Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.

10 pieces of my tanka was included in Kadokawa's "Contemporary Tanka Corpus."

			Vol. 1 LIVELIHOOD
			Vol. 2 LIFE
			Vol. 3 NATURE
			Vol. 4 SOCIETY & CULTURE
			Appendix INDEX & CHRONOLOGY

I am very much honored that my works are included in Kadokawa's "Contemporary Tanka Corpus", which is the encyclopedia of 3,000 tanka poems by 1,600 poets.

Vol. 1 LIVELIHOOD
-threnody- (mourning deceased mother)

sun shining
into corners of the glass door -
leaving behind
an unfinished letter,
Mother departed this life

-food- (jam)

standing there,
its back to the dining-table
where there's peach jam,
Death
casts no shadow

Vol. 2 LIFE
-juvenile- (boy)

has the green fish
been living
inside of me
since my son first
fell in love?

-married couple/parent and child- (loving mother)

sometimes
while I gaze at the sky
I'm thinking
of hydraulics, of what
my boy is studying

-family- (father)

I'm forgetting
those letters in the Cold Forest,
so stealthily
did my father
disappear

Vol. 3 NATURE
-seasons & nature- (winter)

way up high
in a bare tree
winter has come
bringing with it
letters for the deceased

-seasons & nature- (stars)

an accident
of birth:
on this same star
trees, wild beasts,
fish, people

Vol. 4 SOCIETY & CULTURE
-history & current news- (deserted village)

tranquilly ashes
continue to fall
on this ruined village
where like a scream
the silence shines

-country- (Tanzania)

how delightful are
Tanzanian place names:
'Ngorongoro'
comes rolling
out of my atlas

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