I wonder about your thoughts on having a KaDo blog. Let me know. Today’s post features another shahai by Grant D. Savage, and a tanka sequence he read at Tree on April 10th, and for which he was complemented by a/several poet(s) of stature.
Tanka – Red-wings – Blackbirds
opposing reds
on opposing reeds
straight from their shoulders
straight from their flaming hearts
the blackbirds’ spring dawns
spreading sunrise
on its fiery shoulders
a red-wing’s song
in full flight
on a swaying reed
south wind and reeds
alight with song
dark with half-flown red-wings
the weightlessness
of your florida tan
almost evening
sun-horizon-brilliance
matched with the spread
of bird-wings that fold
their dark to voice
the red-wings once more
forage the fields in flocks
not even their warmest
or deepest songs
a match for the spring snow
a red-wing
lands on a cattail’s
breeze
and where has it gone that first
and lightest touch of desire
from reed to reed
a blackbird follows
its song
the way it leads
straight to you
sun the colour
of the males’ shoulders
the blackbirds weave
reed baskets of togetherness
and mutual dreams
blackbird song
dimness of first light
i settle back in the nest
of our love – wet … hair
to tangle it further
dawn
i rise on the spread
of red-wing song
on the breeze-like sibilance
of your dreaming “G-r-a-a-a-n-t”
The Heron’s Nest 2012 Anthology of the best haiku it has published in its magazine each year. This proves that Grant Savage certainly knows his business where haiku is concerned, with four poems selected in one year. Here are two of them:
lake of stars
the taste
of Polaris
hint of frost
the spruce tipped
with jupiter
And to show that haiku poets can be a fun-loving competitive people like anybody else with our own contests and excitements, Heron’s poem of the year: Chad Lee Robinson, (Pierre, South Dakota)
migrating geese –
the things we thought we needed
darken the garage
Many have already let me know whether they are coming to the Japanese Embassy on May 12, and how many friends they will be bringing to share the fun. Our guest’s topic is wagashi. She is an expert at preparing and forming these seasonal sweets, and will have some samples for us! For anyone I know is coming, that is…
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