June 16, 2015

Charles Tarlton

SIMPLE TANKA PROSE FOR THE SEASONS

Harusaki

On the probing black finger ends of maples now the palest buds where someone has dusted them with green icing sugar.

as from a distance
when the faint sounds of voices
come to you
before you’ve been through the gate
and into the stadium

 

 

Atsui Natsua

The breeze that urged the curtains to and fro was thick, hot, and wet, and a single buzzing bee was caught there between the wire screens and the partly open glass.

weddings being planned
under a sweet profusion
of flower scents
intoxicating even
more than the purest love

 

 

Akibare

On both sides of the street these tall deciduous crowns are electric with color—the reds like scarlet church glass, yellows dense as new butter, and purples, O purples like heavy old wine.

sun in such clear air
there’s a bite and a crunch
under foot out here
beauty of unmasked pigments
the sugared ruby sap

 

 

Tōji

Everyone aboard the ship was anxious. We were late leaving Southampton and now there was a danger of storms in the north Atlantic or maybe even a wandering winter iceberg. We watched the land sink into the ship’s cold wake until there was only the sea around us.

late winter, the ice
around Lake Ontario
hovers in wind-wave
sculptures frozen in the air
not cresting until spring

from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

__________

Charles Tarlton: “I have been writing tanka prose for the last seven or eight years. Before that I wrote poems mostly in a neo-modernist style, some of my heroes being Wallace Stevens, Pound, and John Berryman. My purpose is to develop and bend tanka prose to the larger services of contemporary poetry in English.”

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May 28, 2015

Bob Lucky

WORKING WITH GHOSTS

Tanka Prose

1.

I like being a ghost dentist. They don’t feel any pain, so I don’t have to worry about hurting them. I sometimes administer laughing gas because they like it so much, and I enjoy watching them convulse with laughter. It’s like watching coconut jelly on speed. They gave up rattling chains at me long ago. I’m in this job for the money. Nothing scares me. The best part is, they don’t have teeth.

phantom pain
where my heart used to be—
in the mirror
everything I see
skin deep

 

 

2.

I like being a ghost teacher. Whatever they need to know to get by in this world, it’s too late to teach them. They’re dead, brain dead, always walking through walls as if they aren’t there. And you can’t understand a word they say; they moan a lot. I’ve tried to talk to them. I have a theory that ghosts are people who died during orgasm, but I can’t prove it. It’s just something I believe. Every year I give them all A’s. They’re never late to class. They never leave. When they really get into a book, though, they can be hard to find.

in a dream
I have my hands all over
Helen Keller—
I keep telling her the essay
must conform to MLA

 

 

3.

I like being a ghost gigolo. You have to be flexible because you never know where one ghost ends and another begins. Get a few in a room and it’s like an orgy. You also need to be tolerant and open to experiences. Gender is hard to determine. You might think you’re going down on Marlene Dietrich when you’re actually blowing Caspar. And you can be bi, trans, poly, or all of the above, but you haven’t lived until you’ve had a ghost go in one orifice and come out another.

Valentine’s Day
a neon heart flickers
off
and on and off and on …
the Morse code of desire

from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

__________

Bob Lucky: “Like most people, I had to write a haiku at some point in elementary school. I just never stopped. When my son was born, I had no attention span for anything longer than a recipe, so I gravitated toward cookbooks, short-form poetry, and ukuleles. I’ve been writing haibun and tanka prose for about ten years. Sometimes a haiku or a tanka needs a context. Sometimes, in order to resonate, the prose or prose poem needs an epiphanic clapper.”

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