Poets Salon: Making Our Own World

POETS SALON

Red and Green Algae, colored pencil and Watercolor by Moritz Lorentz

– 03/11/20

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

It was a dream she could return to, to adjust, to reshape on her walks to the sea. The colors and forms that she had chosen moved her imagination and in the dark before dream her memory became a map. She visited the sites of her constructions each in turn until with a sudden hush, she would step into the world she had created… *

~ Kath Abela
*From Figures of Humor and Strange Beauty, Glass Lyre Press, Chicago, 2019

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Our beach (Photo – Roy Kindelberger)

Roy Kindleberger

Late January, we drove along the shoreline. It felt as though the car skated on ice. It swayed back and forth. Sandpiper swept the shoreline. Another group swirled in the winter breeze. A break from the continuous rainfall. The waves rushed in and returned again. My wife and I, almost completely alone. It felt like our beach. And out of nowhere, another bird appeared among the sandpiper and seagulls. It didn’t belong. Yet it did. A surprise.

out of the blue
sun peaks through winter clouds
ocean waves
an osprey perches, watches
from atop driftwood

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What I see in the ruins (Photo – Mariko Kitakubo)

Mariko Kitakubo

I have my own history in my world.
My early days (very young days) look like the ruins. Soundless wind and sunshine…Grandma, Mother, Father, Uncles and Aunts passed away.
I hear the sweet voice that call me for tea time in the empty ruins.
My foot feels love on the cool ancient stone road. The road remember so many footprints of my old family. The stone road started to build my world since I was a small girl.

mishearing
in the ruins
how many
ancient foot prints
on this stone road

one by one
each apple is lighted
tree of my life,
how many friends
pass away?

I have a beautiful tree in my mind.
Perhaps it is an apple. It has no voice, but has his gentle and noble quietness. When someone…very important person for me passes away, one of the apples is lit. When did I notice that ? I can’t remember.
1st one was lit when I was 11years old. Then, 10years, 20years later. . . The tree looks so beautiful with lit fruits. Without sounds or voice, they are watching me always. I can feel calm after deep sadness.
Maybe the apple tree is my visible heaven. Thank you my old family and friends, teachers doctors and small pets.

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Cactus flowers (Photo – Cynthia Anderson)

Cynthia Anderson

a pack of coyotes
cackling

black shadows of birds
flying south
this dawn needs

your help to survive

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treading water

she makes gestures
of friendship

to keep herself
afloat

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like old times

up late
talking endlessly
with friends—

the family
she never had

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it’s not easy
to spin a new story

so much tied up
in the old one
that held you

captive

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Whispers (Photo – Tiffany Shaw-Diaz)

Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

awaiting
the sweet scent
of April

I choose

bright colors
instead of black

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warmer now

I leave home
without trepidation

of the wind’s
sudden bite
against my neck

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regardless
of winter’s savagery
flowers return

bold and lovely

I have
so much to learn

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crabapple
magnolia
cherry

spring is
a reunion

of friends

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Making Her own World (Photo – Kathabela Wilson)

Making our Own World: Quotes and Credits

Roy Kindelberger: “Ebb and flow of ocean waves and the unexpected. An osprey perched on the shore. My wife, and I shared this moment together.” Roy is a poet, writer, and an elementary teacher. He lives in Edmonds, Washington, with his beautiful wife, and has two wonderful children, Emily and Hailey. Click to view his writing website.

Mariko Kitakubo sets her foot on an ancient road, feeling the inspiration of her family and friends who have gone before her, giving her strength to make her own world. (A tanka poet/tanka reading performer.) Born in Tokyo, Living in Mitaka-city, Tokyo. Mariko has published six books of tanka including three bilingual ones, “On This Same Star” , “Cicada Forest”and “INDIGO”, Shabda Press, Pasadena. She has also produced a CD of her tanka titled “Messages.” Mariko is an experienced performer who has presented her poetry on at least 234 occasions, 177 of them overseas (Sep. 2019).

Cynthia Anderson: “It seems to me that finding or making our own world is something each of us is called upon to do every day. I feel poetry is a key way to do that, to navigate the myriad of choices confronting us.” Cynthia Anderson lives among the wildlife and monzogranite boulders of the Mojave Desert, near Joshua Tree National Park. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, and she is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. She has authored nine collections and co-edited the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens.

Tiffany Shaw-Diaz: “During the bitter cold, the harshness of winter months, I try to fill my heart with the hope of spring and her promise of warmth and color.” Tiffany is an award-winning poet and artist who resides in Centerville, Ohio. Some of her most cherished memories revolve around the warmth and beauty of nature, and like her cherita states, she is exited to be reunited with her many “friends” once spring returns.

♣ Send your submissions by midnight Sunday, Pacific time, on each week’s theme: “Inspired by Spring“, “Transforming the World With Your Art” or suggest your own theme. Send short poems, haiku, senryu, tanka, cherita haibun, tanka prose, short prose poems, etc., or your own unique approach, to Kath Abela by Facebook message or click here to email her directly. We can feature your work again after five months. Multiple Submissions can be saved to appear later:

1. Send a short bio, comments on the theme.
2. Send photos or artwork by you, if possible.
3. No attachments except photos.

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