ATPO 3 : Twitterati, or Microblogging Tanka Poets

ATLAS POETICA 4 - Autumn, 2009

Twitterati, or Microblogging Tanka Poets

For the past year and a half, media descriptions of the opportunity to post updates such as, "Got up, made coffee, didn't get dressed," failed to illuminate why any sane person might want to make use of a microblogging service like Twitter. I dismissed it as yet another techno-toy of GenXers (or are we onto GenYers now?). I was quite surprised to stumble over a treasure trove of tanka within Twitter's archives.

People are tweeting tanka (and haiku and micropoetry) in great numbers on Twitter. While much of it is exactly what you would expect of poetry posted to a social media site, a surprising amount is good. Further, because each poet has 'followers' who often 'retweet' (repost) items they like, a good poem will be seen far beyond the poet's personal circle. As a result, each tanka poet has a readership larger than many tanka journals.

The thing that strikes me most about these poets is how they use tanka not as literature, but as communication. They talk to friends and strangers online and use tanka to illustrate something they have seen or experienced. They often accompany their tanka with images, links, and other items that provide context and amplify their conversation. Because their primary goal is to express themselves as effectively as possible, they have written eloquent, natural language poetry. That they have created literature is incidental; none of these poets had ever submitted tanka for publication in the print media and they were startled when I suggested that they should.

Thus, although Atlas Poetica normally seeks first world English-language rights for the tanka we publish, I am deliberately waiving that requirement in order to republish a number of fine 'Twitterati'—poets who have previously published tanka on Twitter and its ancillary services.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Sean Greenlaw, Dirk Johnson, Marin Paul, Kris Lindbeck, and Alex von Vaupel. Sean Greenlaw, a mere stripling at only twenty-one, has already demonstrated a grasp of tanka that exceeds many poets twice his age and experience. Kris Lindbeck has turned her tanka eye on her home in Florida and rendered it as exotic as it is ordinary, while Marin Paul successfully blends classical sites with modern tanka in a voice that is uniquely her own. Dirk Johnson, a Buddhist, brings a quiet masculinity to the depictions of the redwood forests near his home in California while Alex von Vaupel's tanka are way stations in his travels between two countries.
If you have a Twitter account, I recommend you follow these fine poets.

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica
kujakupoet on Twitter

Taz and Yenisey Rivers, Siberia, Russia. Ice jams caused the Taz (left) and Yenisey (right) rivers to overflow their banks. Normally the rivers would appear as thin black lines. In this false color image, land is orange and sage, water is black, and clouds are white and pink.
Cover Image courtesy of Visible Earth by NASA .


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial
Twitterati, or Microblogging Tanka Poets, M. Kei 7

Tanka in Sets and Sequences
Remembering My Father, Alexis Rotella 8
You Belong to Me, M. L. Harvey 9
Kyoko, Patricia Prime 10
Peregian, Mary Mageau 10
diary letter, stanley pelter 11
Minimalist Family Life, Sanford Goldstein 12
L'Aquila, Alexis Rotella 14
The Snowbirds Are Back! Bobbette A. Mason 15
Nine Car Pile Up, M. Kei 16
Mother's Day, Bobbette A. Mason 17
Stone Circles, Labrador, Claudia Coutu Radmore 18
One Morning in February, Bobbette A. Mason 19
Relic, Dru Philippou 20
Chinese Haircut, Bob Lucky 20
Bill, Abigail Greene 21
Society Archipelago, Cynthia Rowe 22
White Wind, Andrea Grillo 23
travelogue, John Samuel Tieman 23
North of Superior, Guy Simser 24
Andrew's Place, Abigail Greene 25
Crack of Dawn, Dru Philippou 26
Winter Rains, Gerry Jacobson 27
Allentown, Marylin Hazelton 27
Hunkies, Alexis Rotella 28
Bach at Piha, Patricia Prime 28
His Old Lake, Mike Montreuil 29
Moon, Marje A. Dyck 30
burnt images, Jo McInerney 31
Everybody Dies, Alexis Rotella 32
To Boldly Go, susan delphine
delaney 33
Confections, Tracy Royce 33
South of One Border or Another,
James Tipton 34
Clarity, Marje A. Dyck 35
Hatteras Island, Abigail Greene 35

Topical Tanka
Winter 36
Flowers and Gardens 37
Labor Day 38
Friends & Family 40

Individual Tanka 41

Book Reviews
Narrow Road to the Interior, by Kimiko
Hahn, reviewed by Brian Zimmer 60

Announcements 65

Biographies 69

Index 73

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

ATPO 2: The Autobiography of the World (reprint)

REPRINT

ATLAS POETICA 2 – AUTUMN 2008


The Autobiography of the World

The first issue of Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka, was met with great appreciation. The result is a truly international journal that looks at the natural and cultural places of the human heart, finding significance in a blade of grass and the footsteps of actual people in our collective myths. If tanka is the autobiography of the poet as Takuboku and Goldstein teach, then poetry of place is the autobiography of the world itself.

We were gratified to receive many sets and sequences for the first issue. Atlas Poetica’s format was deliberately designed to permit the publication of sequences that were too long to publish in other venues, and we continue to welcome sequences of up to forty tanka in length, but prefer to be queried regarding longer sequences. We also received various works that include prose in various forms, whether in the form of classical headnotes, annotations, or fully developed prose with tanka in the haibun tradition.

We think the form of prose with tanka will prove fertile, for this is one of the most ancient methods by which tanka was published: as diary entries, embedded in letters and composed in celebration of various occasions. We believe that tanka’s accessibility is directly related to the conversational way in which it was classically used, and that now more than ever, human beings need to speak to one another—not with the rants and shrills that are the usual public discourse, but with eloquence and grace.

By speaking about their experiences of place, the poets of Atlas Poetica have touched on many deeper issues: the value of the natural environment, the importance of our communities, the travails of the modern world, and the everlasting love of beauty that may be the only true definition of civilization. The appreciation of beauty is not a luxury and not a fascination with superficial features, but the ability to peer into the details of existence and find joy. Nowhere is this more important than when burdened with the devastations that humans wreak on each other and the environment.

Our first issue published content in twelve languages, and we welcome and encourage international and indigenous contributions to the ‘autobiography of the world.’ We continue to seek and encourage translations into additional languages and bilingual presentations of international tanka with the native and English versions as co-equals. We also welcome articles, book reviews and essays addressing various elements of poetry of place in tanka in English or bilingual editions, as well as announcements, resources, and book notes in any language (no English translation required).

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica

"Image courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office"

Issue Notes:




TABLE OF CONTENTS


Editorial

The Autobiography of the World, M. Kei 7

Tanka in Sets and Sequences 8

The Road of the Wagemakers Family, Ella Wagemakers 8

On Guam, Norla M. Antinoro 9

The Empire Chest of Drawers, Abigail Greene 10

Looking for a House, Ella Wagemakers 11

The Red Divide, M. Kei 12

Garden of Stone, Jim Doss 14

Singing Silence, James Rohrer 15

Taupiri Mountain, Patricia Prime 15

All Clear, Patrica Prime 16

Still No Rain, Amelia Fielden 16

Port Phillip fragments, Jo McInernery 17

Tree of Life, James Toupin 18

Another Spring, Marje A. Dyck 19

Along the California Coast, Deborah Kolodji 20

Elvis, Alexis Rotella 22

Tanka Triptych, Sanford Goldstein 23

Drugs, Hooch, and Mobile Phones, Paul Mercken 26

New York Matinee, Paul Mercken 26

Holbeck Hill, Liam Wilkinson 27

Something About This Light, Owen Bullock & André Surridge 28

Tirohanga, Patricia Prime & Catherine Mair 29

The Philippines, Robert Wilson 30

Doing Time, shanna baldwin moore 31

Libya, Denis M. Garrison 31

Topical Tanka 32

The Good Earth 32

Autumn 34

Individual Tanka 35

Announcements 56

19th Int'l Tanka Splendor Award 56

Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka 57

First Int'l Erotica Tanka Contest 58

Way Back Home 58

Moonset 58

Cigarettes Butts and Lilacs 59

Slow Motion 59

International News & Resources 61

Biographies, Issues 1 & 2 65

Index 71

ATPO 1: Earth as Poetry (reprint)

REPRINT


ATLAS POETICA 1 – SPRING 2008


Earth as Poetry

Welcome to the premiere edition of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka! New from Modern English Tanka Press, the Atlas strives to bring a new level of innovation, artistry, and appreciation to poetry of place in the tanka form.

A 'place' is not just any geographic place, but a place imbued with meaning. It is a combination of physical features (both natural and manmade) and significance perceived by humans and other creatures. Some places are grand and well-known while others are intimate, personal and experienced only by the poet. All of these special places are important because of the transformation of perception that they grant to the sensitive mind.

'Place' is therefore a locus of the natural and human worlds, the mediator between 'outer space' that contains all that the senses can perceive and 'inner space' which is the realm of the mind. It is the delicate zone through which all life moves. It forms a very thin veneer on the earth’s surface and is fragile, precious, and infinitely variable. It is the place of maps and mysteries, of exploration, discoveries, and disasters. It is the known world and the deep sea; it is the place of security, danger, and dreams.

It is the place where poetry is born and written, and it is the place we invoke when we chant the names of the world. It is an incantation that raises our souls to communion with something larger than ourselves, a place in which we are born, live, and die, our existence becoming part of that place and so immortal, just as that place becomes part of us and so mortal and perishable. Poetry is its natural voice, the song that sings through the ages when the place itself has vanished or been transformed beyond recognition. Poetry is the amber in which the places of the past are preserved.

The advent of space flight has erased boundaries and provided new ways to see our Earth, and so the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA have teemed up to create an online image gallery entitled, "Our Earth as Art." It is from this gallery that our cover photo is taken. That image is not abstract art nor a marbled paper, but a picture of the Anti-Atlas Mountains in southern Morocco as seen by satellite. All future covers of Atlas Poetica will also be drawn from "Our Earth As Art," showcasing different places around the world.

With the launching of Atlas Poetica we invite all readers to see the places of the world through the eyes of poets and to find in poetry the maps that lead them to explore the multitude of meanings manifest in their own special places.

~K~

M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica

"Image courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office"

Issue Notes:




TABLE OF CONTENTS



7 Editorial, Earth as Poetry, M. Kei

64 A Brief Statement on Tanka Definitions, M. Kei



8-34 Tanka in Sets and Sequences



8 holy ground, Sanford Goldstein

12 Geriatric Tanka, Barbara A. Taylor

12 This Is the Path, Ella Wagemakers

13 Europe, Alexis Rotella

14 Joyous Lake, Gary LeBel

17 once upon a time, Jamila

17 Manhattans on the Mountain Top, Barbara A. Taylor

18 Ireland, Abigail Greene

19 Tanka Za Connie / Tanka for Connie, Žarko Milenić

20 Three in Autumn, Miriam Sagan

20 Fighting Cloud Women, Barbara A. Taylor

21 Islands in the Chesapeake, M. Kei

22 North of Superior, M. Kei

22 The First People, James Rohrer

23 the old pa, Bernard Gadd

24 The Morning Market, James Rohrer

24 In Ma-Tzu's Court, James Rohrer

25 Closing the Circle, Guy Simser

25 Back and Forth, Guy Simser

26 Winterside, Liam Wilkinson

27 Wien / Vienna, Franz Prietler

28 Dracula între mit şi realitate / Dracula between myth and reality, Magdalena Dale

29 Vechea Temniţă / The Old Prison, Vasile Moldovan

29 The Shape of the Cliff, Megan Arkenberg

30 Round Faces & Nesting Dolls, an’ya and Alexis Rotella



38 Topical Tanka

38 Spring

39 Book Shopping

40 Birds & Butterflies

41 Down to the Sea

43 Dinner & Drinks



44-64 Individual Tanka



65 Announcements

65 Book Note: Heron Sea

66 Obituary: Bernard Gadd



67 International News & Resources

67 Nederlands

67 Deutsch

67 Español

68 Română

68 Hrvatski

68 Magyar

68 Suomeksi

69 Svenska

69 Ελληνικά

70 Русский



71 Index