The contemporary haibun 19 anthology

Cover of contemporary haibun 19

It has not been the start to 2024 I hoped for and as a result little writing or art-making has happened. However, in amongst the difficult things I had the wonderful news that my very first published tanka prose (and so first published tanka ) which was included in issue 19.2 of contemporary haibun online, had been chosen for inclusion in their latest print anthology – 19. As you can imagine I was surprised and delighted! Copies of the anthology published by Red Moon Press can be bought here: https://redmoonpress.com/product/contemporary-haibun-volume-19-edited-by-rich-youmans-and-the-ch-staff/ or via Amazon, which I confess I opted for due to the postage costs of ordering direct from the USA. It has been beautifully produced, including 32 full-colour haiga that look stunning and which I will be learning from as I hope to create haiga this year. Here’s my tanka prose below. Given how my last month or so has worked out, it couldn’t be more pertinent.

Photograph of my piece in the anthology – text below

The Call

Dad messages me the following day to apologise for talking too much on our weekly call. He got into one of those diatribes against religion. Says he’ll set the phone timer to 15 minutes in future. So I tell him it’s okay, I know you don’t have anyone to talk to most of the time. But do forgive me if my concentration waivers when it’s something I’m not really interested in. You’re 80, I don’t say, I know there may not be many more years of calls. I’d rather not listen to the same rants over and over, but I do it because it matters to you.

you apologized
for going into preacher mode
what you really wanted
was to say
something I never heard

Another Tanka Prose in Contemporary Haibun Online & a Nomination!

Citrus Veins

Screenshot from CHO (Text at bottom of post)

I‘m a bit behind in posting this one, energy for writing still seems sparse. This tanka prose was originally written for a themed submission to Mslexia on the topic of ‘Poison’. It didn’t get accepted so I decided to try a haibun & tanka prose-focused journal instead and submitted it to CHO (https://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/cho19-3-table-of-contents/alison-clayton-smith-citrus-veins/). The poison it talks of is Lyme Disease. I did not know 33 years ago I had been infected but a few years ago found out the classic bullseye rash from which I removed the tick meant I had been. And that it probably explained at least some, if not all, of my chronic health issues ever since. I’m not completely in love with using the word ‘tick’ twice in the tanka, it feels a little clunky, but I stuck with it.

I also received an email last week that my very first published tanka prose (and my first published tanka) has been nominated by CHO for an anthology. Even if it doesn’t make through the selection process I am very happy knowing that it was worthy of consideration. It’s another sign that I’ve found a home in this form.

——————-

Citrus Veins

I remember beautiful sunny days. Hacking rhododendrons, or ‘rhodies’ as we called them, from the land to halt their invasive run across the Lakes. I remember laughter and hard, physical work. Time in the pub. Playing darts and winning. Evening walks. A romance even, unexpected in a week, but filling me with adult teenage hope.

the tick
I removed from my arm
left toxic waste
another hour ticks by
resigned to lying down

And I remember rhododendrons hate lime.

——————

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Two tanka published in British Haiku Society publications

tanka (written below) with my name underneath

My writing, editing and submitting have slowed down considerably as my brain energy has been consumed by work. One of the challenges of chronic fatigue is brain fog and it’s been very foggy in there outside of work! However, this month I had tanka published by the British Haiku Society. The first in the latest Blithe Spirit journal:

scrolling
for pictures of joy
outside
unpruned rose branches
create puppets in the wind

Alison Clayton-Smith, Blithe Spirit Journal p. 35, vol. 33, no. 4

This describes the absurdity of those times I’m looking at photos of nature on social media to make me smile, and then I look up and watch the rose branches moving against the window across from me. Both give joy but only one creates a sense of peace and grounding.

The second tanka appears in ‘Change’ the BHS Members’ Anthology 2023:

tanka with my name underneath

last night
I thought of friends
lost
spinning fibre
into yarn for you

Alison Clayton-Smith, Change BHS Anthology 2023, p.97

Occasionally I get my spinning wheel out to spin plant fibres into handspun yarn for projects that might happen one day. As I was spinning this time I thought about the alternative meaning of yarn, as a story, and how spinning often features in the old myths and tales. And then there are all those stories of friends, and especially for me, Bobby, that we want to hold on to after they’ve gone. There’s this fear that we will forget the stories and that would mean the final end of a relationship. When Bobby first died I bought a notebook to write down all the stories about him but the notebook remains unused. I think partly because I’ve realised I’m unlikely to forget the ones that matter, but also, like doing something final with his ashes which are still sitting in my wardrobe, it would feel like a letting go that I’m still not ready for. My blog’s title ‘And then there were stories’ reflects this idea that once our loved ones, events or days have passed, often all we are left with are the stories. Furthermore, this tanka reflects the fact that as I spin I get lost in my thoughts.

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Tanka (& haiku) prose in Drifting Sands Haibun Journal

Tanka prose in DSH, text at bottom of post

I am very happy to have this tanka (& haiku) prose, inspired by seeing and looking out for a missing dog this year, published in DSH here: https://drifting-sands-haibun.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Issue-23.pdf#page86 . I submitted it for the previous journal in a different form and the guest editor for that issue made a few suggestions to improve it, encouraging me to re-submit the next time. The guest editor for this edition, Marion Clarke, came back with very detailed and encouraging feedback and suggestions on my edited piece. I was really touched by the time Marion had taken in reviewing my work and the encouragement to resubmit to her if I could revise it in time. 24 hours later with a little extra to and fro it was done.

The key change Marion suggested was to change the second tanka I had to a haiku and with a different focus. I’ll admit I don’t really feel I’m a natural haiku writer so I wrote a different tanka which came out of nowhere as I was re-reading my prose. Marion liked the start of the tanka but felt the last two lines were superfluous and it became, with another small change, a haiku. So I now have my first published haiku too, though I feel I can’t claim full credit for it.

And now I am thinking how playful it might be to experiment with different poetry forms in a piece and how far you can go with this. Perhaps I should be brave and study haiku further rather than believe it’s not for me.

Text of piece is below, please note I’ve written this post on my phone and WordPress has annoyingly refused point blank to format the haiku with single-line spacing, so I’ve left it as is.

Going Back

another day
muntjacs and squirrels run past
I think of if onlys
lost in the long grass

Ruby ran away a few months ago, after a gunshot startled her. Her family searched for her everywhere. Once, I saw her on my walk by the woods. A red cocker spaniel, muddy, soaked and running at high speed. Despite all the advice not to call out to a runaway dog, I called her name. Instinct, I suppose. But once in survival mode, dogs can be hard to catch, and Ruby carried on running. Every walk I hoped to see her again.

Then one day, an update online. She’d been handed in to a vet 170 miles away.

remembering curlews

I debate returning

to my childhood home

My first published tanka prose

In April I joined the Tanka Online course run by Call of the Page, who I am lucky enough to do part-time admin work for. I will admit that though I had been working for CTP for about 18 months by then, I didn’t really know what tanka was. Before I joined CTP, the only Japanese short-form poetry I knew of was haiku. I did the Introducing…Haiku course last year but haiku and I didn’t really click, much as I enjoy reading them. Tanka on the other hand were like finding that space where you know you belong. Unlike haiku, which are focused on concrete imagery, tanka makes space for the expression of feelings. In fact tanka traditionally were mostly about love and relationships and a way of communicating between interested parties. In five lines I can express something poignant and profound or mundane or joyful sparked by something arising in the day. So often throughout my days I think, I should blog about this conversation I’m having in my head, but I don’t because I don’t have the energy or I think I’ll end up wittering on till I peter out and realise actually I don’t really have something to say. But five lines are very much doable. Not only are they doable but they also force me to get to the essence of what is inside my head because tanka are down-to-earth. There isn’t the space for long descriptions and flowery language.

Having found a love of prose poetry whilst doing the Encounters with Kin course last November (the course that started this blog), I knew I had to try writing tanka prose which combines one or more tanka with a prose piece that may be factual or fictional or somewhere in between. To my surprise, and delight, my very first one was accepted for publication by Contemporary Haibun Online and you can read it here:

Alison Clayton-Smith, The Call

I also have a tanka coming out in another publication in the Autumn. Meanwhile I am writing lots of tanka and tanka prose, editing and editing, and submitting when they feel ready. I have also been reading a lot about writing tanka and its history. I feel like I’m just at the start of what is possible with this form of creative expression and I’m excited to see where it takes me.