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A collection of 100 tanka,"Twelve Moons realises the epitome of Chekhov's desire when he said "don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." In her first tanka collection, Claire Everett demonstrates she is a skilful artisan who fully appreciates the value of conveying feeling and scene through the discreet act of showing. She has carefully crafted each tanka to illuminate the human emotion and our relationship with the world around us. This collection cycles through the seasons of the heart and is grounded in the lived experience of the poet. The tanka that opens spring subtly suggests of the hidden promises that can be found in this season if we are receptive to its nuances. Claire Everett shows, with great clarity and sincerity of feeling, the profound impact and beauty of silence..." from the introduction by David Terelinck.

Editor and founder of Skylark Tanka Journal in Great Britain, Claire Everett has made contributions to the short poem in English that compel, on both critical and artistic fronts, our undivided attention and enthusiasm. The Small, Wild Places is the poetry of an engaged intelligence, one that has mastered the nuances, pivots, compact powers and rhythms that are unique to the five-line form of modern English tanka. Everett works inside the seam that exists between the reality of the physical world and our spiritiual connection to its energies, essences, and infinite possibilities. David Terelinck's arrangement of the poems makes a symphony of the poet's words and images, themes and subjects. The music is that of earth tones and intimate landscapes, love and remembrance, and moments anchored in permanence. Behind it all, there is a philosophy at work in The Small, Wild Places that binds time and transience, the metaphysical and the concrete - that special Celtic ability to apprehend and express the unseen in the seen, and to lift our vision with sheer tidal pull and force. Do not be surprised, then, if these poems bring you and your inner ear to that place that is "Silent, upon a peak in Darien" - where every lover of poetry, I think, wishes to go. -Michael McClintock, Editor, The Tanka Anthology (Red Moon Press, 2003) and President (2005-2012), Tanka Society of America.

An English-language tanka journal dedicated to tanka in all its forms. Edited by Claire Everett, U.K.

Claire Everett and Joy McCall are two quintessentially English tanka poets whose work draws heavily on the Pagan past. It is no surprise then that they should find each other and become friends; poetry bridges the gaps between souls. Together they have written a sequence of ninety-two responsive tanka. Responsive tanka of this length are rare in English language tanka, although the earlier renga of Japan routinely featured multiple authors collaborating on sequences of one hundred tanka, and even one thousand tanka . . . According to Japanese mythology, the goddess Wakahime ('Poetry Princess') sang over the body of her dead husband and thereby invented tanka. The English witches are crouching over their mortar and pestle, sprinkling sweet and bitter herbs into their brew, and singing, as Macbeth's witches sang, as the Japanese goddess sang, and their grief is a spell that ensorcels the reader. There is no resolution here and precious little hope. Instead we are left with the shimmering remnants of the past dancing before our vision as a tantalus of memory. This is true magic: enduring, unshakeable, and persistent. When you read this book, a bit of the sacred incense will cling to you long after. For a time, you too will be seeing ghosts from the corner of your eye.(from the introduction by M. Kei)

A gutsy girl unlocks a magical universe—and the danger that lies within—in this “sprightly” and “exciting” middle grade fantasy adventure (Publishers Weekly). Eleven-year-old Holly Shepard longs for adventure, some escape from her humdrum life. That is precisely what she gets when she is given an old iron key that unlocks a door—in a tree. Holly crosses the threshold into a stunning and magical medieval world, Anglielle. And as she does so, something unlocks within Holly: a primal, powerful magic. Holly is joined on her journey by two tagalongs—her younger brother Ben, and Everett, an English boy who hungers after Holly’s newfound magic and carries a few secrets of his own. When Ben and Everett are sentenced to death by the royals, whose fear of magic has fueled a violent, systemic slaughter of all enchanted creatures, Holly must save them and find a way back home. But will she be able to muster the courage and rise above her ordinary past to become an extraordinary hero?

Turn a well-cut diamond in your hand and it shines differently from every angle and yet light radiates from the same stone. Anne Benjamin writes responsive tanka with Claire Everett, Jan Foster, Marilyn Humbert, Patricia Prime, Carmel Summers, Luminita Suse and Julie Thorndyke. Numerous subjects ranging from childbirth to climate change arise with pathos and humour in this collection of tanka sequences. Gemstones contains poems to be savoured for the way they link, shift and sparkle from many points of view, each facet connected to the other. ~Kathy Kituai,Founder and Facilitator of Limestone Tanka Poets. Author of 'Deep in the Valley of Tea Bowls', 2015

There are two sides to every story . . . When an adrenaline junkie and his poet wife take to the road on a bicycle made for two, a tale of trust, love and adventure unfolds. One thing is certain: a tandem will either make or break a relationship . . . "In this part of England, we are fortunate enough to be encircled by spectacular scenery, landscapes veined with winding roads that, with a single glance, insist upon our curiosity. An unscheduled right-turn might offer a chance encounter with an eerily quiet tenth century church, whilst a left-turn might deliver a cluster of standing stones. And so, it's easy to see why anyone would want to buy a bike and trundle off into one adventure after another. Seat a pair of fine writers on a bicycle made for two, however, and the adventures become far bigger. "The season of gifting is upon us" begins this enchanting and engaging book, and what a gift we've been given by Claire and Tony-and, of course, Tallulah!" Liam Wilkinson Editor of Englyn Journal of Four Line Poetry. "For a few years now, I've been reading the tandem bicycle adventures of Tony and Claire from a woman's point of view. We now have Tony's, the Middle-Age Shredder. Ladies, it may come as a surprise, but you can trust a husband who doesn't follow assembly instructions. Up the Irons!" Mike Montreuil Haibun and Tanka Prose Editor A Hundred Gourds

In 'Beetles & Stars, ' three widely published tanka poets collaborate to write 99 tanka triptychs. Tanka is a five-line poetic form ancestral to haiku, and there is a long tradition, both in Japan and in the English-speaking world, of writing tanka in response to another poet's poem. The three voices in this book call and respond to each other, resonating and harmonizing to create an interwoven 'braid' of tanka that demonstrates the power of this ancient form to express any emotion and explore any theme, from the bones of worry to the song of the wood thrush; from the humblest beetle to the distant stars.