Summer 2016 Showcase

KANIHA

KANIHA is the writing/creating name of gemstone-seller Etsuko Yokoyama from Tokyo. Under that name, she creates words, images in simple primary colours, and calligraphy. Some of her words are parallel Japanese/English, executed in a broad, bold brushstroke. I am delighted to have her permission to reproduce some of her work here at the zen space – all of the images in this Showcase are by her, and there are plenty left over!

So – let us BEGIN!

Below you will find this quarter’s gems, most of which are from writers new to the zen space. I’m excited about that! If you see your work here and it isn’t quite how you typeset it, please bear with me – the formatting on this site is sometimes a little reluctant to do as it’s told.

There is a plethora of forms for you here today. I have made the point before that although haiku is where the zen space starts, it isn’t where it stops. There are other modes of writing based on Japanese ideas and philosophy – senryu, tanka, and so on – there is imagism, and there are simply short bursts of in-the-moment poetry. That’s what I am always looking for.

Thanks to KANIHA, I am considering a theme for the next Showcase – the mountain. The mountain as a thing in view, as an idea, as a metaphor, as a feeling, as something that first is there, then is not there, then is there. Let that sink in, let that be an idea-based marinade for you until next time…

Marie Marshall
editor
the zen space

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Truth

John Parsons

white cyclamen
her nightdress wafts
last light

settling in the wake
of their feet
a pair of swans

morning frost
born on a puff of mist
the robin’s note

secluded pond
a feral cat drinks in
silence

such frailty
wild crocuses    we lean
into prevailing winds

across ice flowers
first thing
the skitter of wrens

cliff top walk
a snail bleached white
fills with rain

 

 

Easter Low Tide

Easter low tide
broke back hulls
expose permanence

Anemones
internalise

we take time to muse
a ship’s finality
demised in flint

ribbed reefs
stuck deep

 

our circled tracks
ephemeral
await each wave’s
elimination

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Autumn Noelle Hall
tanka prose:
Equinox

As high summer sinks into gold, ragweed pollen closes my hiking trails.  The sun, setting earlier each night, pulls a bright part of me over the ridge; while my long shadow stretches toward snow and the hush which will cover these mountains.  Last on my To Do list: rest.

Hope

the empty season
following the cries of geese
as I stack cordwood
chipmunk fills in the chinks
with fallen birdseed

individual tanka:

like hummingbird
against hummingbird
so much energy
expended to hoard
so little to share

rogue hollyhocks
their red solidarity
marching
in wild defiance
across the corporate green

bite by poison bite
delphiniums disappear…
role modeling
a doe shows her fawns
how to swallow their blues

individual senryu/haiku:

Shady Grove
music deep in the holler
of me

Dusk
a covenant
of crows

__________

Graham Duff
into the lake
glides a swimmer
the jewel on her finger

sarsen stone –
between these hills
the ravens’ lookout

racing the moon
to the hospital

stepping in
stepping out
a kites shadow

__________

David J Kelly
next to nothing
in the bright summer sky
day moon

deep breaths
my mind filling
with emptiness

infinity pool
how long would it take
to swim a length

here and not here
standing on a bridge
as time flows past

overflowing
each new blossom flower
as it opens

one white roof tile
the rest of the heron
flies away

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David Bingham
early morning sun –
the hooked fish flips
and glistens

::
rock pool –
a young girl watches her dog
search for crabs

 

rising tide –
boats along the creek
lift from the mud

 

lifting a wing,
an egret steadies itself
in the breaking waves

 

by the saint’s cave –
prayers written on
grey pebbles

 

clear night sky –
lights from both the living
and the dead

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Devin Harrison
calling to a flower
silence in its answer
wisteria moon

lantern light
this old man carrying on
into darkness

 

precious protection
from the hot dry sun
Buddha parasols

stripping down
to a unit of one
infinite cardinals

shaping
the boundaries of self
harsh autumn winds

inner voice
embracing its higher self
particle decay

 

lust in the heart
floats into my dreams
visual dust

__________

untitled

Brett Brady

white owls
waning into amber–
red moon

 

lightning–
a fly’s wing flutters
off the web

 

soft as a whisper
lost in the wind-tossed leaves
the scent of winter

 

park bench…
her hand resting on his
white cane

 

at the altar
a cherry petal falls
from her sole

 

pond frost…
waterfowl slipping thru
withered reeds

 

foggy autumn lake…
an occasional ripple
to break the silence

 

dawn on the summit–
the song of a blue heron
drifts across the mist

__________

Simon Hanson
either side
of the mirror
candlelight and darkness

glints of crimson
in a garnet she wears
black lipstick

nightfall settles
among the pines
gathering crows

silent
in droplets of dew
silver moon

__________

Go for it

Brigitte Pellat
Opal where
the ocean lost its way
dreams are born

 

Mistral in rage –
around the magnolia
a mauve swirl

 

Sprinkled with snow
does the high palm tree
dream of elsewhere?
All around a white bear
snowflakes are fluttering

__________

Canne
zero correlation, but –
lazy by the river, minus care
bicycle by, silent

eyes for Fuji
snapping lesser bulks –

gulls inactive, feet wet –
PM. Tsukiji

bicycle by, silent
with wall, bicycle
bamboo shooting, orange bands –

metallic sound of joining wood
glazed ramen, working café
necessary tack

sidewalk, noodles corrugate
dwarfed land and –
vertical circuits

__________

David Oates
late summer
the place where a cat, now gone
scratched the door

sleeping toddler
suddenly
smiles

pitch dark
in the bushes ahead
something rustles

she’s out on a date
her father listens
to tree frogs

colorblind friend
“I know it’s summer–
the trees are thicker.”

so irritating, this little boy
when he’s just like me

approaching the river
the sound of water
slowly changing

__________

KANIHA

__________

News

We have received a copy of diaries with rust on locks by Francis Attard. Published by Stone Curlew Publishing, it is a book of 350 pages, full of prose, poetry, words, musings, essays, haiku, and so on. Whenever I open it I don’t know whether to start from the beginning, pick a section and read that, or just dip into it. That, to me, is a very positive thing…

Australia, a land that stretches from city to wilderness and back again, now has its own haiku society and web site. Begin your journey into OZ here!

Muse Pie Press announces the publication of Not Asking what if by Adele Kenny. Adele is the recipient of various honours and awards, and is the author of 23 books (poetry and nonfiction). Her poems, reviews, and articles have been published worldwide, and her poems have appeared in books and anthologies published by Crown, Tuttle, Shambhala, and McGraw-Hill. She served as associate editor of The Antiquer: Fine Art & Antiques from 2000-2005 and has been poetry editor of Tiferet Journal since 2006.

Copies of Not Asking what if can be purchased from Muse Pie Press.

Muse Pie Press also publishes Shot Glass Journal, as readers of the zen space well know. Issue #19 is now published, and is available from the Muse Pie web site. Within this issue readers will find free verse and form poetry from young and emerging poets as well as award-winning poets from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Korea, Kuwait, Nigeria, New Zealand, the Philippines, the UK and USA.

Last but not least, don’t forget that the summer edition of Haibun Today is currently on line, featuring essays by Steven Carter, Glenn G. Coats and Bruce Ross as well as book reviews by Michael McClintock and Ray Rasmussen. You can find it here.

When visiting or communicating with any of the above, don’t forget to mention that you heard about them here at the zen space. Thank you.

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Do you know of anyone who writes short, in-the-moment poetry? If so, please alert them to the presence of the zen space.

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The next showcase at the zen space will be Autumn 2016, which will be released, subject to karma, on 1st October 2016.

Please note that the copyright of all written work and images used in this Showcase and elsewhere in the zen space is held by the creating author/artist, even when not explicitly stated, and may not be used elsewhere without permission.