Jenny Ward Angyal

Cartography

The lacebark elm sheds its skin in patches, leaving a jigsaw of ochre scars: continents, islands, archipelagos. I circumnavigate the tree trunk, imagining all the places I’ve never been, from Australia to the Aleutians. The empty husk of a cicada clings to the edge of Africa until a gust of wind sweeps it away. From beyond the clouds comes the cry of a raven, bearing on dark wings the air of distant mountains. 

tangled roots
I stumble through
inner wilderness

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About the Author

Jenny Ward Angyal has written poetry since the age of five and Japanese short-form verse since 2008. The author or co-author of seven books of tanka, tanka sequences, and tanka prose and haibun, she’s a global moderator of the Inkstone Poetry Forum. She lives with her husband and one Abyssinian cat on a small organic farm in central North Carolina.

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