to come

A Hundred Gourds, 4:3, June 2015

Janet Lynn Davis

my small voice
struggles its way
onto the page
hard to hear it when each moment
trawls with it past memories

Bent Arm for a Pillow, 2016

Naomi Beth Wakan

my pile of journals
crammed with thoughts
to Jesus …
a snow-laden branch
about to crack

Red Lights, 12:1, January 2016

Mary Davila

my black cat
stretched out full length
on the concrete --
patio flowers wilting
in the morning sunshine

NeverEnding Story, July 28, 2017

Mary Gunn

wettest winter
year of mother’s death
I walk in the rain
feel the cold sting
of words left unsaid

Atlas Poetica, 13, Autumn 2012

Sonam Chhoki

even now
when I light butter lamps
at dawn
I hear father’s murmur ...
prayer flags in the wind

Skylark, 3:2, Winter 2015

Sonam Chhoki

in the garden
after the loss
of her
not able or willing
to cut flowers

NeverEnding Story, May 17, 2017

Robert Henry Poulin

a gust of wind
and all the leaves but one
flutter to the ground --
and then and then and
then until the end

Ribbons, 9:3, Winter 2014

Bob Lucky

after shower
drops on the lawn shining
in the sun --
in the beginning,
words used to be diamonds

GUSTS, 23, spring/summer 2016

Aya Yuhki

the drone
of a city going home
fills the hour
you move
from coma to death

Gusts, 9, Spring/Summer 2009

LeRoy Gorman

the hills catch fire
tourists wear sunglasses
and place their shoes
in the footprints
of the dead

Modern English Tanka, 3:3, Fall 2009

Kristyn Blessing

thinking about
everything I lost
and gained
a song from my childhood
in a foreign tongue

A Hundred Gourds, 4:2, March 2015

Maria Tomczak

all day
and into the night
the drip of rain
ticking off the hours
and leaving no memory

NeverEnding Story, June 23, 2017

Adelaide B. Shaw

in the stillness
of the pond
the dark depths
beyond myself
a starry sky

The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku, 2013

Simon Hanson

sleepless night
I turn my nightgown
inside out
to join the scarred moon
in my dream of passion

A Thousand Fireflies, 2012

Luminita Suse

from the dunes
watching red kites
duel
we rehash
the same affairs

Ripples in the Sand: TSA Members Anthology, 2016

Marilyn Humbert

snow on snow ...  
the silent wall between us
stretching
until it singszzzz
almost about to snap

Bamboo Hut, 2016

Marilyn Fleming

the universe
e x p a n d i n g
day by day
my messages take
longer and longer to reach you

NeverEnding Story, July 31, 2017

Frank Dietrich

green tea
in old porcelain cups --
a bygone era
when life was a poem
waiting to be written

Shore Lights, 2017

Magdalena Dale

this time, she tells me,
she’s telling the truth --
between us
I watch the struggles of a wasp
drowning in peach juice

The Tanka Journal, 26, 2005

Larry Kimmel

it wasn't always so
the words and silences
that came between us
now I bring you irises
cut this morning in the rain

First Place, TSA Contest, 2010

James Chessing

rushrush
out the door and off you go
a quick hug
before the slow embrace
of silence and the night

Third Place, 2016 Haiku Poets of Northern California International Competiton

Lesley Anne Swanson

reading you
that fable
at bedtime
my wings
in shadow

still 3: two, 1998

ai li

training corps
marking time with style
blue mink stockings
bomber jacket, skirt
we made love not war

The Bamboo Hut, Autumn 2016

Martha Magenta

an egret
then a gull
then a butterfly
these are the wings
of the river

Time Haiku, 44, 2016

A A Marcoff

I have come
to a place
of no memory --
white butterflies,
pure breeze, light

Presence, 55, 2016

A A Marcoff

“for flowers”
Anonymous sent money
to the nursing home
she folded the envelope
into iris origami

Gusts, 21, Spring/Summer 2015

Neal Whitman

sipping wine
with an old friend
we laugh
about nothing
something, everything

GUSTS, 21, spring/summer 2015

Joanne Morcom

eternal blue
between the mountains
at first light
a deer sips
the earth's sky

Chrysanthemum, 19, April 2016

Steliana Cristina Voicu

first calligraphy
the feel of it
on rice paper
writing a love letter
to my deceased mother

A Solitary Woman, 2013

Pamela A. Babusci

the professor drones
on and on about novels
of doomed love
I ask myself
what other kind is there

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Vol. 4, 2013

Sylvia Forges-Ryan

bird etchings
in the pale dawn skies
of winter
weeks and weeks
until your probable return

All You Need Is Love, 2015

Amelia Fielden

the silence
after magpies sing ...
enough to know
you cradled the phone
the way I did when we hung up

Distinctive Scribbling Award, Eucalypt,  20

Kathy Kituai

a robin
with spring air
lands here
I’ll fly to Wonderland
to see my other self

Skylark, 3:1, Summer 2015

Kozue Uzawa

back in my hometown
for the first time in years
I get lost ...
two roads divide,
but the woods are still green

NeverEnding Story, October 19, 2017

Jackson Smith

in my homeland
a friend is amused
by my accent
a strange place to be
neither here, nor there

Eucalypt, 20, 2016

Samantha Sirimanne Hyde

liquid black
those pupils
of a bus kid
staring, staring
on his mother’s lap

This Short Life : Minimalist Tanka, 2014

Sanford Goldstein

a dark side
to the memorial
fading light
renders all
soldiers unknown

Skylark, 4:1, summer 2016

Tim Gardiner

dismissing my fears
I step into the darkness
alone
there are shadows
in the sunshine too

One Hundred Gourds, 2:2, March 2013

Sheila Bello

a small death
the cracked shell
of a snail
now this delay
at the train station

The Strand Book Of International Poets, 2010

Alan Summers

I race against
my former self
Ben-Hur unbound in Rome
as our chariots spark
and separate again

Gusts, 24, Fall/Winter, 2016

Barry George

frazil ice
on a mountain lake
at breakup
the tinkling chimes
signal your departure

A Hundred Gourds, 4:2, March 2015

Debbie Strange

I am alone
with the sound of rapids
constantly churning
tonight the river
will not sleep

Night Sky, 2000

Thelma Mariano

the rains came
and from that day on
continued
throughout a lifetime
of floods and bridges

Excellent Tanka, 7th International Tanka Festival Competition

an’ya

dear Mom, long dead --
will the first sound I hear
after my final spasm
be her scolding
about clean shorts?

Ribbons, 2013

David Bachelor

a homeless man
who was playing a flute
on the street corner
fell suddenly in the rain --
a donor card in his pocket

A Hundred Gourds, 5:2, March 2016

Lavana Kray

eternal blue
between the mountains
at first light
a deer sips
the earth's sky

Chrysanthemum, 19, April 2016

Steliana Cristina Voicu