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!

Wild pansies

wild pansies
infiltrate
her perfect garden—
lanky, jagged-leaved,
grins on their faces

—A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Here in southeast Texas, pansies may survive the winter, but cottontail rabbits seem to love the taste of the blooms. 

In a shoe box

in a shoe box

my Shirley Temple doll

made of china ...

the teardrop crack

under one of her eyes

—Ribbons "Tanka Cafe" (theme: heirlooms and relics), Spring/Summer 2014

An aunt of mine was given this doll decades ago. I read via Googling that she (the doll, not my aunt!) was probably made in the year 1934. Fragile Shirley eventually ended up in my hands when I was still a child. Too bad my mother threw the original box away.

Here she is, except mine isn't in quite as good shape. And I learned something: she isn't actually made of china (oops) but, instead, "composition," a painted sawdust/wood blend.

Milestone birthday

milestone birthday—

in a Thinker pose  

on the couch  

he whiles away the time  

with classical music

—The Bamboo Hut, Vol. 1, No. 2, January 2014

Oops: I meant to post this last month, when it was "his" birthday (not that my readers would know that, of course!).