CONSTRAINING ME ...

So what happened was that I decided I only would write new poems in 2018 if I was solicited to do so (the rare exceptions would be if I was conducting an experiment). An example was when the Dos Madres folks asked me to write a poem after an artist's work (thank you; was I relieved to get that invitation!). But I wanted to hold back because I'm so prolific and so wanted proof folks wanted my poems. Well, the saving grace to this constraint was being asked by Carolyn Gutierrez-Abangan to co-author a book of tanka which required, among other things, contributing 100 tanka. I'd never written tanka before but I welcomed the opportunity to pay attention to this form (and how about that! It generated a TANKA chap from Simulacrum Press when Sacha Archer--thank ye Sacha--solicited a chap!). That tanka invitation allowed me to keep writing new poems (albeit in tanka form) but as I'm due to hand over the hundred tanka at the end of this month, I go back as of July 1 to not writing new poems again unless someone solicits. It's been an interesting private (now public) constraint. 

Meanwhile, here's one of the things that come out of it: the beautifully-designed -- and I hope you check it out to support this indie publisher -- TANKA, Vol. I!