ISSUE 10 UNDERTOW TANKA REVIEW

Tanka

Rosario Varo

Undertow Tanka:  Review Issue 10

Dispatches - Somonka

In the end, if she

was not oblivious, my

mother’s saboteur

steeped her in dementia

making death more like a cure.

Dad hugged me at ten

when his mother died; then years,

my ire, and our pride

split us so that his passing

deterred us from another.

―Bill Cushing

Unable to stay

with the things I love in this,

the clear world of dew,

I await the world of mists

and prepare to enter it

― Evan Guilford-Blake

Dusk...

peddling home

faster,

following the light

I remember.

―Billy Howell-Sinnard

i've loved

several women--

the light

in all those windows

still burns

―Billy Howell-Sinnard

Blood stains...

pulling up thorns

and thistles

I close

my prayer book

― Billy Howell-Sinnard

a cat

stretching into a spot

of autumn sun...

finding possibilities

I thought I'd left behind

―Rebecca Drouilhet

the shapes of night

changing in autumn...

when clouds hide the moon

a gnarled oak

turns gargoyle

―Rebecca Drouilhet

Igor Morski

HAIKU

homosexuals

from dimmest light flowers bloom

bright secret colors

― Evan Guilford-Blake

on a bare bough

a cat meows

. . . crescent moon

―David He

northern wren

southern tui ~

September brings fall and spring

―Ingrid Bruck

black beetle shells

burnt sienna floor ~ 

all that's left of fall

―Ingrid Bruck

grocery store gossip

two women block the aisle

as the world turns

―Ingrid Bruck

filigree without lace

winter trees

―Steve Klepetar

solstice

darkness fills an empty cup

―Steve Klepetar

twenty-five below:

sun disc above the river, touching ice

―Steve Klepetar

message in code

crow’s tracks in snow

―Steve Klepetar

tossing seeds

over the fence--

flowers for Mexico

―Maggie Kennedy