Category Tanka

by GAVIN AUSTIN Alberton Cemetery A tanka sequence clouds part as ladders of light span liminal spaces a walk through time into this thin place magpie flutes filter from gumleaves overhead branches carve deep shadows whispering of the past marking…

by HANNAH BORRELL sirens in the wind smoke stitched into every breath he won’t leave just yet keeps hosing the old tin roof like a prayer not said loud bone between his teeth he trots through open scrub ears fixed,…

by HEMAT MALAK autumn leaves hang beside flying foxes in the breeze… I unpeg the line of socks and carry them inside twigs with berries pile up on the footpath under the galah… so many wasted words in our conversations…

by PAT SAUNDERS satin splashes across lace-embossed breasts with brollies held high tipsy heels dangling vomit catching toes

by MADHURI PILLAI sunlit fluffs of floating clouds – I watch my dog watch rising hot-air balloons in deepening dusk the park reverberates with soaring cicada songs… melding into the shadows a man and his dog gym foyer… after the…

by JENNIFER FELL strings of tinsel around the camellia… a worker waves the bulldozer toward the emptied house Davies Street, Warragul, VIC today’s murmuration of starlings – specks of mud flit across my windscreen Plantation Lane, Abbeystead, Lancashire, UK

by JO McINERNEY Dislocation a tanka string a pale snail clinging to the bricks beside our door as the waters rise we all seek shelter neighbours crowded on a football field thick smoke obscuring what the fire may have left…

by MAEVE ARCHIBALD Fowler’s Bay a whale of a show the tail ballet takes an encore to our applause Nullarbor Plain summerhouse the bride poses her wide skirts spread over the steps iron lace and tulle Botanic Gardens, Adelaide

by ROBYN CAIRNS sudden dive of a black shouldered kite the birders view the day moon plane tree leaves pressed wet to Carlton paths we share a bowl of autumn risotto lighthouse romance on the limestone coast a sequence of…

by MARILYN HUMBERT Strangers in strangeland a tanka sequence we wander the cracked surface of narrow byways scooters push past horns beeping strings of tiny bells decorate hawker stalls in Little India we fall under the alchemy of exotic scents…