In Two Min         














In Two Minds by Kathy Kituai and Amelia Fielden
      "In Two Minds is a delightful and innovative collection of tanka where two skilled writers of this delicate form respond to each other through themes and experiences they have in common. This collection renews for us the ancient Japanese tradition, in tanka writing, of collaborative composition. The tanka are presented side by side, and this enhances, through contrast, the individuality of each poet. Kathy and Amelia write about seasons, friends, family, pets, living in other countries, and the everyday concerns we all share. In the best tanka tradition, these experiences are interwoven with―and made richer by―awareness and love of the natural world of gardens, birds, animals, trees, sky and water.The poets realize the potential of this small but potent form, writing poems that go deeper than the seeming simplicity of the tanka's five lines. In Two Minds is a welcome presentation for the tanka-lovers and writers in Australia, as well as for poetry lovers in general."
         ―Michael Thorley, Australian Poet and Tan

Some paired verses from In Two Minds:

         Pair 1

         'too young
          to really be in love'                                         
          now too old
          to stay awake all night—
          where did the between go?

          Amelia

          I have found
          when I take a lover
          I lose earrings
          but oh! the delight
          of not searching for them

          Kathy

          Pair 2

          her son's fingers
          tangling her long black hair—
          just yesterday
          it seems, I brushed and
          braided that hair for school

          Amelia

          brushing aside
          memories of you
          never works—
          if I dust your photo
          you smile even more

          Kathy
 

                                    More praise for In Two Minds:

"In Two Minds" is a conversation in two distinct voices. In a spirit of shared writing, this finely honed tanka collection covers a variety of topics with poetic intensity and skill. The reader will delight in the surprise endings, the interconnections and small epiphanies which inform each individual tanka and the sequences as a whole. Tanka enthusiasts and collectors of good poetry alike will welcome this new venture from two accomplished practitioners of the craft."
—Margaret Bradstock, Co-Editor, Five Bells, Journal of the Poets' Union of Australia

                                    Amelia Fielden is an Australian poet, and translator of Japanese Literature. She has produced five collections of her own work: Eucalypts and Iris Streams (2002), Fountains Play (2002), Short Songs (2003), Still Swimming (2005), and Baubles, Bangles & Beads (2007). Amelia has also had published, to date, fifteen volumes of Japanese tanka which she has translated or co-translated. In 2007, she was awarded the Donald Keene Prize for Translation of Japanese Literature by Columbia University.

                                    Australian diarist and poet, Kathy Kituai has taught creative writing since 1990. She has produced three poetry collections: green-shut green (1994), The Lacemaker (1998), and Straggling into Winter (2007), a tanka diary. Kathy has also published a children's picture book, a dramatized four-part radio documentary, and three anthologies, which she edited or co-edited (which were awarded The Canberra Critics Award, 1994). She has won prizes for poetry in the USA, UK, Japan and Australia.

                                

Ordering information: available from www.themetpress.com  for US $15.00.

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