ATLAS POETICA A Journal of World Tanka Number 34 M. Kei, editor Grunge, editorial assistant 2018 Keibooks, Perryville, Maryland, USA KEIBOOKS P O Box 346 Perryville, Maryland, USA 21903 AtlasPoetica.org Atlas Poetica A Journal of World Tanka Copyright © 2018 by Keibooks All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers and scholars who may quote brief passages. See our EDUCATIONAL USE NOTICE. Atlas Poetica : A Journal of World Tanka, an organic print and e-journal published at least three times a year. Atlas Poetica is dedicated to publishing and promoting world tanka literature, including tanka, kyoka, gogyoshi, tanka prose, tanka sequences, shaped tanka, sedoka, mondo, cherita, zuihitsu, ryuka, and other variations and innovations in the field of tanka. We do not publish haiku, except as incidental to a tanka collage or other mixed-form work. Atlas Poetica is interested in all verse of high quality, but our preference is for tanka literature that is authentic to the environment and experience of the poet. While we will consider tanka in the classical Japanese style, our preference is for fresh, forward-looking tanka that engages with the world as it is. We are willing to consider experiments and explorations as well as traditional approaches. In addition to verse, Atlas Poetica publishes articles, essays, reviews, interviews, letters to the editor, etc., related to tanka literature. Tanka in translation from around the world are welcome in the journal. Published by Keibooks ISBN-13: 978-1723568435 ISBN-10: 1723568430 Also available for Kindle. AtlasPoetica.org TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial Jonathan Day ................................................39 The Consolation of Art, M. Kei ..........................5 Joy McCall ......................40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 Letters to the Editor ........................................6 Kath Abela Wilson .................................46, 47 Educational Use Notice ................................92 Keitha Keyes................................................. 48 Leonard Green .............................................48 Poetry Lorne Henry .................................................49 A. A. Marcoff ..................................................7 M. Kei ................................................5, 50, 51 Adelaide B. Shaw ..........................................13 Marianne Paul ..............................................51 ai li.... .............................................................. 9 Marietta McGregor ......................................52 Aju Mukhopadhyay ......................................11 Marilyn Humbert .........................................78 Akane ............................................................67 Mark Jun Poulos .....................................54, 56 Alexander Jankiewicz ...................................12 Martin McKellar ..........................................21 Alexis Rotella ................................................12 Maryalicia Post .............................................59 Alistair M. C. Isaac .......................................13 Matthew Caretti ...........................................59 Anne Benjamin............................................. 14 Matsukaze..................................................... 60 Autumn Noelle Hall .........................15, 16, 18 Michael D. Mann .........................................62 Barbara Curnow .....................................18, 20 Michael H. Lester .............................63, 64, 65 Benjamin Taylor ...........................................20 Mike Montreuil ............................................67 Bette Midler ..................................................20 Murasame..................................................... 67 Billy Simms .............................................20, 21 Pat Geyer ......................................................69 Britton Gildersleeve ......................................23 Patricia Pella .................................................67 Bruce England ........................................23, 24 Patricia Prime .........................................68, 87 Carol Raisfeld .........................................25, 26 Paul Mercken ...................................69, 70, 71 Charles Harmon .....................................27, 29 Peter Fiore ....................................................71 Chen-ou Liu .................................................27 Pravat Kumar Padhy ....................................72 Crys Smith ....................................................78 Pris Campbell ...............................................72 Dave Read ....................................................29 Randy Brooks .........................................72, 73 Dean A. Brink ...............................................30 Richard Grahn .......................................73, 74 Debbie Strange .............................................30 Richard St. Clair ....................................75, 76 Dianne Fuela ................................................87 Ruth Holzer ..................................................77 Elizabeth Howard......................................... 31 Samantha Sirimanne Hyde ..........................78 Elizabeth Moura ...........................................31 Sandra Renew ..............................................83 Erin Kubota ..................................................32 Sanford Goldstein......................................... 82 Frances Black ................................................32 Scott Pickett ..................................................84 Genie Nakano ..............................................65 Shernaz Wadia .............................................84 Gerry Jacobson .......................................18, 33 Tanja Trcek ..................................................85 Giselle Maya .................................................68 Tish Davis..................................................... 86 Jackie Chou ..................................................34 Tracy Davidson............................................. 86 Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah ..................35, 36 Vijay Joshi .....................................................87 Jan Foster ......................................................78 Jenny Ward Angyal .......................................37 Articles Jim Doss .......................................................38 Review: Is it the wind that howls? ryuka triptychs, Joanna Ashwell .............................................38 by Joy McCall & Liam Wilkinson, reviewed by Jon Baldwin ..................................................39 Patricia Prime .....................................87 Atlas Poetica • Issue 34 • Page 3 destroyed. The Consolation of Art Tanka is catharsis, testimony, witness, exaltation, redemption, and most importantly, As I was editing Atlas Poetica 33, the Trump hope. Humans have never yet been cured of the regime was violating its own laws and treaties by madness that compels us, like Saturn devouring incarcerating asylum seekers coming across the his son, to devour those who are weaker than southern border of the United States. It was Nazi ourselves. But carried in our same defective genes Germany, 1938. I do not exaggerate; my degree is the desire to be better. Whether it is Géricault’s is history. The Nazis even claimed, as do some Raft of the Medusa, or Ernesto Cortázar’s supporters of the Trump regime, that the Beethoven’s Silence, art is how we express our concentration camps for children were essentially humanity. It is why cello players take their summer camps, complete with arts and crafts. instruments to bomb craters and war zones, sit in This was just one of many crises that humans the middle of danger and devastation, and play. around the world have been subjected to. The The human heart has been built into tanka genocide against the Rohingya, the #MeToo from the beginning. In his ‘Preface’ to the movement (and #MenToo and #ChurchToo), Kokinwakashū, Ki no Tsurayuki said, the revelation that the death toll in Puerto Rico after hurricanes last year was actually 20x higher, Hitomaro has passed away — but shall the China having a million Uighurs in camps, the poetic art stand still? Things change with ongoing civil war and civil desperation in Syria, change of times, joys and sorrows come and droughts and floods and wars and corruption . go — but shall not the letter of these poems Everywhere in the world it seems as if be preserved? [. .] and for ever, we trust, civilization is ending. A collective shall men, taking pleasure in the form of acknowledgment hangs unspoken in the air: the these poems, and profiting by their content, human species is despicable. This is what defines revere the verse of ancient days as the moon us as human. Only humans carry out the mass in high heaven, and applaud the age which murder and incarceration of their own species. saw the production of this Anthology. In the face of such destruction and despair, what can tanka do? — Ki no Tsurayuki. Humanistic Texts. <http://humanistictexts.org/ We can — we must — assert our humanity tsurayuki.htm#Introduction> and the humanity of all people everywhere. We do that with art. Art is the antidote to the evil Lord Ki’s time saw war and natural disaster; that