Hello, I must be going…

You know, it occurred to me the other day that I have been editing the zen space since 2011. I actually founded it. I had never done anything like this in my life before. Well, that’s not entirely true, as I had been an assistant editor on a couple of magazines, but never before run something single-handed.

How was it for you?

It has come into my mind that I ought to plan a couple of things over the coming year. One is to step down as editor. I will need to find someone else to take over, or lay the whole thing down. Those are the choices. The other is to put together an anthology of poems from this site, and get it published. I think if I can do that, then I can leave with my head held high.

So, I haven’t quite gone yet. But it’ll happen. Hence my Groucho Marx quote, “Hello, I must be going.”

Meanwhile thank you for all the new haiku and in-the-moment poetry that is still coming in. May I renew my plea for original artwork, however? It is nice to look for public domain Ukiyo-e prints and suchlike, but it always pleases me when something original comes my way. It seems a long time, for example, since I have heard from our “resident” artist Marie Taylor. Perhaps that’s my fault for not getting in touch with her. I shall remedy that. But who else is out there, I should like to know, who is prepared to let me have something for a Showcase?

As I said, I haven’t gone yet, and a departure must be carefully planned. The joys of having been somewhere always add to the poignancy of the parting. I am almost looking forward to saying Sayonara which, I am told, actually means “Since it must be so…”

Marie Marshall
still editor for now
the zen space

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… aaaand as usual, any adverts spoiling the mood are entirely the fault of the platform.

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Apologies

The Winter 2023 Showcase is delayed, due to various circumstances beyond my control. I will try to get it published as soon as I am able to. Please stay tuned.

MM
editor

The Autumn 2022 Showcase is now published!

Utagawa Hiroshige – Red fish

You know, this is such a simple journal, and yet the technical headaches of putting together a Showcase can quickly develop into a migraine. Our new Autumn Showcase has been published, and I am sure you will uncover glitches that I have missed. Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy it. Hover your pointer over the “Experience” tab and scroll down to find this and previous Showcases. Or, if you are feeling lazy, you can simply go here!

Of course I am still looking for new talent, both in words and illustrations. Be in touch!

Marie Marshall

editor

the zen space

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Adverts have nothing to do with me – they’re just an annoying feature of the platform!

The Spring 2020 Showcase is now published!

Hello World? What’s it like under lock-down?

Perhaps we’ll get a whole lot of lock-down haiku and poetry next time. Seriously, I hope everyone is managing to keep safe and well.

Anyhow, the Spring 2020 Showcase is now live. You can get to it the scenic route (by hovering your cursor over the “Experience” tab and scrolling down), or the quick route (by clicking here).

Welcome one, welcome all.

Marie Marshall
editor
the zen space

How am I doing?

That was a rhetorical question by the way. I’m doing much the same as anyone trying to isolate themselves socially, whilst having no idea whether what I am being told is true. I ventured out yesterday, just to get some top-up supplies, and found a country still full of traffic, open businesses, and stuff in the shops (with one notable exception).

What has this to do with the zen space? Very little, except to say that I shall do my best to get the Spring showcase out on time.

By the way – do you think it would be in bad taste to illustrate it with examples of the various ways the corona virus has been depicted. On the one hand people have died, on the other hand these depictions have a strange, unearthly beauty. Let me know.

MM
editor

There’s less than a week to go…

… to the new Showcase, and I haven’t a clue what I’m going to do!

The Spring 2019 Showcase is now published

Guest editor looking for new “names”

A detail from one of Daniel’s Korea photos.

The Guest Editor for the next Showcase is the inestimable, incomparable poet Daniel Paul Marshall (no relation). Daniel says of himself:

After eight years in Korea, I find myself returned to England in the throes of Brexit; a jobless, semi-alien seeking reorientation after what has perhaps been a warring absence. I am shamelessly, indomitably a poet, but now unemployment has me under consideration.

How could the zen space fail to offer him if not employment then at least a way to spend a little of his time? He comes to us in full culture-shock mode, after having been immersed in the life and times of a land half-way around the hemisphere, which had front-loaded him with so much inspiration to write, and then having arrived in the UK in winter, to find the country upping anchor and sailing further away from the coast of Europe. Interesting times.

As always in the case of a Guest Editor, Daniel is looking for new talent. Can you write haiku, senryu, and so on? Or short-burst poetry shimmering in the moment? If so, then get in touch with Daniel at danielpaulmarshall85@gmail.com

On this occasion please do not submit via the usual channel, but use the email address above. Go to it!

The Winter 2019 Showcase is now published!

As I type these words it is 7am on New Year’s Day 2019. It is still dark outside and an owl is hooting. Were I cleverer with words, a haiku would spring from this moment. As it is, instead, I lay before you a rather strange Showcase…

There are parallel offerings in English/French and English/Magyar, the latter I am taking on trust because I have no knowledge of the language, so let’s live dangerously. There is decidedly non-haiku-esque poetry. There is a piece of prose about a zen master. There are illustrations from a children’s anti-vivisection story.

I have enjoyed scrambling it together at the last possible moment. If you want to read it – and why wouldn’t you? – please hover your pointer over the ‘Experience’ tab and scroll down, or click here.

Oh shut up, owl, you’ve made your point.

The Summer 2018 Showcase is published

One week behind schedule, but it’s here!

This time, as well as new names providing the words, we have the wonderful photography of Elan Mudrow. Can you see a face in the picture below?

The words are amazing, diverse, surprising. In order to find out more either hover your cursor over the ‘Experience’ tab and scroll down to the bottom, or alternatively click here.