Collaborative tanka sequence ("tanka pair")

I'm pleased to post this tanka pair, a collaboration with the talented Jo McInerney:

Mementos 

Janet Lynn Davis, USA ("what to keep")
& Jo McInerney, Australia ("we repair")

what to keep, 
what to throw away ...
tiny rhinestones 
missing from the wings 
of her butterfly brooch 

we repair 
her diamante bow 
before pinning it 
to her burial shift ...
the hope of resurrection 

—Skylark, 4:1, Summer 2016

From Jo:
The woman for whom this tanka was written was Mum's oldest sister and outlived her by 27 years. She was my daughter's surrogate grandmother and my second mother. When she died I felt as though I had been orphaned again. 

From Janet:
This is my first Mother's Day without the earthly presence of my mother, Joan (pronounced JoAnn), who passed away on April 20 after a lengthy, debilitating illness. The world feels a little silent now. (I did, of course, keep the butterfly pin.)

Joan 

Guest Poet: an eggplant (plus travel photos)

An eggplant isn't the guest poet, but Jenny Ward Angyal is. I consider Jenny to be one of the most gifted and appealing writers of English-language tanka today. Her keen, unique perception and special bond with nature flavor her poems. I have many favorites. Here's but one from her ever-growing collection. It's an ekphrastic tanka (inspired by a piece of art; see her links below): 

an eggplant

squats on the counter

fecund and faceless

as the Venus of Willendorf –

my knife in midair

—Atlas Poetica Special Feature: Ekphrastic Tanka, Nov. 2012
Who is the Venus of Willendorf ?

I was excited to learn we'd be passing by the wee town of Willendorf on our river cruise this past November. The program director even announced the town on the loudspeaker—and mentioned the ancient little Venus figurine that made it famous. We managed to shoot a photo or two:

A scene in Willendorf, Austria

I also was excited when I noticed this shop window in tiny, medieval Durnstein, a short ways down the Danube (wish I had one of those Venus of Durnstein figurines!):

Notice how the colors coordinate with the colors
used in local architecture?

Many thanks, Jenny. Please peruse her blog, The Grass Minstrel, sometime. Also be sure to check out the above two links associated with her Venus tanka. 

Guest Poet: message in a bottle?

Fellow poet-blogger Wendy Bourke has a clear, distinct voice, her work ranging from light and humorous to poignant and wise—all of it relatable and with vivid details. Thought you might enjoy reading a poem she posted recently at Words and Words and Whatnot, one of her three blogs:

message in a bottle?

there’s a shelf 

near my tub,

piled with baffling mixtures 

of potions and oils,

extracts and elixirs –

to renew  

and restore, 

reinvent and refine: 

olive butter my body 

and  . . . 

mint julep my mind.

there are masks for my eyes  

and cheeks . . . 
chin, neck and nose . . .

and a bottle that offers me: 

strawberry toes.

little gifts, through the years,  

from my dear ones to me  –

selected, and given with thought, lovingly.

a shiny assortment of jars, tubes and bling – 

all, to boost and diminish, 

define, hide and cling.

a magnificent, fine, alchemistic array.

  

though, I wonder:  

what is it, they’re trying to say.

“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”  - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Essays, Volume III:  de Feneficiis.

—copyright Wendy Bourke, 2013; reposted here with permission from author