- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
autumn shadows —
my image slips behind
a thousand eyes
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
a black swan
stretches into the mist
silencing heaven
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
windswept dunes —
what lips pare mine
of words?
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
dusky sound . . .
my smile enters hers
noiselessly
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
cloudless day . . .
surface ripples terraform
a stream bed
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . taiga . . .
. . virtually . .
. . . . a . . . . .
. . . haiku . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
limpid stream . . .
my eyes hold on
to nothing
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
mountain mist
almost to see through
not a word to say
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
mobile call —
the spring in her voice
in the rain
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
the child I was
singsongs the silence
still to come
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
dawn chorus . . .
a tui sounds out
the rusty gate
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
shadow by shadow
an eel rises to the bread —
what breaks this body?
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
lightning storm . . .
a mantra splits open
the heaviness
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
sullen rose —
the fragrance of a god's
hidden name
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
plopping sounds
a tennis ball wilts
over the ditch
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
heat wave
countless eyes shimmer
over the court
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
tennis sounds
the increasing orbit
of interest
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
in the racket
of steamy court battle —
a tennis elbow
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
a highflier
suffers two wingmen —
summer heat
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
tennis fever -
a third baseman asks
"who's on first?"
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
soft serves drip
from a thousand lips . . .
courtly love
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
gong fu cha —
a shadow passes between
then and now
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
southern sky —
from heaven's pointers
a wooden cross
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
within sight
candlelight crossmembers
an altar
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
heaven scent —
summer rain anoints
shaky grounds
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
death knell . . .
a river mouth
exacts its toll
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
all innocents . . .
some faces less livid
than others
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
twilight dusk —
the bruises of life
less livid
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
with the sea
the rockpool of friends
from my hands
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
southern cross —
these arms weighed down
with night
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
roadkill —
the fly-blown voice
of the unborn
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
breathstop . . .
a praying mantis
shifts weight
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
another moon —
still the otherness
of her body
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
freckle-face
her wrinkling nose becomes
newsworthy
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
never alone . . .
blanket man paces out
the southern cross
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
under the moon
her hands cup the gift
of her self
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
awakening
from such light caress
a peony's folds
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
wild honey —
how the clover glows
in her eyes!
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
rising tide
eyes awash with the moon
two by two
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
a bird cocks its head
at nothing — within this hush
a priest breaks the bread
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
farflung night
a morepork mantles
a cold egg
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
farflung stars
darkness mantles me
in its wings
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
morepork,
keep watch with me
through ancient light
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
ancient one,
your voice too sounds
of cicadas
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
gracing
a patina of grace
a stain marks
the loss
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
a haiku sequence
while doves cry i coo
a season word
cuts 'twixt my coming
and my going
human nature stages a high coup
spell casting
a hokkus pokkus
of words
the verbal hiccups of a beat movement
close reading a cross-eyed ku
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
step by step
our paths merge together
as water and wine . . .
in these unplanned moments
we sip eternity
cattails Premier Edition - January 2014
Editor's Choice - Tanka
Editor's comments:
Being a hopeless romantic and given that tanka originated as court poetry, this one by Hansha Teki of New Zealand, is one of my Editor's Choices. The rhythm being approximately s, l, s, l, l, right off qualifies it as a tanka rather than just a free verse or mainstream short poem. The content is poetic yet not overly done, nor does it lack either in substance or depth. Lines 1 and 2 set up the situation, line 3 gives us a pause plus a twist instead of simply being a run-on sentence. Lines 4 and 5 bring us back to the beginning which gives us closure. Literally “we sip eternity” of unplanned moments with its author.
— cattails Principal editor an'ya, USA
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
leaf by leaf
a lilac emerges
in birdsong . . .
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
trickling stream . . .
stones at rest gather
smoothness
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
- Category: January 2014
New Year's Day
the heat of the moment
all over us