December sky

December sky

sifts through the charred forest—

over the phone

my brother and I

resurrect our ghosts 

—The Bamboo Hut, vol 1, no. 2

This one was written in December 2011, three months after the second, and most destructive, set of wildfires of the year swept through our region. Flames were practically at our "back door," and we had to evacuate (right after we'd relocated there) for eight days. In this same time frame, one or two additional fires apparently were deliberately set at the front of our little community.

On a very different note:

H A P P Y  N E W  Y E A R !

Off the freeway; my father

off the freeway
in an open field
a vast church
its cross shaped in a curve
as if to hold the world

—kernels, 2013

my father

who rarely ever hugs

halfway does ...

bells begin to ring

this Christmas season

—Frameless Sky, December 2014

Frameless Sky is a new, innovative DVD journal from the creative Christine L. Villa.

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

Wishing you peace and joy.

Photos of the "ancient chapels" mentioned in my tanka in the previous post:

Collaborative tanka pair: Sanctum

Happy Winter Solstice! Glad to share this "tanka pair" with all of you. And glad I was able to collaborate with poet extraordinaire Jenny Ward Angyal.

Sanctum

Janet Lynn Davis

& Jenny Ward Angyal

ancient chapels

carved into the rock face

of Mönchsberg ...

once the tourists have gone

I crawl inside myself

JLD (Salzburg, Austria)  

inscribed 
on the torii gate
spirit of light—
fountains flowing
in the falling snow

JWA (New York City, USA)

—Skylark, 2:1, Summer 2014

photos of Mönchsberg next post

Mission bells

mission bells

above the garden—

Joy, Sorrow

and at the center

Gloria

~ San Luis Obispo, California

—Atlas Poetica, #18, July 2014

Sprinkling glitter

sprinkling glitter
on my childhood artwork,
brushing away
the bits of sparkle
that just won't stick 

—Skylark 2:1, Summer 2014

Raking leaves

raking leaves
only to make room
for more …
how can something this light
burden us so?

—All the Shells, Tanka Society of America 2014 Members' Anthology, Fall 2014

Cherry trees in Budapest, Hungary,

November 2013

The Tanka Society of America (TSA) last month released a new anthology that features the work of its members. All 2014 members received a free copy of the book. Ordering information for the general public will follow.






P.S. We returned home last night from a vacation, finding a yard full of leaves and pine needles!