Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo. Media coverage.
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.
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
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
>> Under the Basho / "Uncertain" page
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.
『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
Monday, February 14, 2022
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
"A Cappella" which is a sequence of English Haiku and English Tanka that Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji and I composed together was posted in a New Zealand poetry magazine, "Kokako" in its volume 34.
The cover of Kokako issue 34 is an image created by Mr. Ron Moss, who is an artist and English Haiku poet.
A Cappella
mallards
can you see
sunshine?
longing . . .
under the thick clouds (M)
my dreams fly
a mountain pokes through
the mist (D)
seeing me
in your world
please
find yourself
in matching sunglasses (M)
backyard pond
I hear your words
in the mirror(D)
finding
one wing of
a pair. . .
we each sing
a different verse (M)
a cappella
at midnight
moonglow (D)
Deborah P Kolodji & Mariko Kitakubo
Monday, April 19, 2021
"red lights", an English poetry journal, posted my new Tanka sequence.
This sequence was created in this autumn in Inokashira Park where few people were due to coronavirus pandemic.
I am very honored with the proposal from Ms. Marilyn Hazelton, the editor of Red Lights, saying she wants post the sequence as a whole, because it is rather a normal practice that editors selects one piece from the sequence to post in their poetry journals.
I would like to send my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Hazelton.
『Incense Smoke』
by Mariko Kitakubo
1
how can I
live and love?
every where
is Autumn...
color me too, please
2
under
the pale milky
moon...
the ripe silence
of Autumn
3
what am I
looking for ?
the last glow
of Autumn---
a dark hollow of me
4
chilly morning
Autumn will leave
soon
by the misty pond
a glimmer of hope
5
incense
smoke came
to me
and stay for a while
Covid19, 2020
Friday, February 26, 2021
Saturday, December 12, 2020
The newsletter volume 19 of "Writers association aiming for abondoning-nuclear-power society" (President: Mr. Otohiko Kaga) issued in October 2020 posted my essay "Kokoro no Arikata (the State of Mind)".
Having an agreement from Mr. Yukitsuna Sasaki, who presides "Kokoro no Hana", a Tanka association I belong to, I quoted some pieces of Tanka from Mr. Sasaki's anthology, "Teo ga Kita Hi (The day Theo became my family member)."
Although a piece of Tanka is supposed to be written in one line as in the original, it had to devide a piece into two lines due to the limitation of number of characters per line. I sincerely apologize for it.
Excerpt from the newsletter
(click the image below to read the article in enlarged size)
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
"Both Sides of the Ocean" which is a sequence of English Haiku and English Tanka that Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji and I composed together was posted in a New Zealand poetry magazine, "Kokako" in its volume 33.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Kokako editors, Ms. Patricia Prime and Ms. Margaret Beverland.
Both Sides of the Ocean
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)
Deborah P Kolodji & Mariko Kitakubo
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Ms. Anna Maris, a very talented Haiku poet, invited me to the Facebook group, "Haiku books swap, buy and sell worldwide", where members can search, buy and sell haiku and related books.
I met Ms. A. Maris last year in the British Haiku Society event held in St. Albans, U.K.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. A. Maris for recommending Tanka anthology to the FB group.
I hope many people around the world get to know my 6th Japanese-English bilingual anthology, "INDIGO".
> click here for Facebook group "Haiku books swap, buy and sell worldwide"
Tanka Poetry book, by Mariko Kitakubo, published 2016 by Shabda Press.
ISBN: 978-0-9915772-0-0,
137 pages: ,
size: ''9.173 x 6.024",
perfect softbound,
language: English and Japanese (bilingual),
condition: new (can be personally signed!)
shipping from Japan, price: 16 US $ + postage of your choice
(I'd like to pay the postage for you. )
www.en.kitakubo.com
Monday, August 17, 2020
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