Poet Profile

Cynthia Anderson

Cynthia Anderson has published 11 poetry collections, most recently Full Circle (Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, 2022) and The Missing Peace (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2021). Her poems frequently appear in haiku journals and anthologies. For her long-form poems, she is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. Cynthia is co-editor of the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens (Green Poet Press, 2011). A California resident and poet for over 40 years, she makes her home in Yucca Valley.

Awards and Other Honors:

Marlene Mountain Contest: two honorable mentions, 2021; 87th Moon Prize, Writing in a Woman’s Voice: “empty highway”; Dec. 18, 2021; Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka issue 25: Editor’s Choice Award; the cherita: seven Cherita Lighthouse awards.

Books Published:

Full Circle (Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, 2022): a collection of haiku and senryu; The Missing Peace (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2021): a collection of short forms including haiku, senryu, cherita, and tanka; nine books of long-form poetry, see Cynthia Anderson, Poet .
Work Anthologised:
Haiku 2022 (anthology edited by Scott Metz & Lee Gurga, Modern Haiku Press, 2022): “the opal glow”; contemporary haibun 17 (anthology edited by Rich Youmans, Red Moon Press 2022): “Formerly Known as Ion”.

the opal glow
of an abalone shell―
desert twilight

empty highway
coyotes crossing
their old trail

petroglyph canyon
nesting ravens
from my past life

this new small pain
a single cricket
fills the night

before sunrise
the purple willow
trembling with bees

closed curtains
unable to stop
the full moon

Credits:

“the opal glow” - seashores #7, Nov. 2021; “empty highway” - Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2021; “petroglyph canyon” - The Heron’s Nest Vol. XXIII, No. 4, Dec. 2021; “this new small pain” - tsuri-dōrō #5, Sept/Oct 2021; “before sunrise” - Shamrock #44, Fall 2020; “closed curtains” - Blo͞o Outlier Journal issue #1, Dec. 2020.