Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.
お知らせ
"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
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September 9, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 10, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed reading of tanka sequence with some new pieces about life and the transmigrations of soul. |
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Although I was able to participate in today's meeting due to my personal reason, I was very glad that the members enjoyed my presentation. |
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The photos of me performing were taken by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
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Wednesday, September 9, 2020
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September 8, 7 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 9, 11 a.m., Japan time), I participated in online event of The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes in which Ms. Teresa Mei Chuc was featured, and I performed reading as an open-mic speaker. |
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Ms. Teresa Mei Chuc offered me a great help when I published my sixth anthology, "INDIGO" from Shabda Press in 2016. I really appreciate the efforts she made for me. |
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I am honored to be able to listen to Ms. Teresa's impressively powerful poems. |
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* My pictures were taken by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
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September 2, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 3, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed bilingual reading of my tanka sequence "The traveler" in Japanese and in English. |
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Being inspired by the fellow members' poems and artistic expressions, I was able to spend meaningful time. |
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Monday, September 7, 2020
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August 29, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Aug.30, 8 a.m., Japan time), the publication event of Mr. Rick Lupert's new poetry book, "The Tokyo Van Nuys Express", was live-streamed. |
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For this event, I was offered to perform reading of "Distance 2020" together with Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji. |
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In the Zoom event video, our performance starts at 09:20 after the opening and lasts for about 5 minutes. |
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I hope you enjoy it. Please watch the video from here! |
Thursday, September 3, 2020
This is a great honor for me, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude.
I could not even imagine that my bilingual tanka anthology INDIGO will be housed in a historic and prestigious ryokan *Hiiragiya's English library salon.
Once the current Corona related crisis is over, I would like to visit Ms. Nishimura, the proprietress of Hiiragiya, to express my gratitude directly to her.
I would also like to thank Mr. Nakamura for paying attention to my anthology as well as my reading perforamnce activities overseas.
*Hiiragiya is a long-established ryokan in Kyoto where Yasunari Kawabata and Kyoshi Takahama stayed regularly.
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
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August 26, 4:45 p.m., U.S. time (Aug. 27 8:45 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
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In this meeting, I met a Haiku poet who recently started creating Tanka for the first time. I performed reading of my latest Tanka sequence, wishing to introduce the beauty of Tanka to her. I was glad that she enjoyed my performance. Her Tanka was so good that it was hard to believe she started Tanka recently. I once again realized that it is not really the years one has spent for writing poems, but the depth of emotion one has been cultivating as well as one's sense that determins the quality of poems. |
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I was also impressed by Mr. Rick Wilson's flute and Mr. Robert Stewart's paintings. |
Monday, August 31, 2020
At the online publication event of Mr. Rick Lupert’s new book, “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express”, Ms. Deborah P Kolodji and I are going to present reading of “Distance 2020”, which is the Tanka & Haiku sequence we created together.
Mr. Rick Lupert is a very talented poet, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude for such a wonderful opportunity to be able to perform reading in the event without open-mic section.
Date & Time: August 29, Sat., 16:00 p.m. - U.S. time (Aug. 30 (Sun.) 8:00 a.m. Japan time)
Saturday, August 29, 2020
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The Zoom Reading event "Village poets of Sunland & Tujunga" which was presided at by Ms. Maja Trochimczyk took place on August 23, 4:30 p.m., U.S. time (Aug. 24, 8:30 a.m., Japan time). |
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Last time I attended this event as one of the featured performers, and this time, as an open mic reading performer. Attendants' works, especially the ones presented by the two featured poets, were so impressive and inspired me a lot. |
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I performed reading while playing percussion some pieces from the Tanka sequence, "The Traveler", which was created upon the request by Kadokawa Shoten for the 2018 November isssue of its monthly magazine, "Tanka". I express sincere gratitude toward Dearest Maya and all the attendants to the event! |
Monday, August 24, 2020
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August 19, 4:45 p.m., U.S. time (Aug. 20, 8:45 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
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Same as last week, the theme of my reading was about Africa. I selected some other pieces from the Tanka sequence I created during my trip to Africa, and performed reading both in Japanese and in English. |
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I am glad that the fellow members enjoyed my performance. Thank you very much. |
Thursday, August 20, 2020
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