ATPO 3: You Can't Take a Bus Up a Cliff (reprint)

REPRINT


ATLAS POETICA 3 – SPRING 2009

You Can't Take a Bus Up a Cliff

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place was founded to provide a home for tanka that could not easily be published in the mainstream journals. It publishes long, including extremely long sequences, tanka prose, multiple author works, experimental works, and content that demands more of the reader than the comfortable sentimentality the characterizes much of modern tanka in English.

Through the medium of place the poets in the current issue tackle difficult topics, such as war, crime, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, poverty, environmentalism, adoption, and more. These are topics that make up only a small portion of the published ouvre of tanka in English, yet they are vitality important, bringing us some of the most wrenching and demanding works of literature in the canon.

In describing his military training during WWII when Americans are fighting to end Nazism, Sanford Goldstein is still frightened that his comrades in arms might "shoot this “dirty-jew” me." Ella Wagemakers presents the other side of Amsterdam's famed liberalism when she tells her children "the women are selling / beachwear and lingerie." Kirsty Karkow promises a friend afraid of HIV "to go with her / to the inner city clinic."

Yet amidst the terrors of the real world, there are pleasures and sustenance for the soul. John Daleiden celebrates "our burden lightened / my sisters and brothers" in honor of Junteenth, the anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in the United States. Vasile Moldavan takes heart from the song of a cricket and begs his minister, "give up the vespers service [. . .] to listen to this cricket song." For Amelia Fielden "ten dolphins" become a nursery song right before her eyes.

The poets of Atlas Poetica call things by their real names. They write about real places, real events, real issues, real people. The poetic imagination is unleashed by the challenge of telling the unnoticed truth. Stereotypes and conventions, knee jerk reactions and travel guide advertisements do not do justice to the complexity of our lives or the places in which we live. By grappling with reality poets are forced to dig deep into themselves. They must bear witness to all that they have seen—for good or ill. The 'controlled ambiguity' that is a hallmark of tanka includes moral ambiguity. They reach deep into the human soul and pull out something of lasting value, something that inhabits the mysterious wilderness deep inside our hearts.

You cannot take a bus to scale the cliffs of history. You must pull yourself up with your own hands, bark your knees on the rocks, and take the risk of falling. The poets of Atlas Poetica have abandoned comfort in the quest for truth, and what they have discovered is wondrous, frightening, and inspiring.

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica

Gosses Bluff. 142 millions years ago an asteroid or comet slammed into what is now the Missionary Plains in Australia's Northern Territory, forming a crater 24 km in diameter and 5 km deep.
Cover Image courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial
You Can't Take a Bus Up a Cliff,
M. Kei 7

Tanka in Sets and Sequences
Old Memories in the Valley of the Sun,
John Daleiden 8
On the Beach, Marje A. Dyck 9
Sky Walker, Mary Mageau 9
Understanding the Patient,
Kirsty Karkow 10
The Black Straw Hat, Patricia Prime 11
generations, Owen Bullock 11
Vecernie / Vespers, Vasile Moldovan 12
war rubble, stanley pelter 13
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Paul Mercken 14
Midday Lunch, Michele L. Harvey 14
Seamen's Bethel, Jeffrey Woodward 15
Pre-Holocaust: Growing Up in
Cleveland, Sanford Goldstein 16
Along the Way, Bob Lucky 18
I Follow Your Course, Alexej von
Glasenapp 19
Winter in de Gambia / Winter in
Gambia, Paul Mercken 19
Middle Lake, Sasakatchewan, Angela
Leuck 20
Lost and Found, Terra Martin 21
Tor House, Jeffrey Woodward 22
Death in the Afternoon, Bob Lucky. 23
Imagining the Space, Owen Bullock 23
Gippsland waters, Jo McInerney 24
Lime Tree, Magdalena Dale 25
Legs of Invisible Desire, M. Kei 25
In de Oostertuin genietend van
chrysanten / Enjoying
Chrysanthemums in the Eastern
Garden, Paul Mercken 26
Entrance and Exit, Terra Martin 27
Rewinding Fort William,
Guy Simser 28
Short Flashbacks of a Long-Ago Trip to
The Philippines, Ella
Wagemakers 29
On a Beach at Polillo Island, Ella
Wagemakers 29
remembering Do's and Dont's,
stanley pelter 30
surviving the Shadow,
stanley pelter 31

Topical Tanka
War and Peace 32
Mourning 34
Urban 36
Summer 38

Individual Tanka 39

Book Reviews
Cicada Forest, by Mariko Kitakubo 59

Announcements 61

Biographies 70

Index 73

Atlas Poetica 3 Published

Atlas Poetica 3 published
Atlas Poetica 3 - Spring 2009 has been published in the print edition and is available now.

A call for submissions for Atlas Poetica 4 will be issued March 1st.

Atlas Poetica 3 - Reminder for Submissions

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place is in the middle of its window for reviewing submissions for issue 3. The submission period is September 1 through 30 November. Any tanka, waka, kyoka, or related poems of place, including sequences, prose, non-fiction, announcements, international resources, and other materials are welcome. While there are no limits on the types or styles that may be submitted, the there is a preference for the sorts of works that are not often seen in other tanka journals. However, all submissions must be poetry of place, poetry that addresses the natural and human places we inhabit. (For further information, see the editorials at AtlasPoetica.com.)

In addition to being open to tanka poetry of place, the journal also seeks topical tanka. The current topics include 'Summer' and 'urban/suburban/the built environment,' and 'war and peace.' Summer is of course the usual seasonal poetry that is a staple of tanka literature, but the more specific the better. Urban/etc tanka are intended to counteract the usual trend to pastoralism in tanka by presenting tanka that directly engage the places in which most poets and readers live, work, and move. Tanka that address the issues of modern life, whether it be rush hour traffic, cell phones, or the upstairs neighbor, are welcome. Tanka of war and peace may present any viewpoint, whether it be an elegy for a fallen soldier, a protest against the war in Iraq, political satire, or any other treatment. ATPO does not censor, but it does require the works to be poetry, not mere polemics. No matter how passionate or sincere the sentiment, literature, by definition, lifts expression out of the ordinary.

As always we welcome international submissions. We present tanka in languages other than English accompanied by an English translation (and will consider multi-lingual translations on a space available basis.) We value tanka that express minority and indigenous experiences and which grapple with the difficult topics that human beings face and will continue to face as they move through the places of a highly varied world.

Starting with issue 3, Atlas Poetica will publish in print, e-book, and web forms. Our goal is to make the journal as widely available as is financially viable. Your submission indicates that you agree to these terms. To read the full terms and submission guidelines, please visit our web site at: AtlasPoetica.com.

Send all submissions to: submissions@AtlasPoetica.com

Thank you for the many kind responses we have received from our readers! We hope you continue to enjoy Atlas Poetica for many years to come.

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica

ATPO 2 put to bed, ATPO 3 revving up

As you know, we've faced some technical issues with Atlas Poetica 2 on account of our print on demand publisher no longer accepting Mac files, your fearless editor having a Mac, his Mac dying and getting replaced, finding new software that would convert his Mac files into something that the printer would accept, reformatting the journals because half the formatting was lost, rescuing my son's virus infected computer with a very stubborn and horrible virus, saving his files, using his machine to edit Atlas Poetica, and finally getting it all sent to the publisher, Modern English Tanka Press . . .

In the midst of all this, other complications came to pass. My autistic son came to live with me full time. He's a lovely young man that is quite easy to live with, but that means I've been spending my days off work organizing his education and medical treatment and teaching him new skills (like how to ride mass transit to get to his new school), and related complications.

Nonetheless, Atlas Poetica is done and has been put to bed. I am waiting for the galleyproof. Assuming all is well with the galley, ATPO 2 will go on sale on September 1 as planned. (This is exactly why there is a long lead between close of submissions and public sale. You never know when disaster will strike.)

The reading window for Atlas Poetica 3 is September 1 to December 31. ATPO 3 will go on sale on 1 March 2009. Planned topics for topical tanka include 'autumn' and the 'urban/suburban/built environment.' As always, we are open to sequences up to forty tanka in length, but prefer to be queried on longer sequences, tanka prose, individual tanka, announcements, international news, book reviews, articles, and other items of interest to an international readership of tanka poetry of place.

In a change, we will be publishing an e-book as well as print, and we will begin excerpting some poems to our website. Therefore, we will be acquiring international English-language rights to enable us to do this. Our new guidelines will conform to the general guidelines of our publisher, Modern English Tanka Press, and will be comparable to other recently published guidelines for METP journals. The website will be revamped over the coming weeks to reflect the changes and post additional information.

We do not accept art, and refer poet-artists to our sister publication, Modern Haiga, for illustrated tanka. Our covers are drawn from repositories of public domain satellite art illustrating different areas of the Earth in all their beauty. ATPO 3 will feature a satellite image of Gosses Bluff, Australia. Previous covers have included the Dasht-e Kevir (valley of desert) in Iran, and the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

As always, we welcome poetry from around the world written in any language accompanied by English translation. International announcements do not need to be accompanied by English translation, although they are welcome. Announcement can include book notes, event flyers, contest announcements, or any sort of item of interest to our readers. However, they MUST be germane to tanka poetry of place. Haiku-only announcements will not be published.

Thank you for your interest and support. We at Atlas Poetica hope that you enjoy issue No. 2, and look forward to your continued participation and appreciation for No. 3.

Cordially,

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka