Publicized in Tanka Society of America: Mariko Kitakubo

Tanaka Café:theme "Giving"

joined together
by his umbilical cord
I hold my son--then
all the stars in heaven
fall down on me

Selected Tanka:

empowered
by untold millions
of silent stars,
night by night
my child is growing

Selected Tanaka

should there be
a man who sells time,
I will buy it---
if it is time
I can believe in

alongside my friend,
telling her
the whole story
I see night deepening
over the Harbour Bridge

The Tanka Cafe: Welcome and Farewell

hey new earrings,
you who don't know
that I've lost my love,
bring me breezes
from the ocean!

all you men
who have flown from me--
I feel you
less as sea winds,more as
glints of light on the waves

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

one's life
can not more be entrusted
to another
than can the timing
of a perfect soft-boiled egg

Tanka Cafe Theme :Summer

I am stabbed
by your soft eyes
in this summer
of Lyre and ocean
singing in turn

Editor's Selected Tanka

I expect
nothing in return
for this love
of transparent indigo
deeper than the ocean

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