Under the Bashō 2024
Linked Forms, Sequences and Contrapuntal Poetry
Editor: Clayton Beach
- Details
- Written by: Cynthia Anderson
deep time
whitecaps crossing
the desert floor—
snowmelt river
embracing the solace
dry wash
a bobbing rock wren
follows us
of boulders
as if a wall
could hold it back
blowing sand
- Details
- Written by: Christina Chin & Paul Callus
rising —
Sirius in the evening sky
the sun slowly sinks
a child hangs on
to its mother’s skirt
Christina Chin (Malaysia) / Paul Callus (Malta)
captured
in a celestial sphere
infinity
Serpens sheds stars
in charmer's mirror
Paul Callus (Malta) / Christina Chin (Malaysia)
- Details
- Written by: Janet Ruth
just half a moon
pale reflections
from a waxing season
this silver cup
and one shooting star
a ruined planet
datura pod burst open
on the sand
balance of night and day
now earth will tilt
back toward the sun
this burden of light
- Details
- Written by: Janet Ruth
beneath
bare cottonwood trees
my solitary walk
rush of wind
through black wings
a guttural croak
trying to imitate her voice
she sidles
along the branch
we tilt our heads
shivering
feathers to looseness
her dark throat
the same light
gleams in our eyes
raven knocks back
- Details
- Written by: Jim Chessing and Ryland Shengzhi Li
the wind kicks up
early this morning
as if hastening
to complete some solemn task
sneakers on a wire
flickers
hammering away
the hillside
awash with cloudlight
this world of appearances
her persimmon stick
polished to a high luster
fixed with a leather grip—
its tap-tap-tapping,
the last sound before sleep
a leaf
is no less than
the journeywork of the stars . . .
into the luminous river
her lantern goes
her voice
in the whitewater
a twilight mosquito
buzzes in and out
of what might have been
folding the sheets
in the winter dusk
pleat
upon pleat
this well-worn life
- Details
- Written by: Ryland Shengshi Li and Jim Chessing
river of stars
bridging ocean
and heavens
his ten thousand journeys
in this great blue world
once he dreamed
of being an astronaut
the first to Mars . . .
one turn led to another
and now he just dreams
a trail
of cabbage whites
across the meadow
cut grasses
will sprout again
quiet now
as the swing soars
higher and higher
he plots the moment
to jump
one by one
a thousand colors
are set free
into the vesper wind
a mockingbird sings
through all the seasons
it always comes to this:
the persimmon
blanketing the yard
with the last of its leaves
(The title comes from the poem of the same name by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which was first published in 1912.)
- Details
- Written by: Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji
longing
is always lonely sky...
under
the jacaranda
fireworks finale
far away and yet…
the meteor shower
lights up the sky
Mariko Kitakubo
Deborah P Kolodji
(2024.7.1)
Mariko writes:
This is the one of our last Tan-Ku set published in Colorado Boulevard.net.
I subconsciously wrote something that predicted her death, and she responded kindly to it.
I will continue to live with her spirit, supported by our eternal bond.
- Details
- Written by: Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji
abandoned
at the end
of the world
you are forgotten
sunshine seeds
lashes flutter
as I dream
golden poppies
quiet
colors of dawn
on the packet
the disabled artist
opens my eyes
morning light
I reach for a pair
of gardening gloves
my rebirth
in the early summer
breeze…
Invisible tiny lives
in a soft lump of soil
planted
in the rich earth
I long for your blooms
Mariko Kitakubo
Deborah P Kolodji
- Details
- Written by: Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji
without talk
just smiles for each other
two beach chairs
at sunset
we need nothing
lull tide
two gulls skim
the horizon
under
the cloud-shaped
angel,
standing on the dune
I believe in miracles
the music of the sea
calms my weary spirit
footprints in the sand
what
am I searching for...
following
the tracks
seabirds leave
land’s end
our eyes on the lighthouse
against the clouds
Mariko Kitakubo
Deborah P Kolodji
- Details
- Written by: Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji
what did he
stammer
that night
super blue moon
over the Balkans
summer evening
the clarity
of my hearing aid
sometimes
better not to know
everything...
the lilies of the field
the birds of the air
butterflies flitter
flower to flower
dreams
the lost
continent,
Greater Adria
transparent wings
of giant dragonflies
plucking petals
from a daisy
my own evolution
Mariko Kitakubo
Deborah P Kolodji
- Details
- Written by: Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji
changing
trains to return
home ...
long railway
through grasslands
midnight silence
the sound of a far off
air whistle
I can't remember
the name of the bridge...
still playing
hide and seek
with mom's ghost
bare hills
my mother’s stories
about the troop train
the door
opens and closes
so many faces...
departure bell
for my life ,again
Cabernet Sauvignon
I sit in the dining car
alone
Mariko Kitakubo
Deborah P Kolodji
- Details
- Written by: Rodney Williams
homesick in exile
taken south under sail
a song thrush lilts
through fluting rolling trills...
across the lane Irish reels
a black cat’s hiss
in this overgrown yard –
blooms purple
berries glossy and dark
nightshade looking deadly
among Jersey cows
outside a deer farm’s tall fence
one Sambar doe...
hands tremble sharing papers
with migration officials
rufous fox
not curbed by hen-house wire
or baying hounds
its coat too red this morning
cunning no match for a car
eucalypts clear-felled
for potatoes and sheep –
kangaroos long gone
from this meadow at dusk
where first harvesters dug yams
Rodney Williams
- Details
- Written by: Chen-ou Liu
my love grasps the thread
of her breath from the edge
of orgasm
she spins, spinning it
into a passion story
love after love
we exhaust each other –
in her heart
swirls something dark
in a space I cannot see
Chen-ou Liu
- Details
- Written by: Praniti Gulyani
war drama…
a curtain of fingers
over my baby’s eyes
plastic gun…
even the ants
stop and smirk
first uniform…
his shirt wrinkled
like my forehead
gunshot…
how closely connected
this bougainvillea
war memorial…
choosing the flowers
that seem to cry
cleaning his gun…
now I converse
with fallen dust
soldier’s boots…
the edges of his soles
criss-crossed with life
uniform pockets…
by a crumpled cigarette
bits of conversation
closing tombstone…
a curtain of fingers
over my eyes
Praniti Gulyani
- Details
- Written by: Lakshman Bulusu & Amoolya Kamalnath
lyre notes without pause -
the summer breeze carries
me on the ocean
the whipped cream
topping on my cold coffee
slushy fruit punch
icing down my throat
as I swallow it
refreshed children
queue for the roller-coaster
at the water park
sunrise to sunset
sfumato of my daydreams
still climbing
the rainbow to reach
the perfect home
Lakshman Bulusu
Amoolya Kamalnath
- Details
- Written by: Charles Trumbull & Rafał Zabratyński
truckers’ cafe
a night waitress wipes the crumbs
from the counter
the red dragon tattoo guy's
one more last scotch on the rocks
final call—
rousing the groggy barfly
in the corner booth
24/7 sign
wee hours between night owls
and early birds
the streetwalker’s long shadow—
a merchant sweeps in the dawn
stray cat's yawn
a waste picker drinks up
the unfinished beer
Charles Trumbull
Rafał Zabratyński
- Details
- Written by: Xenia Tran
can I slow down
what time we’re given
to greet mouse-tail moss
the speckled wood who warms
her wings after the rain
a shaft of light
through long shadows
you trace a line
where ghosts of me
still hug the elder tree
mist curtains
one side of the shed
free from light
redshank sleeps whose gold
only the dead can see
an inner sun rises
where cherry blossom blooms
before the moon gate
roots are lined
with tamarisk moss
we weep
to be reminded
of such beauty
and sing of butterflies
no longer here
- Details
- Written by: Pamela Garry
glossy buttercups
under their chins
first base
knockout rose
on the brink of blooming
armed with thorns
a bissel vow
chrysanthemum in her hair
full of promise
first-time grandparents
playing peekaboo
crocuses in snow
green shoots
betwixt brittle twigs
passing the torch
wildflowers
about the grassy knoll
swaying with the wind
- Details
- Written by: Gwen Bitti and Marilyn Humbert
wrapped in
a merino shawl
I watch
forked lightning sprint
across a smudged sky
hiding
lies behind smiles
the games
he plays quick-stepping
through each day
uncovering
truth in each charade
the scent
of charred embers
imbued with sorrow
sunshine slants
between window slats
the changing
patterns through each day…
time to consider choices
the river
alters old channels…
in relentless ebb and flow
embraces
new pathways
a flood
after weeks of rain
brings regeneration…
I lock the front door
and move interstate
Gwen Bitti and Marilyn Humbert