Sharing Neverendingstory

Today is not my writing; I am shamelessly sharing a post ( as we are asked to do in his post) from a wonderful blog on haiku and tanka called Neverendingstory, and its approach to changing how those forms are being written today. Thank you to Chen-ou Liu and Angela Leuck. You will always thank me for encouraging you to follow the Neverendingstory blog. It will be a brief beautiful moment in your day.

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Cool Announcement: Celebrate Tanka Poetry Month with NeverEnding Story Posted: 01 May 2021 09:16 PM PDT                      Poetry acts as a witness in, to, and most importantly, through troubled times.                      Chen-ou Liu, An Interview with Dimitar Anakiev My Dear Friends: Please join NeverEnding Story to expand the readership base for tanka by tweeting at least one tanka a day throughout the month of May. The hashtags for Tanka Poetry Month are #MayTanka and #NaTankaMo. on the windowsill two canaries singing to each otherI tweet and retweet NeverEnding Story Below is excerpted from Angela Leuck’s article, titled “Tanka and the Literary Mainstream: Are we ‘there’ yet?” (“Book Review Editor’s Message,” Ribbons, 10:1, Winter 2014, p. 74): An alternative approach is suggested by Chen-ou Liu, author of the blog, “NeverEnding Story.” In his June 2012 Lynx interview with Jane Reichhold, Liu describes the current relationship between the haiku/tanka community and the literary mainstream in terms of “an asymmetric power relationship.” He believes a “top down” approach will not work; i.e., trying to change the perceptions of those in the mainstream. Rather, Liu supports a “bottom up” approach, which for him means consolidating and expanding the readership base for tanka through online publishing and social networking sites. He argues: If there are more people who love reading/writing haiku and tanka, the mainstream poetry world will eventually open their main gate to haiku and tanka poets. This approach to reversing the asymmetric power relationship has been demonstrated in the case of the power transfer from traditional media, such as news papers, TV, and books, to online and social media. Please help spread the word about this celebration via your poetry blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts. And NeverEnding Story seeks tanka submissions.  To conclude today’s “Celebrate Tanka Poetry Month” post, share with you my interview excerpt and tanka selected for the upcoming Bulgarian-English Tanka Handbook written by NeverEnding Story contributor, Dimitar Anakiev.  Red Moon Press’s tanka 2020: poems from today’s world gives me a glimpse of what is possible when efforts are made to challenge the poets to write something new and relevant to the world we live in.  Poetry acts as a witness in, to, and most importantly, through troubled times. That’s what this book does. Here are five of my tanka for the handbook: a winter fog smothers the winding road to her mother’s house the bruises on her face say everything & nothing bits of gravel embedded in blood on his knuckles my teenage son says nothing and I’ll do … nothing a wind rattling the dry leaves on eucalypti — an ink-dark trace of koalas unshackled  from my childhood beliefs I’m a passing thought in the mind of God who forsook his Son on the Cross we’reallinthistogether            snow              on            snow  onhomelessshelter Happy Reading and Writing throughout the month of May Chen-ou

As to those calla lilies…

paper calla lilies

in the market

screaming with colour

how they seduce me

like an audacious Santa Fe lover

As to those wind-up toys…

hundreds of wind-up toys

in a Santa Fe market

what temptation to break

the tenth commandment

I coveted all of them