Review of Distillations of Different Lands

Andrews poetry collection, Distillations of Different Lands, was reviewed by Paul Grover in Studio magazine, Number 149, 2020. The review begins:

Andrew Lansdown’s new book of poems is a heartfelt journey into lands beyond and within. This is Andrew’s fifteenth book of poetry. Studio has published four of his poetry books, Abiding Things – poems, stories, essays, Allsorts – poetry tricks and treats and both his stunning Japanese photographs and poetry books. In this new collection the titles of the four parts of the book convey the breadth and depth of these poetic journeys: Heartland, Japan, Homeland, America. The title of the opening poem in Heartland, ‘Sketches of Life’, captures the spirit of this collection, as Andrew explores with raw emotion the playful joy and innocence of young grandchildren, the scraped-back pain from the death of his younger brother, and the depths of intimacy in love, birth and family. …

Continue reading Paul Grover’s review here.

Seven poems in six issues of The Mozzie

Over 2020, Andrew had seven poems published in six issues of The Mozzie.

In Vol. 27, Issue 9, March 2020 – “Saga Chrysanthemums” (a set of 4 tanka).

In Vol. 27, Issue 10, May 2020 – “Kilter” (a set of 3 haiku).

In Vol. 28, Issue 1, June 2020 – “Sandbathing Sparrows” (a set of 2 tanka).

In Vol. 28, Issue 2, July 2020 – “The Martyred Mother”.

In Vol. 28, Issue 3, August 2020 – “Durable Impressions” (a set of 3 haiku).

In Vol. 28, Issue 3, August 2020 – “Leafy Seadragon”.

In Vol. 28, Issue 4, September 2020 – “Little Endings” (a set of 6 haiku).

The poem “Sandbathing Sparrows” (below) is a gunsaku of two tanka that were published individually in Andrew’s book, Kyoto Momiji Tanka: Poems and Photographs of Japan in Autumn. (Go here for information about Kyoto Momiji Tanka.)

Sandbathing Sparrows

By the Kamo River, Kyoto

.      .1

Sprawl

The sparrows sprawling
on their sides, kicking their legs,
fluffing their feathers,
are miming the meaning of ‘Nice’
while sandblasting away their lice!

.      .2

Surrender

Washing their plumage
in a patch of river-rinsed sand,
the sparrows give them-
selves over to feelings of bliss,
as do we, to be watching this.

        © Andrew Lansdown

 

Three poems in Studio

Studio magazine published three of Andrew’s poems in issue Number 148, 2020: “Little Endings” (a suite of 6 haiku), “Autumn Maples” (a suite of 2 tanka), and “Separation” (a suite of 2 tanka).

“Little Endings”, a set of 6 light-hearted haiku, will be included in a forthcoming collection of Andrew’s poems. It reads:

Little Endings

.      .i
The spider’s mistake—
as it approached it set me
doing the quick-step!

.      .ii
Worse for the snail—
hearing while night-walking that
unexpected crunch!

.      .iii
My condolences,
grasshopper, for hopping into
my son’s affections.

.      .iv
Howzat! The blowfly
scored a triple twenty on
the spider’s dartboard!

.      .v
A grim irony—
aiming at a spider with
a can of fly-spray.

.      .vi
Feeling a bit flat—
mosquito meditating
on a clapping sound.

        © Andrew Lansdown

Haiku in The Mainichi newspaper, Japan

Andrew and his wife, Susan, were in Japan for five weeks earlier this year (2020). As if in celebration of their arrival, The Mainichi newspaper published one of Andrew’s haiku.

It was a complete surprise, as Andrew has never submitted work to this paper.

Apparently, the haiku editor, Dhugal J. Lindsay, recalled a haiku from Andrew’s 2005 Picaro Press chapbook, Warrior Monk, and felt it had something to say about the bushfires that had been raging for weeks in the eastern states.

Andrew’s haiku and the editor’s comments are included below:

than the twilight, kangaroos

crossing the firebreak

—

Andrew Lansdown (1954- ). From “Warrior Monk,” Picaro Press (Warners Bay), 2005.

The Australian sun is harsh and strong during the day, colors are vivid and edges and shadows stand out. This makes one notice even more the softer edges and muted colors that appear as dusk approaches and the light fades. There is only enough light left reflecting off the landscape to make out the shadows of the kangaroos bounding across the open space between the grass and scrub on either side — they are recognized as kangaroos perhaps more by their movement than by their shape. Although this haiku was made over 15 years ago, with the current bushfires in Australia, the image brought to my mind by “the firebreak” is a swathe of land recently burned to clear off all the flammable grass and scrub while bushfires inexorably make their way towards the poet’s property. The blackened land causes the kangaroos to fade even further into the twilight.

Selected and commented on by Dhugal J. Lindsay

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200124/p2g/00m/0et/074000c

Read more about Warrior Monk here.

POEM IN FREEXPRESSION

Andrew’s poem “Kyoto Autumn Maples” has been published in the February 2020 issue of FreeXpresSion magazine. This set of six tanka won the 2016 Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Prize and are included in Andrew’s latest poetry/photography collection, Kyoto Momiji Tanka: Poems and Photographs of Japan in Autumn.

Poem in The Mozzie

The Mozzie has published Andrew’s poem, “Windbell with Bamboos” in Vol 27, Issue 6, August 2019. “Windbell with Bamboos” is a suite of 3 tanka that is included in Andrew’s recent collection, Distillations of Different Lands.

“Windbells with Bamboos” is a tanka suite rather than a tanka sequence, as each tanka is a self-contained poem. Nonetheless, placed together the poems make something larger than themselves.

Windbell with Bamboos

        1
Verve

I see it again
in the sacred trinkets stall
at Inari Shrine—
the little windbell voicing
its verve on my veranda.

        2
Relocation

I dangled it there
among the Buddha bamboos
in the shiftless air—
the windbell that days before
had dinged too much by my door.

        3
Unintended

It’s not quite what I
wanted when I hung the wind-
bell in the bamboos:
they cherished it as their own
and coddled to death its tone.

          © Andrew Lansdown

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 27, 2019) has published one of Andrew’s tanka. The (as yet) untitled poem is reproduced below:

 

come the climax
of their glory, the maples
are spent, as once
on cracker night heaps of trash
blazed awhile then turned to ash

© Andrew Lansdown

Four poems in Studio – And Praise from Les Murray

Studio magazine published 4 of Andrew’s poems in its No. 146, 2019 edition. The poems are: “Of Maples and …”, a set of 5 tanka; “Bamboo Forest, Arashiyama”, a set of 3 haiku; “Windbells at Fushimi Inari Shrine”, a set of 3 tanka; and “The Shogun and the God”, a set of 2 tanka.

The final haiku in “Bamboo Forest, Arashiyama” reads:

With sky for dojo—
the giant timber bamboos
practising kendo.

          © Andrew Lansdown

This issue of Studio also contains a favourable review by Garry Furnell of Andrew’s recent poetry-and-photography collection, Kyoto Momiji Tanka, which can be purchased through this website here.

Additionally, the first page of Studio 146 contains a statement by the late Les Murray about Andrew. In a tribute to Les, the editor of Studio, Paul Grover, quotes from a postcard he received from Les in 2006. Among other things, Les told Paul, “As for Andrew Lansdown, he’s one of our very best poets, spitefully ignored most of the time.”

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 26, 2019) has published Andrew’s poem “no consolation”.

Unlike most of the 5-line poems in the magazine, Andrew’s poem conforms to the the traditional 5.7.5.7.7 syllabic structure used by the ancient Japanese tanka poets. Also, Andrew has structured his poem so that each line is a balanced phrase ending on an identical consonant.

no consolation
but it was by death it won
my admiration—
this long-snouted seadragon
snagged in weed by the ocean

            © Andrew Lansdown