Tanka by Beverley George featured in Melbourne jazz performance
Earlier in December, leading Australian tanka poet Beverley George – editor of “Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal” – was honoured to have the following three pieces from her tanka collection “empty garden” featured in a live performance that formed part of the Melbourne Women’s Jazz Festival, held in Bennetts Lane, Melbourne:
a lightning strike
splits our old apple tree–
I never dreamed
the death that parted us
would not be one of ours
it’s in our garden
that I miss you most
each year the stems
of rosemary you planted
grow harder to cut back
widening each day
the winter river rushes
over hidden rocks
if you asked me to return
I could no longer cross it
Subsequently included on a CD, Beverley’s tanka were read live by Miriam Zolin, accompanied by a jazz trio comprised by pianist Andrea Keller, bassist Tamara Murphy and trumpeter Eugene Ball.
A review of this performance can be accessed at the following link: