One sultry day

one sultry day
sinks into the next ...
a mud dauber
intent on mating
with its reflection

—A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Miles of rivers

miles of rivers
and mountains between us—
in no time
word of his cancer
spreads across the country

—American Tanka, issue 25, June 2015

We've heard that it's returned.

The future

the future

soon becomes the past—

who knows

how many years

Big Brother's been watching

—Ribbons, Tanka Café ("novels" theme), spring/summer 2015, vol. 11, no. 2

The novel I'm referencing is of course Orwell's 1984.

Shadows

shadows
at the top of the stairs—
step by step
I teach myself
to shed this sadness

—Ribbons, Tanka Café ("shadows" theme), winter 2015, vol. 11, no. 1

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

Announcement: Special Event Tanka Prose Contest (October)

The Tanka Society of America is pleased to announce a tanka prose contest that will take place this fall. This fifteenth-anniversary special event is open to members and nonmembers alike. There is no entry fee, and the first-place winner will receive a 2016 TSA membership. Please see the submission guidelines at the TSA website for details. The guidelines also are included in the spring/summer issue of Ribbons, the TSA journal.

Gabcikovo lock

Gabcikovo lock
filling and emptying—
how many 
more feet must we fall
before the doors open?

—Atlas Poetica, 20, January 2015

Nov. 2013, on Danube Canal
between Slovakia and Hungary

Sea legs

sea legs

on a land body—

the waves

rock-rocking me to sleep

in this vessel's womb

—Eucalypt, 18, summer 2015

Leaving Boston, May 2014