My sister Lorena (a retired English professor) and I began to exchange tanka poems by email during the pandemic. I had never heard of the tanka when she sent me a lovely one she had written about the nightly cry of peacocks in the park by our childhood home. I quickly embraced the form of the 5-line tanka as a way to express my thoughts and observations succinctly. My daily walks provided much of the subject matter for the poems. I found myself surprisingly touched by such things as the ubiquitous face masks I saw casually abandoned in the street and the poignant signs that people post on utility poles to describe their lost pets (mostly cats).

My book of pandemic poems can be purchased at Blackfish Gallery, or by contacting me through this website.