Once more, tanka

The following tanka of mine were published in red lights, a semi-annual tanka journal that began publication in January 2005. Titled after Shakko, the 1913 seminal work of tanka sequences by M. Saito, red lights publishes English-language tanka, tan-renga, and tanka sequences. Originally edited by Pamela Miller Ness, NY, under whose auspices my works were published (and paid for), the present editor is Marilyn Hazelton. If interested, red lights has a Facebook page.

January 2006:

single
for eighteen years--
yet for the past two nights
I've dreamed about
each husband
~~~~

June 2006

deathly hot
in the rooms where you spend
your last summer
...you withhold permission
   to turn on the ACs
~~~~
out of the classroom
and into the barn
for a whiff
of the manure-scented life
ahead of them
~~~~

January 2007

between
the field
and the roadway
a tiny pond
with no purpose
~~~~

June 2007

redbud
and pear blossoms
all of a sudden
   and just as quickly
   our love has lost its bloom
~~~~

January 2008

seeing you again
at the conference~
after a hug
my name tag
on your shirt
~~~~

June 2008

snagged on the bare branch
a red-tipped
under-feather
of a house finch
   its lightness
~~~~
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