Poem in Quadrant

Andrew’s poem “Autumn Maples” has been published in the April 2019 issue of Quadrant magazine. The poem, a set of two tanka, is reprinted below:

 

Autumn Maples

.         .1

Spinning Out

As they spun out
during the scourging of Christ,
so the blood-drops
are hurtling from the maples
as the wind flogs their raw backs.

.         .2

Right Time

The south hemisphere
is not the maples’ true home
—and yet only here
do they perform the Passion
plays at the right time of year.

          © Andrew Lansdown

New Book – Kyoto Momiji Tanka: Poems & Photos of Japan in Autumn

Rhiza Press has published a new collection of Andrew’s poems and photographs.

Kyoto Momiji Tanka is a stunning collection of poems and photographs celebrating the ancient capital of Japan, Kyoto, during autumn, when the maples (momiji) vividly colour the natural, cultural and emotional terrains of the Japanese.

The poems (written in a traditional Japanese form known as tanka) and photographs introduce readers to a fascinating world of Shinto brides, tanuki, spirit foxes, geisha, shakuhachi players and, of course, autumn maples.

Kyoto Momiji Tanka is a companion volume to Kyoto Sakura Tanka (Rhiza Press, 2016), which celebrates Kyoto in spring during the cherry blossom (sakura) season.

Read sample poems and view sample photographs on the Kyoto Momiji Tanka page on this website here.

Order a copy of Kyoto Momiji Tanka for $24.95 (free postage in Australia) through the Buy Books page on this website.

Two Poems in Quadrant

The March 2019 issue of Quadrant magazine contains two of Andrew’s poems— “Of Maples and …”, a 5-tanka gunsaku, and “Windbells at Fushimi Inari Shrine”, a 4-tanka gunsaku. The first and third “Windbells” tanka are reproduced below:

Windbells at Fushimi Inari Shrine

.        .1

Beckoning

A shop at the shrine
selling big-tailed stone foxes
and toy-sized torii
has a dangle of windbells,
all dinging with the wind’s dint.

.        .3

Sacredness

There is everything
and nothing sacred about
this Shinto windbell
whose fashioned material
sounds out the ethereal.

          © Andrew Lansdown

 

Three poems in Studio

The latest issue of Studio magazine (No. 145, 2019) contains three of Andrew’s poems: “Them Shoes”, “Miscellaneous Thoughts on Poetry” and “Suburban Birds”.

“Miscellaneous Thoughts on Poetry” is set of three tanka, while “Suburban Birds” is a set of five haiku. “Them Shoes” is a 52-line “free form” poem set in Bourbon Street in New Orleans. All three poems are included in Andrew’s latest book , Distillations of Different Lands, which has was released late last year by Sunline Press.

The first and last haiku in “Suburban Birds” are reprinted below:

Suburban Birds

.        .i
The overhead wire—
a pair of welcome swallows
singing in the sag.

.        .v
Such a lovely note—
how could I not look up to
find the pardalote?

          © Andrew Lansdown

Don’t pay $335 for Andrew’s Novel, With My Knife

A British seller on Amazon.com.uk is currently (as of 5th February 2019) offering a used copy of Andrew’s fantasy novel, With My Knife, for AUD $335 (GPD £181.19), plus postage. A second British seller is selling a used copy for AUD $270 (GPD £146.23)

An American seller on Amazon.com is currently offering a used copy of With My Knife for AUD $70 (USD $49.95), plus postage.

Four other American sellers on Amazon.com are offering new copies of Beyond the Open Door, the American edition of With My Knife, for AUD $70 – $75 (USD $49.95 – $52.22), plus AUD $35 (USD $24.95) postage.

While the With My Knife is worth every penny (at least, according to these sellers — not to mention the author!), there is in fact no need to pay such high prices.

After being out of print for nearly a decade, With My Knife is now available in an omnibus book that also contains Andrew’s novel Dragonfox and The Red Dragon.

This three-novel volume, titled The Chronicles of Klarin, was released by Rhiza Press in November 2018 and can be purchased for (a mere!) AUD $24.95, plus postage.

The Chronicles of Klarin can be purchased through this website, or though the publisher’s website, or though your local bookshop.

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 25, 2018) has just published Andrew’s poem “Chimney Tree”.

Needless to say, his poem is a tanka, a poem written in a traditional Japanese form of five lines arranged in 5.7.5.7.7 syllables respectively. (Andrew views this strict syllabic structure as the ideal and strives to duplicate it, although many tanka poets writing in English today disregard it altogether.)

Eucalypt‘s style is to dispense with titles, capital letters and full-stops. Accordingly, Andrew’s tanka was published in the journal as follows:

it’s a chimney tree,
that motley-barked wandoo with
its hollow branches—
come twilight, little bats will
waft from those flues like ashes

            © Andrew Lansdown

New book – Trilogy: The Chronicles of Klarin

THE CHRONICLES OF KLARIN

A trilogy of fantasy novels:  With My Knife   &   Dragonfox   &   The Red Dragon

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

Wombat Books (Capalaba, QLD), 2018
(paperback, 400 pages)
ISBN: 978-1-925563-58-0

 

PRICE: $24.95 (+ $5.00 postage in Australia)

 

Wombat Books has just released The Chronicles of Klarin, an omnibus edition containing Andrew’s much-loved fantasy novels, With My Knife, Dragonfox, and The Red Dragon.

For more details, go here.

You can purchase The Chronicles of Klarin for $24.95 (plus $3.00 postage) through this website at the BUY BOOKS page.