My activities and publications have been introduced in media. Mariko Kitakubo

Mariko Kitakubo Profile

Mariko Kitakubo

Born in Tokyo.
Living in Mitaka-city, Tokyo
Membership
Japan Writers' Association,
Japan PEN Club,
Association of Contemporary Tanka Poets,
Japan Tanka Poets' Society,
Kokoro-No-Hana,
Tan-Ku Co-Founder,
Tanka Society of America.

In commemoration of
15 years of tanka reading
The Latest Tanka Sequence
Original Tanka presented at
Spoken World Live

Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo. Media coverage.

"failed haiku" a journal of English Senryu posted two pieces of linked verse I created together with Ms. Debora P. Kolodji, my best friend haiku poet.

My sincere thanks to the editor, Mr. Bryan Rickert.

failed haiku - a journal of English Senryu website.

failed haiku Volume 7, Issue79

FailedHaikuIssue79_01.jpg

 

Hanging Overhead

in the heat
of all this anger
an umbrella (D)

round shade
makes me calm
even if
nuclear light can
penetrate this thin film (M)

Deborah P Kolodji/Mariko Kitakubo

 

Ebb and Flow

dreaming to return
to ancestral seas
the pendulum
keeps moving
possible impossible... (M)

Foucault thoughts
swing in all directions
the earth turns (D)

Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji

 

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Tuesday, July 5, 2022

"red lights", an American tanka journal, the editor and publisher Ms. Marilyn Hazelton, posted my tanka sequence in its Vol.18, No.2 June 2022.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Ms. Marilyn. Thank you very much.

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『Angel Talk』

Mariko Kitakubo

Grandma,
will you disappear, he asks,
someday?
yes, but let me stay with you
little bit more, I answer

he is 5
his pure and simple
question ...
as if a petal is dancing
and dancing

I think about
the silhouette
of death -
yes, we should go
without knowing when

I will
miss you
after my death
looking on this world
from afar

grandson
don't hurry please,
be in the shining mist
there are still wings
on your back

Move to "Media Coverage"

Monday, July 4, 2022

On June 24, an online poetry journal "Scarlet Dragonfly Journal" published "Sachet." It is an English linked verse with Ms. Sigrid Saradunn, Ms. Kath Abela Wilson, Ms. Taura Scott, Ms. Jackie Chou, and myself.

My sincere thanks to the editor, Ms. Kathleen Trocmet.

https://scarletdragonflyjournal.wordpress.com/.../sachet/

scarlet_dragonfly.jpg

Sachet

sunrise wedding
by the sea
wisteria bouquets
for bride and attendants
mother weeps at the sight

— Sigrid Saradunn, USA

does wisteria
weep as it droops
lavender tears
I catch in my hand
for my faraway friend

— Kath Abela Wilson, USA

draping
over the archway
wisteria blossoms
caress my face
as I walk by

— Taura Scott, USA

again and again
the same walk just to feel
wisteria
it’s silky touch its sachet
stays in my heart

— Kath Abela Wilson, USA

by the cloister
my mother was young
violet strands
how many springs ago
wisteria

— Mariko Kitakubo, Japan

strolling through
a wisteria trellis
alone . . .
my mind somewhere
beyond my own reach

— Jackie Chou, USA

 

Move to "Media Coverage"

Monday, June 27, 2022

On June 23, a poetry video journal "Frameless Sky" published "Stormy."

It is an English tanka & haiku sequence I created together with Ms. Debora P. Kolodji, my best friend haiku poet.

My sincere thanks to the editor, Ms. Chrissi Villa.

 

Frameless Sky Issue 16

 

Stormy

spring snow
or petals of sakura
falling falling
like ashes
in Ukraine (M)

trains going west
a child’s stuffed bear
stares out the window (D)

whose uniform. . .
a sunflower sprout
comes out
of the camouflage
pocket (M)

the caws of crows
footage of survivors
underground (D)

searching for
better days...
repeated invasions
in our layered
past (M)

petal storm
is there a chance
for peace? (D)

— by Deborah P Kolodji, USA / Mariko Kitakubo, Japan

 

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Friday, June 24, 2022

On June 23, an online poetry journal "Scarlet Dragonfly Journal" published "Under the Sun."  It is an English tanka & haiku sequence I created together with Ms. Debora P. Kolodji, my best friend haiku poet.

My sincere thanks to the editor, Ms. Kathleen Trocmet.

https://scarletdragonflyjournal.wordpress.com/.../under-the-sun/

scarlet_dragonfly.jpg

Under the Sun

early heat wave
the shade tree not yet
leafed out (D)

road mirage,
the wait for thunder–
ordering
a scoop of pistachio
ice cream (M)

earth baked
by relentless sun
my wide-brimmed hat (D)

high tide
tomorrow always
comes
the shiny edge
of the field of vision (M)

aloe vera
the cool rub down after
of a heated argument (D)

the thorns
were young green
never-ending
vacation
in Mallorca (M)

— by Deborah P Kolodji, USA / Mariko Kitakubo, Japan

 

Move to "Media Coverage"

Thursday, June 23, 2022

On May 28, an online poetry journal "Scarlet Dragonfly Journal" published "Lego Box." It is an English tanka & haiku sequence I created together with Ms. Debora P. Kolodji, my best friend haiku poet.

My sincere thanks to the editor, Ms. Kathleen Trocmet.

 

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Lego Box

tiny pieces
become
our world. . .
picking up only
innocent elements (M)

kaleidoscopes
of brightly colored pieces
Starry Night in 3-D (D)

passion
of the vortex
still there
in the deep sky
Vincent Van Gogh (M)

swirling blocks
in circular patterns
childhood artist (D)

release
from a spiral
labyrinth
a flying ladybird
summer morning (M)

follow
the yellow brick road
Lego box (D)

— Mariko Kitakubo, Japan / Deborah P Kolodji, USA

 

 <Message from Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji>

Collaborative poetry has been especially fun and inspiring during this pandemic/post-pandemic age we have been living through, isolated from everyone. Since Covid hit in 2020, I've been writing tanka/haiku sequences with my good friend, Mariko Kitakubo, from Tokyo.

She writes tanka and I write haiku and we inspire each other. Due to the time difference, it is often very late at night either here in LA or in Tokyo when our creativity blossoms. She might write a tanka before she goes to bed, then I see it when I wake up. When I'm about to go to bed, we're at our most productive since it's in the middle of the afternoon (tomorrow) in Tokyo at that time.

Last summer, I went to the Lego art exhibit, "The Art of the Brick," at the California Science Center with Yvette and sent Mariko some photos. She was inspired to write a tanka, which inspired me to write a haiku and the rest is history. "Lego Box" was published in the Scarlet Dragonfly Journal yesterday:
https://scarletdragonflyjournal.wordpress.com/.../lego-box/

Move to "Media Coverage"

Sunday, May 29, 2022

The 36th issue of KOKAKO, a New Zealand poetry magazine, was delivered safely across the equator and through the sea where the first typhoon of this year moving northward.

It is a very precious thing in recent days when travel between countries is so difficult.

The fact that Ms. Deborah P Kolodji, an American Haiku poet, and myself, a Japanese Tanka poet, jointly created this sequence with the subject matter of Inokashira Park near my home gives this sequence a rich local and international flavor.

My sincere thanks to the editors, Ms. Patricia Prime and Ms. Margret Beverland.

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Inokashira Park

empty swan boats
cherry blossoms
floating (D)

whiteness
of the new canvas
blank
to paint our time
spring again (M)

morning sun
sparkles on the lake
ducks gather (D)

soon
they will fly to
Kamchatka
skies and water
waterfowl (M)

cloud cover
we cross the bridge
into silence (D)

tell me
your folklore
newborn water
hidden spring
in the park (M)

 

Deborah P. Kolodji & Mariko Kitakubo

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Monday, April 18, 2022

The series of English haiku and tanka sequences that I created with Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji has already reached its 22nd volume, and two of them were recently published in the online English haiku journal, "Under the Basho."
I am very glad about this.

I recall with nostalgia that our first piece, "Distance 2020," was picked up and published in the journal.

Thank you very much.

 

>> Under the Basho / "Seedlings" page

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>> Under the Basho / "Uncertain" page

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Wednesday, March 9, 2022

"red lights", an American tanka journal, the editor and publisher Ms. Marilyn Hazelton, posted my tanka sequence in its Vol.18, No.1 January 2022.

After a long way of travel via international postal service at the time of great difficulties due to the Corona pandemic, the journal somehow seemed to be relieved in my palms under the cold, clear sky after the snowfall.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Ms. Marilyn. Thank you very much.

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『Paragliding』

Mariko Kitakubo

1
Gods or Devils
at Mount Hakuba
will you
permit me to fly
in the air?

2
so happy
in the strong arms
of the updraft
I am lifted
into the Autumn sky

3
this flight time
of paragriding
I'd like
to stay in the sky
forever ...

4
without
fear and worry
remaining
beside a cloud in the
peace of nothingness

Move to "Media Coverage"

Monday, February 14, 2022

20210927_MsDeborah_Rattlecast111.jpg

Rattlecast111 has just live-streamed an interview program featuring my best friend, Ms. Deborah P Kolodji.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Deborah for performing "Both Sides of The Ocean", which Ms. Deborah and I composed together, and published in a New Zealand poetry journal "KOKAKO" in 2020.

Her interview was streamed via Facebook and Youtube. I am very honored about this.

> click here to view Ms. Deborah P Kolodji's interview on Rattlecast111.

Both Sides of the Ocean

by Deborah P Kolodji & Mariko Kitakubo

tea for both
sides of the ocean
smiling moon (D)

sharing
time under
the big dipper ---
gente roundness
of our horizon (M)

was it only yesterday?
cherry blossoms lined
a graveyard (D)

chatting
on the terrace ...
our roses
under my sun
under your moon (M)

I look up
through bougainvillea
skies we once travelled (D)

clouds come
into my tea cup
and go out ...
do they drift
from mine to yours? (M)

Monday, September 27, 2021