November 24, 2022
By Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton
Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton is a poet and essayist, a former president of Tanka Society of America, and was the editor and publisher of red lights, an international tanka journal. Her tanka have been published in Ribbons, Gusts, Magna Poets, moonset, Atlas Poetica, Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose, Simply Haiku, moonbathing, Skylark, Bright Stars, Take Five (volumes 2, 3, 4), The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku, Beyond the Grave, and The Tanka Journal.
even
as ice & bossy winds
prevail
barren branches embrace
the cloud-capped sky
winter sun
(inconstant friend)
your warmth
dances to & fro
with such flirtation
so many footprints
on the snowy path
side by side by side —
as if everyone
not here is here
already
the cherry trees
are counting
days & nights
before budding
on the rim
of winter the rim
of spring
the cold inside me
begins to melt
Published in International Tanka, N0. 5, 2019
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