marlene mountain
letter essay
february 1993

 

linked poem in progress anne mckay and marlene mountain

always she moves from me over the gate singing this daughter a
here 21 years most of the painful memories gone m
something about her poem something secret something wilder than petals a
no autumn moon still stuck inside rewriting m
in the matter of pruning it is not so much the severing of shadow a
but rather a slow staining a letting of light a
instead of women and minorities we could say everyone but white men m 'martha all is forgiven please come home' a
alaskan governor hickel: you can't just let nature run wild m
i belong to a land i have left* a
hey bosses! japanese haiku spirit/rules experiment over mov'em out m
in the clearing faintly a sound of bells a
with babygrandson let's rocknroll & here's mm's radicalfeministstuff m
. . . and lover if you can't bring flesh don't bother a
penis: tail (look it up) tail: 5b female sexual partner usu. cons. vulgar m
* colette
no presumption lover is male

kasen sheets

dear anne 2/21/93

The divided sections came from Tadashi Kondo in the late 70s based on the old kasen sheets: the first 6 lines introductory, the next 12 "free," the next 12 "free," the last six closing. The part I like about it is one writes to one's link at three places (Hiro suggested in 80s for our renga) when just two poets are involved. And of course the writers' long/short/long pattern gets to change. I don't care when they are changed--I like it when you feel the need to have two lines wherever we are. Jan and I have been writing one renga since 2/89 and we just write whatever length we want-- usually too long. Hiro always reminded me when the moon and flower places came up as I don't care. I did point out to him that in two-people renga one is always stuck with the moon and the other with the flower depending on who starts out.

Your change at link 3 is certainly fine/doesn't bother me. Except I would love it to read 'something about my poem . . .' I was tempted to write 'something about anne's poem . . .' as my link, but it didn't seem right for this one. Maybe I'll find a spot (maybe you'll see the spot). I like the poem very much. I also like when you refer to yourself--though you did say often you/anne is implied.

Mirrors is now $10 for 2 (bigger) issues per year; same I think to Canada. Worth more to me as I'm able to include what I guess no other editor would even want to read. Haiku magazines are ridiculously high: haicost. The oddest thing is that there're probably only about 1000 readers/writers in total (USA and Canada). That's got to say something about how haiku is perceived. Funnier it's almost like one half telling the other half how to write.

Tell Dorothy hey for me. If I were a letterwriter (this as you know is a rare time at the computer--which I hate) I'd love to know more about her and her poems. She's certainly been supportive of things I've sent to HC. I hope Ruby is OK--haven't heard from her since she said she is ill and haven't received a HC which I traded for. Perhaps I'd best write to her.

My grandbaby is due here soon--he's 1 today. He loves to learn but it takes a ton of energy to keep up with him. He didn't really crawl, just got up in October and started taking steps. Recently I said, that's mm's radical feminist stuff, do you want to look at it? Wow, he sure was surprised as up until then I'd say no-no, thank you. That's what my previous link was about.

 

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