The February 2022 issue of inScribe: Journal of Creative Writing (Issue 3) contains two of Andrew’s poems—”Night Petals, Shirakawa Canal” and “The Darkness Tanka”.
Night Petals, Shirakawa Canal
Gion, Kyoto, Japan
An oblong of light
laid on the canal surface
from a café window—
and sometimes cherry petals
drifting through from dark to dark …Lovely but lonely
to see them passing by on
the canal’s surface—
petals with their pale faces
like those of the ones we love.© Andrew Lansdown
Andrew’s poem “Zuiho-in Zen Temple, Kyoto” has been published in the latest issue (# 33, 2021) of Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry.
The poem is dedicated to the memory of Sorin Otomo, a warlord who founded the Zen temple in Kyoto in the sixteenth century AD and later converted to Christianity.
In recognition of Sorin’s Christian faith, one of the dry landscape gardens at the temple has seven stones positioned to from the shape of a cross.
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
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.
The April 2020 issue of Quadrant contains 4 of Andrew’s poems: “Loss”, “Apprehension”, “The Lotus Pod Innovations”, and “Unleafed Weeping Cherry”.
“Loss” is a villanelle; “The Lotus Pod Innovations” is a 3-tanka gunsaku; “Unleafed Weeping Cherry” is a 2-tanka gunsaku; and “Apprehension” is written in rhyming couplets.
Apprehension
As we amble in autumn in Nara Park,
where cherries and gingkoes are turning starkand stags scent the heat of hinds on the breeze,
my soul apprehends as my sight perceivesthe heart-shaped leaves of the Chinese tallows,
crimson as blood from the Man of Sorrows.© Andrew Lansdown
“Apprehension” is included in Andrew’s latest collection, Abundance: New and Selected Poems, published in December 2020 in the USA by Wipf and Stock Publishers.
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
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
Read more about Warrior Monk here.
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.
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.”
The September 2019 issue of Quadrant contains 2 of Andrew’s poems: “The Martyred Mother”, a poem written in 7 unrhymed quatrains (except for the last quatrain, which rhymes A, B, C, B), and “Little Endings” suite of 6 haiku.