Poets Salon: Wild

POETS SALON

– 8/14/19

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

My daughter awoke in the night with a buffalo in her closet. I saved her. The wild animals were peering in her window. I painted it pink to hide her. While in the hospice room twenty years ago life ended for my former husband. I swept the front stoop and found the space I might control. Wild. Life gave a shiver. And I smiled. I just needed to say…yes

unfinished
even at the end
morning glory

~ Kath Abela

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Wild Swan (Photo – Martha Magenta)

Martha Magenta

incoming tide
the eager thrust
of a seagull’s wings

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slow river
daffodils nod
at a passing swan

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sunset walk
the passion
of a rambling rose

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yellow scorpion
a kestrel’s wings blister
in the heat

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a blackbird
tucks in its shadow
autumn twilight

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only we
can hear the wild music
of the sea
we lose ourselves
in a swirl of birds

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lured by the scent
of wild garlic
deep in the woods
I am lost
but for the river’s song

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white parasol opening wild morning glory

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Looking Up (Photo – Billy T. Antonio)

Billy Antonio

When I was still a young boy, my father would go to the rice fields every week, and my younger brother and I would often tag along to lend him a hand. We had to walk several kilometers to get there. We would cross rivers and pass through woods. One of the “wildest things” I had experienced during that time was when we went to the rice fields at night to check if the rice plants were properly being irrigated. We only had the full moon and a flashlight to light our path. My father cautioned us to be careful not to step on a snake that would suddenly cross our path. I still remember the sounds I heard that night. Frogs. Crickets. Bats. The trees. Even the wind. It was a lot different than it was during the day. It was “wild”.

woodlore
the thrill
of mushroom hunting

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the trail of
a lone firefly
night camp

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getting
to know myself…
forest trail

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early dawn —
a wild boar and i
take opposite ways

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solitary walk
a snake
crosses my path

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echoes
of guilt
bats

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“Welcome to the Northwest Territories” (Photo – kjmunro)

kjmunro

baby bears break into my dream house

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rune-songs
singing themselves
into existence

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Yukon weather forecast
full sun emoji
at 11 pm

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coming & going with the flow ice

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blowing snow
how my plans
change

Wild Nature (Photo – Natalia Kuznetsova)

Natalia Kuznetsova

Wilderness in its genuine diversity and beauty … As you grow older you start to understand and feel affinity between yourself and Mother Nature. Moreover you often see how superior and perfect it is and how cruel human beings are to this perfection. I love wandering in the meadows,”hunting” for mushrooms in the woods or just watching the ocean tide. This truly cleanses my soul and clears out my mind …”

perfection
is nonexistent, they say…
just look up

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light and darkness
locked in timeless duel..
life

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Forest (Photo – kjmunro)

Wild: Quotes and Credits

All the poets in our Wild Salon, including your host, were among the winners in the first International Morioka Haiku Contest in Japan. (Scroll down, past the Japanese characters to see the English.) Others will be featured in upcoming weeks.

Martha Magenta is an award-winning haiku poet living in Bristol, England. She has a passion for herbalism, gardening, veganism, animal rights, Earth and the environment. She has worked for ActionAid, and Friends of the Earth. Her poetry, haiku, haibun, senryu, and tanka have appeared in many journals, magazines, and anthologies. She was awarded first, second and third prizes and Honorable Mentions in contests for haiku, tanka and haibun in 2017 – 2019. She is listed on The European Top 100 haiku authors, 2017 and 2018. She collects her published work on her blog.

Billy Antonio was born in 1975 in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, Philippines. He is the author of a mini-chapbook, In a Country with Two Seasons (Poems-For-All), two poetry chapbooks, Losing a Balloon: Haiku and Senryu (Alien Buddha Press) and where it was (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York), and a short fiction collection, Thread and Other Stories (Alien Buddha Press). His poetry has won international recognition including first places in the European Kukai and Shiki Kukai, Honorable Mentions in the Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest and Setouchi Matsuyama International Photo Haiku Contest. He is a Dwarf Stars Award nominee. Some of his fiction and poetry have been published in journals, magazines (print and online), and anthologies. He now lives in Laoac, Pangasinan, Philippines with his wife Rowena and his daughters Felicity and Asiel Sophie.

kjmunro: Katherine J. Munro publishes under the name kjmunro. Originally from Vancouver, BC, Canada, she moved to the Yukon Territory in 1991, & to its capital Whitehorse – “the wilderness city” – in 1994. Her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019)

Natalia Kuznetsova lives in Moscow, Russia. She’s a university English instructor, translator, interpreter and a poet published in international journals and anthologies.

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.

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