What's new: Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.

Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.
お知らせ

Rattle website posted Tan-Ku "HUBRIS"

"HUBRIS," a Tan-Ku co-authored by Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji and me, was published in Rattle #83. Now, it is available on their website along with our reading audio.

https://www.rattle.com/hubris-by-mariko-kitakubo-deborah-p-kolodji/

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Online Tanka workshop in Montreal

On March 24, 2024, I hosted an online Tanka workshop via Zoom organized by Ms. Flavia Garcia in Montréal.

It was the second workshop, and the content was the same as the one I did at La Livrerie the day before.

During the workshop, I presented Tanka reading in Japanese and English and introduced the attendees to the art of Tanka. I also explained the percussion instruments I used during my reading performance for background music. After that, the participants created their Tanka and presented them to the other attendees.

I thank those who participated in the workshop on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It was delightful to hear that some participants attended this online workshop because they missed the previous day's workshop.

I hope this event will be an excellent opportunity for people to get familiar with Tanka poetry.

Move to "Reading Performance"

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Tanka workshop in Montreal, Canada

The weather in Montreal, Canada has turned cold this morning after being mild until last week.

However, despite the powdery snow falling since morning, I was delighted to see many people attend the tanka poetry workshop organized by Ms. Flavia Garcia at La Livrerie. The audience filled the venue.

After my brief presentation on Japanese-English reading performance and lecture, I answered questions from the attendees. We ended the event with an open mic session where attendees shared their tanka and enjoyed playing percussion I brought from Japan.

It was an afternoon filled with gratitude and appreciation for the great interest in Japanese literature among the younger generation, not only English speakers but also French speakers.

Move to "Reading Performance"

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Mar. 21, Participated in a poetry reading event in Montreal, Canada

Ms. Flavia Garcia, a poet residing in Montreal, Canada, kindly invited me to take part in the Poetry Event called "Soirée de poésie et traduction" held on March 21, 2024, at La Sala Rossa, a live music club located in Montreal.

It was an extraordinary evening with 12 performers presenting their unique style of poetry in various languages.

I was deeply impressed by the attention to detail of the organizers. I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who commented after the performance that they were "moved" and "deeply healed."

I extend my special thanks to Mr. Osvaldo Rabunal, the musician who added the tongue drum background music to my performance.

Thank you all very much.

Move to "Reading Performance"

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Rattle 83 published Tan-Ku

I am pleased to share that Rattle, a well-known American poetry magazine, has published in the Collaboration section in its latest volume (83) a new Tan-Ku titled "Hubris," co-authored by Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji and myself.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the editor, Mr. Tim Green.

Thank you very much.

Hubris

through
the distorted
glass
he smiles to me
from the white limousine (M)

blue green shimmers
a peacock struts
his stuff (D)

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Feb. 16, Participated in a poetry reading event in Ikenoue, Tokyo

On February 16, 2024, I had the pleasure of participating in a reading event by Drank Poets Tokyo at Garigari, a live house in Ikeunoue, Tokyo.

Among the members were individuals I had met at the publication celebration party for Tokyo Poetry Journal Vol.14 last December.

Today, I presented a reading in Japanese and English of my previously created tanka sequence, "BanyanTree," which I composed during my past stay in India.

I was grateful to share this experience with everyone. Thank you all so much.

Move to "Reading Performance"

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Three Tan-Ku sets are posted in Shot Glass Journal

I am grateful that Shot Glass Journal, an online poetry magazine, has published three new Tan-Ku works that Deborah and I co-wove.

* Click the images below to view the pages in Shot Glass Journal.

The Wait

by Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji

high tide
makes me
defenseless. . .
ancient blue of
the Pacific Ocean (M)

your ship shrinking
into the horizon
I wait ashore (D)

February

by Deborah P Kolodji and Mariko Kitakubo

morning sunshine
the snow where
you are (D)

invisible now
but I'm sure
Sakura's
flowering power
will surround us (M)

Sundial

by Mariko Kitakubo and Deborah P Kolodji

this sunset
is only for today
step by step
I'll be able to
start a new life (M)

ocean swallowing
the remaining light
moonrise? (D)

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Blithe Spirit published a book review about DISTANCE

I express my gratitude to Mr. A A Marcoff for his wonderful review of DISTANCE in Vol. 33 No. 4 of Blithe Spirit, the poetry magazine of the British Haiku Society.

In his review, Mr. Marcoff compared the book to the works of great musicians like Bach, Matisse, and Cézanne.

I would also like to thank the editors of Blithe Spirit for providing valuable space for the review.

Distance by Mariko Kitakubo, Deborah P Kolodji, Shabda Press, 2023, paperback, 94 pages,

Mariko (Japan) writes tanka. Deborah (California) writes haiku. After the pandemic brought them together on the internet, these two great voices are now become as sisters in poetry, linked across the ocean, and in their book of tanka and haiku in combinations (Tan-Ku), they have composed a magical, sublime duet, improvisations in realities and dreams.

Constructed with echo, counterpoint and reprise, this book seems like a Bach concerto for two interweaving violins. The two poets are dream- travellers, and at times touch the cosmos in a 'Music of the Galaxy'. But in this haiku, we are brought from the stars right down to earth:

expanse
of the universe
a boy and his dog

In mirrors of the soul, Distance offers us a little kaleidoscope of everything, in 'emanations' (Matisse) and 'realisations' (Cezanne), that takes us from Samarkand and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania (with its cradle or creation of the species), to Asakusa and the Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo. Sometimes we are led through a Torii (Shinto gateway) that marks a transition from the mundane to the sacred. These haiku and tanka were created in the spontaneity of the moment out of an emotion heightened by the pandemic. Several times I heard reverberations of the Zen koan, 'show me your face before you were born'.

Both poets are seasoned practitioners, and both are well-travelled. Mariko in particular, by all accounts a deeply impressive performer of her tanka, has taken her art all over the globe, and has made tanka truly international, touching so many hearts and minds:

through
the antique glass
dawn
comes into the world

spring snow
or petals of sakura
falling falling
like ashes in Ukraine

Deborah, Moderator of the Southern California Haiku Study Group, has travelled to Tokyo to do a haiku presentation:

the sea pounding
even in my dreams
dolphins

bees in soft petals
I open my arms
to the sun

Together they have given us the light of the stars, and the raw beauty and authenticity of things. They write with real flair, with the flow of things (they quote Heraclitus and his concept of 'Panta Rhei' ('Everything flows')), in spontaneous observations and essentials. We are left with the human condition, the way of life itself, couched in small poems that express the inexpressible with wonder. This is a book to love - absolutely. Absolutely in a relative world.

A A Marcoff