No Love Poems

First published in Woodnotes #20, Spring 1994, pages 38. See also my “Directions in Tanka” essay, which focuses largely
on this book as a launching pad to discussing larger issues regarding tanka poetry.

No Love Poems by Kenneth Tanemura. Small Poetry Press, 1994, 28 pages, paperback, 5½ by 8½ inches. $5.00 postpaid from the author at 10 Wayne Court, Redwood City, California, 94063 [address no longer correct]. Kenneth’s first book of poetry offers 28 tanka and 30 haiku. The book is divided into four sections, “No Love,” “Hopelessness,” “Consoled in Dreams,” and “Consoled in Nature.” The last of these sections seems the strongest, and offers mostly haiku. A sampling of three choice haiku:

a single leaf falling

and with it

the morning dew

the first petals

to fall from the branch . . .

summer rain

this cold night

the abandoned car

covered with leaves