Some Recent Published Tanka

I have had a fair amount of tanka accepted for publication recently. Here are a few:


His burlap skin
washed by the
diamond waters,
and everywhere,
jellyfish in bloom.

--from Modern English Tanka, 1:2


rattlesnake love--
you gave me warning,
but I, entranced
by your desert heart,
wouldn't heed it

--from Fire Pearls: Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart


tracing the face
of the man in the moon
my own face
looks back
at me

--from Modern English Tanka, 1:1


At the end of
a bad oyster season,
we spend Christmas
stripping the oyster boards
and swabbing the decks.

--from Sketchbook, 1:1


if only the leaves
were not so green,
this lover's heart
might enjoy
a little emptiness

--from Tanka Splendor 2006


The skyline's
not much to look at,
just a green line
drawn along the bottom
of the clouds.

--from Red Lights, 3:1 (forthcoming)


a dozen contrails
stretch across the sky,
all pointing
to the west
beyond my dreams

--from Gusts #4


my boss gives me
a bag of melted chocolates . . .
I think this means
I'm in her good graces
at last

--from Kokako #5

If you like what you read, I hope you will seek and support these find journals and anthologies by buying them. Without financial support, our publishers, all of whom are small presses who do this as a labor of love, would not be able to continue publishing. Without them, there would be very few places to publish tanka.