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Heron Sea:
Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, M. Kei. M.
Kei, Publisher, through Lulu.com. No ISBN. 90 pages, 6" x 9",
perfect binding, color cover, black and white interior ink.
$11.95 USD + postage.
Available 9
April, 2007.
M. Kei, an
award-winning poet, is well-known on the Upper Chesapeake Bay
for his volunteer service with the Skipjack Martha Lewis
and the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum. In Heron Sea he
has gathered together more than one hundred and fifty poems
written while sailing the Bay, dredging for oysters, raising a
family, and living on the green shores of Bay Country. All of
his poems are true to life portraits of life—and loss—at the
Head of the Bay.
Heron Sea,
Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay is the first collection of
poetry by M. Kei, editor of the critically acclaimed anthology,
Fire Pearls, Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart.
M. Kei is an
award-winning poet and editor of short poems, specializing in
the tanka genre. A poet of the Chesapeake Bay, he is the
editor of the Chesapeake Bay Haiku Almanac. His poetry
appears in journals such as Modern English Tanka, Simply
Haiku, American Tanka, Modern Haiku, and more. He is a
winner of the Tanka Splendor 2006 contest and a Runner-up in the
Lighthouse Poetry Contest. His poetry appears in the anthologies
Haiku Miscellany (Croatia), To Find the Moon (USA),
Sixty Sunflowers (forthcoming) and Landfall
(forthcoming).
Reviews
“Poetry lovers,
sailors, everyone in Bay country, and anyone who wants a
powerful and beautiful read, should buy this book!”
—Denis M.
Garrison, editor, Modern English Tanka March 18,
2007—Perryville, MD
Most of the poems
are tanka, the five line lyric form originally from Japan, as
well as haiku, tercets, and other short forms. All of the poems
are immediately accessible, featuring places and scenes
instantly recognizable to residents of Bay Country. Denis M.
Garrison, editor of Modern English Tanka, said,
“[E]ach is a pleasure to read but all together they comprise a
startlingly moving look into the heart of the poet and at the
incomparable beauty of the Chesapeake Bay. A Bay dweller,
myself, I can attest to the accuracy of M. Kei’s eye and pen.
Kei has tapped into the magic of short verse and presented the
reader with a collage of amazing depth and insight. Poetry
lovers, sailors, everyone in Bay country, and anyone who wants a
powerful and beautiful read, should buy this book!”
More praise
of Heron Sea
“Heron Sea
is a rich word-tapestry of the Chesapeake Bay area. M. Kei’s
attunement to environment and the life it engenders is
remarkable. Here is a sensual experience so lovingly detailed
that the reader is left with a sense of being there. Do visit
the world of Heron Sea, see/feel for yourself.”
—Larry Kimmel,
editor of Winfred Press
“M. Kei’s collection is a gem. The personal anthologies of
haiku/tanka that I think are best contain a sharp picture of the
poet. He is never sentimental, and his poems have a special
quality of honesty and integrity. The last section on ‘Threnody’
is totally moving. In other words, Kei has written a unique
collection whose voice is like that of no one else. I admire it
enormously. Kei is coming into his own, and should become one of
the best haiku/tanka poets of the decade.”
—Sanford
Goldstein, co-translator of Midaregami, Tangled Hair
“In Heron Sea, M. Kei has crafted a poetry of place with
lyrical intensity, placing the reader somewhere between the
author's heart and the Chesapeake Bay. No cheap sentimentality
here—the verse within these pages is filled with hard-earned
love, adventure, tragic loss, and wry humor. Kei’s prose
Introduction to the book is every bit as moving as the poems
that follow. It’s hard not to read this collection without
thinking, ever after, that you've been to the Chesapeake Bay
area. An impressive achievement.”
—Dave Bacharach,
tanka poet
Excerpts from
Heron Sea
I write poetry
like the hills of Maryland,
slow, easy, green swells,
rolling from creek to vale,
with all the time in the world.
the great blue heron
the blue painted ship
the blue silence
no wind tonight
a puddle of silver
in the bay’s darkness,
a full moon
off the port bow
storm bells
the musical tones
of halyards
ringing in the
freshening breeze
she talks as she sails
this old wooden boat
of oyster days
and summer bays
and watermen grown old
these widowed boats,
the men who loved them
gone to their graves
the stone gristmill
broad on the starboard bow,
stories
falling into the bay
from its motionless wheel
If only the leaves
were not so green,
this lover’s heart
might enjoy
a little emptiness.
give me an old dog
(his puppy years worn out)
content to lay his muzzle
on my knee while
I sit beside the fire
the earth is not forever
islands of the Chesapeake
slip into to memory
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