Tanka
opening a drawer
a gilded book of child martyrs
in my parents' house
the sound of it
slamming shut
spring thaw
puddles double
how many birds
fly between trees and
this ragged flag for peace?
morning light
from the old birch twigs droop
like hairs of fire
what will the rest of my life
bring me?
Marilyn Hazelton is a poet
and essayist. As a teaching artist rostered by the
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts since 2000, she thinks
about why writing poetry is an act of self-liberation, how
creative acts inform the soul and how to raise those
issues within a broader community. She has facilitated
classes with elementary-through-college students, mentally
ill men and women, adjudicated youth, women in prison, and
senior citizens. Marilyn is editor and publisher of
red lights, an international tanka journal. Her
haiku, haibun and tanka have been published in
Modern Haiku, bottlerockets, Gusts, the Snapshot Press
Haiku Calendar 2008 , and red lights.
This is Marilyn Hazelton's
first appearance in Sketchbook.
