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

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 30, 2021) has published one of Andrew’s tanka. Andrew has titled it “This Upwelling”, although it was published without a title in Eucalypt. It is reproduced below in the house style of the magazine, without a title, an opening capital or closing full-stop:

it gladdens me,
this unceasing upwelling
of loveliness—
there are birds in the birdbath,
grandchildren in the branches

© 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.

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

 

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 29, 2020) has published one of Andrew’s tanka. Andrew has titled it “Evocations”, although it was published without a title in Eucalypt, and without an opening capital or closing full-stop. It is reproduced below in the house style of the magazine:

 

unlikeliest things
can ignite or inflame grief …
today the bamboo’s
swollen knuckles remind me
of my dead mother’s dear hands

        © Andrew Lansdown

 

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.

Four poems in Quadrant

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 stark

and stags scent the heat of hinds on the breeze,
my soul apprehends as my sight perceives

the 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.