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
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
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
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
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