XVI:2  June 2001

 LETTERS from:

Dave Bachelor, 
Francine Porad
David Rice 
Tom Clausen 
Debi Bender 
Marianne Bluger 
Susan Ioannou
D.Jericho Schmoeker
Rod Thompson
Guillermo Cathcart

Dear Editors. 

The poetry in the Feb issue 2001 was extra good. Echoes of the work still reverberate in my head and heart. Hatsue Kawamura is a brave person. Kawamura's citing of the Nanking incident (western sources refer to the event as the "Rape of Nanking") is one of the very few I have read. We will not keep in our hearts the recognition of the horrid (and unnecessary) waste of WAR unless we all remember ALL of the atrocities. I had an aunt with whom I spent some magical days one summer just at the edge of my senior memory. Gary Le Bel's "Eight Summers of Grass" is a poetic work that had me smelling mown hay and sniffing a blue flower that my Aunt Daisy held. I even felt the fullness of love for her again. Please tell Gary thanks for me. I would like to tell him so myself too. David Rice's article in the 1999 issue of Lynx fascinated me. Been casting around for someone to try out the form with me. Cindy Guentherman (President, Rockford Writers' Guild) agreed to give it a try. Dave Bachelor

When you see a name underlined, you can click on it and a message form will appear on your screen so you can send your immediate thoughts and comments to the author. It is that quick and that easy. jr

The AHA Lynx site looks great. However, before I finished reading it all I was kicked off AOL. Thought I would email you to mention a few things before I do some errands. Looked at my own selection first (naturally). I like the linked verse of the eight-year-old and the woman from (if remembering correctly) Florida [Debi Woodward Bender]; Carlos with partner, especially the lines about thumb crossing my forehead; dennis dutton's tanka. Didn't get to see my tanka, but will get back to AHA and LYNX later today. Thanks again for including my writing. With love, Francine Porad

I hope you and Werner are doing well this off-and-on again spring. Carol and I went to the desert for five days in March and the poppies and lupine were great. I very much liked your commentary in Full Moon Tide on tanka sequences. I agree. There are so many options and choices available for this kind of poem. And in that spirit ..., Cherie Hunter Day and I would like to submit the following tanka sequence for consideration for the next issue of e-Lynx. David Rice 

The first thing i'd like to submit is a linked verse that i worked on with Nancy Henry Kline of Larksville Pennsylvannia... We met in the early 90's at a HSA zendo retreat in the Catskills and have kept in touch ever since and though this took us a couple years to complete, it i promised Nancy that i'd submit for us... We titled it : "Two Hearts". Tom Clausen 

I have huge inner conflicts about sharing my more sensual poems online or with journals. This month, I tried to get past some of the discomfort and posted love poetry on haikuforum and Shiki-temp during the 2 weeks leading to Valentine's Day. Marjorie encouraged me concerning *dodoitsu #9, to keep it in the poem; that one alludes to 2 classic tanka, and is so strong, sensually, compared to the lighter play and shifting of words and images in the rest of the links. I was afraid it might overpower and upstage the other portions, and I must admit it embarrasses me, as if I am there, naked and vulnerable before the readership.I think Marjorie and I will be working together at other linking of non-haiku/renga verse in the future, and I'll always keep Lynx in mind for them. Debi Bender 

* a dodoitsu is a Japanese genre poem written in four line units with the sound unit count of 7-7-7-5 which is mostly used for folksongs. The poetic interest comes in having the last line shortened by two units; a twist on the device of ji-amari = using an excess character. The technique is sometimes used as in our ditty: 
"Helen had a steamboat,
the steamboat had a bell.
Helen went to heaven,
the steamboat went to . . .
Hel-en had a steamboat" (ad nauseam) - jr

Hello Dears, Just saw my first edition of Lynx on line and was impressed. Congratulations and thank you. It is so wonderful that you adapt and evolve as you do, reveling in change and striding strongly forward. I love the internet. My vanity loves fan mail and I get some now and then which is so amazing to me. Would you please change my e-address to the above. Lenten blessings to you and to Werner. I have been so ill, Ruby Spriggs too, here in Ottawa is ill as well, and Dorothy Howard is struggling too. So you see, the three local power woman of haiku and tanka in this neck of the woods are having a tough winter. How are your old bones? Love forever, in our shared ardent care for our art, Marianne Bluger  

English teachers might be interested to know about the recent, all-Canadian book A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem, which has been receiving excellent reviews from teachers, writing workshop leaders, and librarians. For information, please visit the Web page:http://www3.sympatico.ca/susanio/magic.html - Susan Ioannou

I "stumbled" across renga via your website, and have found myself to be completely addicted! My 'regular' poetry has been published in such works as The Utne Reader, The Sun and The American Muse. This, however is my first renga  submission. It is a spring renga, which I created (always viewing poetry as therapy!) working back and forth, writing with my dominant and non-dominant hand. Can you discern the difference in the 'voices'? I felt their dis-similarities strongly. Anyways, I would very much like it if you could consider this piece for consideration in your publication of Lynx. D. Jericho Schmoeker 

I live in northern Saskatchewan in the central region of Canada. I am a forester with the Provincial Government, a member of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and the Sans Nom writing group where I have developed a strong affinity for the tanka form. I love having just enough room to link nature and emotions with a tantalizing mix the lyrical and the zen. The following are for your consideration in the next issue of Lynx. Rod Thompson 

I am making a wooden book - a handmade wooden book, one by one... entitled "Tanka of the Local Village" 60 tanka in total 60 writers of several counties. Is it possible to communicate historical facts poetically? Yes, using the Tanka If you have some friend interested in having a wooden book (Spanish or English) he only has to pay the shipment expense (Each book has a weight of 1.020 Kilogram) Guillermo Compte Cathcart, Garay 254, (1854) Longchamps Argentina

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Back issues:
XV:2 June, 2000
XV:3 October, 2000
XVI:1 February, 2001

Next Lynx is scheduled for October, 2001.
Deadline is September 1, 2001.