published Essays to date: Mariko Kitakubo

for whom
am I in full bloom？
castle ruins

lest we stray
the Milky Way
just happens
to slip between
our entwined fingers

Excellent English Tanka Prize.

our two shadows
are lengthening -
oh God,
why am I a lamb,
why is he a wolf?

I will attend the award ceremony on November 22, 2006, at Honolulu Pacific Beach Hotel.
The report will be announced in my website later.

when my mother
has silently slipped
from her life,
I sought a new star
in the Milky Way

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

after all the years
of a single mother
with one daughter,
this empty space -
a leaden-gray moon

after viewing the 'Nuclear Scars of Chernobyl' exhibition of photographs by Hirokawa Ryouichi

approaching I see
a village ruined
wind howls on high
as if all their names
have been forgotten

after viewing the ' Nuclear Scars of Chernobyl ' exhibition of photographs by Hirokawa Ryouichi

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

it feels like I'm astray
in a giant sand-clock,
with quantities of sand
falling down on me
from time to time

urn your back
on your mother and walk on,
grow strong -
the wind of your childhood
blows bright in my memory

I've gone on
not putting it all
into words - now
sounds from the river
within me grow louder

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