Heron Sea Reviewed by Lynx

Dave Bacharach wrote a wonderful review of Heron Sea which is posted at Lynx, the online journal for linking poets.

However, as evocative as his three line poems are, it is in his tanka that Kei truly excels. In the wider five line form he is able to focus sharply on image and object, and then expand their meaning outward, with a kind of telescoping effect. This skill is apparent in a poem that recalls his Native American roots, the age-old sustenance the Bay area has provided, and the loss of a personal and collective future:

in a small museum
i stroke my hands over
Native stones,
weights for nets
empty of dreams

These little museums exist all across America-musty, unfrequented, one-room bastions doggedly holding onto a small town's past. On a visit, the poet touches an artifact, triggering a realization that suddenly expands to encompass past, present, and future. Again, the charged last line works both literally and as metaphor: The nets are empty of fish, empty of hope, empty of a viable future, not only for the first people that fished these waters, but, with a reference to environmental devastation, for all of us. It is no accident that in this poem, Kei uses the small "i."

You can read the entirety of the review at the link above.

Lulu Delivers at Last

After seven months, Lulu.com is finally replacing defective books shipped with black ink on the spine during October - November 2006. Several individuals have let me know they received their replacement books, and I also received mine. Hopefully everybody who received the defective books has/will receive them.

One of my reader was quite surprised at what a difference the proper color made -- the gold really does stand out much better than the black. The cover colors -- background, text, image -- were coordinated and the black ink on the spine simply didn't fit. I labored a lot over Fire Pearls and spent a great deal of money to create the best book I could, so I was very unhappy when a Lulu error damaged that.

Hopefully there will be no further problems.

Tanka Resources for Educators and Students

Denis M. Garrison, Editor of Modern English Tanka, has been compiling resources for educators and students at the secondary, university, and post-graduate levels. They included recommended reading lists designed with a pedagogic purpose in mind, a copy of my Bibliography of Works Containing Tanka in English with a Creative Commons copyright, and some other resources.

These and various other works will eventually be able in a hardcopy version for a nominal fee. Check out the website for additional details.

~K~