Poem & Photograph in Ekstasis

Ekstasis magazine has published Andrew’s poem, “Touching the Sacred”, in its Spring 2022 issue. This poem is a set of five haiku located in Kyoto, Japan. (A grouping of haiku on a common subject, theme, mood and/or setting is known as a gunsaku.)

Ekstasis also published a photograph Andrew took in Kyoto of susuki plumes, which corresponds to one of the haiku in the gunsaku.

The fifth and final haiku in “Touching the Sacred” is:

At the fox shrine—
a skulk of yipping windbells
wagging their tails.

          © Andrew Lansdown

You can read the all five haiku comprising “Touching the Sacred” on the Ekstasis website here: https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/poetry/2022/touching-the-sacred?rq=Andrew%20Lansdown

Last year, Ekstasis published another of Andrew’s poems, “The Biblical Maples”, a set of four tanka, which can be read here: https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/poetry/2021/7/25/the-biblical-maples?rq=Andrew%20Lansdown

Featured image: Susuki plumes, copyright Andrew Lansdown

Poem in Antipodes (USA)

The American literary journal, Antipodes, has published one of Andrew’s poems. “Light Observations”, a set of eight light-hearted haiku, appears in Vol. 34, No. 2, December 2020 issue of Antipodes. The middle two haiku are:

……….iv
The ram paddock—
a gathering of Scotsmen,
sporrans swinging.

……….v
Glorious racket—
one million frogs hollering
or one megafrog?

© Andrew Lansdown

2 poems in inScribe

Andrew has 2 poems in the August 2021 issue (Issue 02) of inScribe: Journal of Creative Writing — “Worship with Water”, a set of 4 tanka, and “Kilter”, a set of 3 haiku. The first 2 tanka in “Worship with Water”, which is set at Hozen Temple in Osaka, Japan, are:

            i
In the temple yard
an old man handpumps water
from a covered well
first for his own ablutions
then for the god’s libations.

…………ii
Ugly with fury,
the sculptured face of Fudo,
deity of fire …
With their water offerings, do
worshippers quench or fuel his ire?

            © Andrew Lansdown

Poems in The Mozzie

The last two issues of The Mozzie each contain one of Andrew’s poems.

His poem “The Biblical Maples”, a set of four tanka, is in the June 2021 issue (Vol. 29, Issue 1) of The Mozzie.

His poem “Ascendant Maple”, a set of three light-hearted haiku, is in the July 2021 issue (Vol. 29, Issue 2) of The Mozzie.

5 poems in Quadrant

 

 

 

The latest issue (July-August 2021) of Quadrant magazine includes 5 of Andrew’s poems—”So Far South”, “Gleam”, “The Bodhisattva’s Bib”, “A Game of Anything”, and “Bamboo Triptych”.

“The Bodhisattva’s Bib” is a set of 4 haiku, while “Bamboo Triptych” is a suit for 3 tanka. “So Far South”, “Gleam”, and “A Game of Anything” are free form poems. “A Game of Anything” is reproduced below:

 

A Game of Anything

.
I am watching two little girls
like ducklings tottering

in line behind their mother—
only, they are making a game

of the going, taking care
with wing-flappings for balance

to keep in the lanky shadow
she is casting on the asphalt

as she trundles her trolly
in the late afternoon sunlight

through the shopping-centre carpark.

            © Andrew Lansdown

Four poems in ROCHFORD STREET REVIEW

Rochford Street Review has published four of Andrew’s poem in its latest issue, Issue 31, 2021:1.

The poems are: “Little Things” (a set of 8 haiku); “After the Fishermen” (a set of 2 tanka); “Times of Fox-Dread” (a suite of 4 tanka); and “Petal Poems, Kyoto” (a 3-tanka suite).

The first haiku in “Little Things” is:

A flustering moth
on the lighted windowsill
in a gecko’s mouth.
.           .© Andrew Lansdown

The 4 tanka in “Times of Fox-Dread” were written after a visit to Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. The first tanka in the set is titled “Possession” and reads:

In old Japan
fear of foxes polluted
everyday life:
Oh, is that maid a vixen?
Is that sickness possession?
.           .© Andrew Lansdown

You can read the poems in full on the Rochford Street Review website here.

Chapbook of Children’s Poetry

Life Ministries has published a chapbook of Andrew’s children’s poetry—The Maiden and the Unicorn and other poems for children. It contains 16 poems (haiku, limericks, ballads, tanka and rhyming couplets and tercets) from Andrew’s larger collection, Allsorts: Poetry Tricks and Treats. The title poem, “The Maiden and the Unicorn”, is from Andrew’s novel, The Red Dragon.

The back page blurb states:

“When [my teacher] read the two outstanding books it made me gleam up with glee,” Lacie, a Year 6/7 student, wrote to Andrew Lansdown about his novels With My Knife and Dragonfox.

Hopefully, readers will be similarly delighted with Andrew’s poems for children in this short collection, The Maiden and the Unicorn.

The charming illustrations by Susan Lansdown should clinch the readers’ joy.

At $5.95 (post free), this 24 page chapbook offers readers an appealing introduction to Andrew’s poetry for children. Copies can be purchased here.

Three poems in Quadrant

 

 

 

 

Quadrant magazine has published three of Andrew’s poem in its November 2020 issue:

“Windbell”, 3-haiku gunsaku (or, series);

“The Homecoming”, a 2-tanka gunsaku;

and “Canada Geese Near Canada”, a 4-tanka gunsaku.

The first two tanka of “Canada Geese Near Canada” are:

 

.      .1
A spearhead of geese,
fixed on the shaft of instinct,
and hurled by autumn—
how swiftly and straight it flies
south in the threatening skies!

.      .2
Again, skeins of geese
cross the Wisconsin border,
wearing the sky’s fleece.
And whose heart doesn’t shiver
for want of a warmer winter?

        © Andrew Lansdown

“Canada Geese Near Canada” is included in Andrew’s latest collection, Abundance: New and Selected Poems, published in December 2020 in the USA by Wipf and Stock Publishers.

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