Winter 2020 Showcase

My editorial policy includes accepting haiku in a language in which the writer isn’t fluent (their fluency isn’t the point), and haiku that include the words “honey tornado bloom.” Just in case you were wondering. I’m a kind of anti-Yoda, I don’t dig his kind of zen y’know. I’m more of the “There is no do or not do, only try… just not too hard” school. I’ll accept poems from somewhere that has a Saxon church, I’ll accept poems about 1. the wind, 2. numbers, and 3. a young woman in a dress the colour of sunrise – but apparently not when I specifically suggest that I want them. And I had a whole lot of Ukiyo e prints showing the wind ready for you. Tell you what, I’ll run with them anyway, and maybe that’ll inspire you to think of something totally unconnected.

I love unconnectedness.

And it’s 2020. I hope last year’s water won’t poison this year’s well. Have a good one.

Marie Marshall

editor

the zen space

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Richard Vallance

winter / hiver

.

a burden
on the rack —
frozen corpse

fardeau
sur le chevalet —
cadavre gelé

.

bleary-eyed
with frosty nights
the moon

les yeux troublés
par les nuits givrées
la lune

.

chasing
the polar blues —
wolfing vodka down

à l’échappe
des blues polaires —
vodka englouti

.

frozen stiff
by a snowstorm
and dementia

gelé à mort
par la tempête de neige
et la démence

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John Hawkhead

coming to the end
light flurries of snow
drift into the lake

.

winter’s edge
the last rays of daylight
caught in ice crystals

.

moonlit dawn
silver lines of dew webs
seedpod to seedpod

.

season’s end
through a path of drifting leaves
the badger’s path home

.

dawn fishing
the ebb of starlight
in a bucket

.

buddhist prayer flags
learning spirituality
from butterflies

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Paul Erdelyi

evening haiku
helps me very good to sleep
no nightmare at all

.

sitting on the beach
just look, don’t do anything
eternal branding

.

are you free to see
what you see in this moment
the secrets of life

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Susan M. Assahde

hazard mustard toll
fawn cider
swift pelican clout

.

tentacle coast flip
prune hamper
carrot otter scurry

.

frost clown drizzle
mice skate
honey tornado bloom

.

spinach flee apple
kangaroo dry
quill musk costume

.

danger rake antelope
mushroom loft
cinder brook cleave

.

harmony nobble font
token flame
crocodile spade mess

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Richard Newman

Four Majuro Tanka

.

Ephemeral Tanka

Here on the island,
time is faster, more cruel.
Ceilings rot. Knives rust.
My belt hangs green, sheathed with mold.
Sure, I’m next. Then this tanka.

.

Upon my 52nd Birthday

Old poetry book
for kindling, the campfire approves.
We plan our next chapter,
our next whirl around the sun.
Me: new tea in an old cup.

.

A Month Before Leaving Majuro

Our days here dwindling,
we speed into the lagoon.
Our boat’s shadow skims
the sea floor with eagle rays.
So have I moved through these days.

.

Upon Leaving Majuro

I tossed my last key,
free to enter anywhere—
no house, car, office.
Home is where loved ones lie dead.
Home is the world before us.

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Ray Caligiuri

__________

Angie Werren

(we are here) barely enough (we are here) to notice (we are here) this dust speck

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Roy Guzmán

.

Second Date

Went to the movies
Brought ackee, fugu and bags
Someone in the dark

.

Iranian Women

Young women in dust
Wearing red battleground veils
A change of seasons

.

At the Border

In steady motion
The man in his poncho steps
On familiar soil

.

52nd Street Club

Gardenias on curls
She beguiles the microphone
“I love my white man”

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Johannes S H Bjerg

(items from 2012)

old tenement house
an argument stops at
door’s (or gun’s) sound

.

the first day
(of all)
I walk out under the parasols
of predestination

.

whaddya mean?
did it happen or not?
frogsfallingoutofthesky

.

if my tongue …
I hesitate to kiss her
not knowing

.

edo-cation?
I’m taught to stand still
among leaping frogs

.

old barrel
(no man, too lame!)
I drop a dead crow into
my rotting reflection

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News &c

When contacting any of the publishers/journals/writers mentioned below, please mention that your attention was drawn to them by the zen space. Thank you.

Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi

Writer Gary Shteyngart says “Doshi brings all her skills as one of the world’s best poets to this lovely, beguiling, brilliant novel.” Small Days and Nights by award-winning poet Tishani Doshi, named an Irish Times Book of the Year 2019, is a captivating and original story of two sisters caught in a moment of transformation, set against the vivid backdrop of modern India. It’s a story of the ties that bind, the secrets we bury, and the sacrifices we make to forge lives that have meaning.

Escaping her failing marriage, Grace Marisola has returned to Pondicherry from the United States to cremate her mother. Once there, she receives an inheritance she could not have expected—a property on the beaches of Madras—and discovers a sister she never knew she had: Lucia, who was born with Down Syndrome and has spent her life in a residential facility.

Grace sets up a new and precarious life with Lucia; the housekeeper, Mallika; drily witty Auntie Kavitha; and an ever-multiplying litter of puppies. But Grace’s attempts to leave her old self behind and create a new family prove first a struggle, then a strain, as she discovers the chaos, tenderness, furry and bewilderment of life with Lucia.

Contemporary Haibun Online

The January 2020 issue (15:4) is now online here.

The editorial team of Bob Lucky and Ray Rasmussen is about to change. Rich Youmans is their new Editor-in-Chief. Co-editing the haibun section with Rich will be Terri French. Tish Davis will edit a separate Tanka Prose section. And Patricia Prime will be handling their articles section.

a home for the wind – edition 3:8 of the cherita

This edition of a home for the wind showcases 90 fine cherita and cherita terbalik from writers and poets who hail from UK, USA, Singapore, New Zealand, Lithuania, Canada, India, Australia, Pakistan and Germany. You can find it here.

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The next Showcase at the zen space will be Spring 2020 which will be released, subject to karma, on 1st April 2020.

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.

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[Any advertisements etc. below this line, or inserted elsewhere in the zen space, are an unfortunate feature of the hosting platform, and are not the responsibility of the editor of the zen space. They should not be considered to have been endorsed by the zen space or by the editor personally.]