Tanka

June 11, 2015

“Three Haiku and a Tanka” by George SwedePosted by

George Swede

THREE HAIKU AND A TANKA

tar pit an urge for immortality

 

 

only an eternal present jackhammer

 

 

the wasp’s face
what friendship
can become

 

 

Night hurrying
down the mountainside
to work as shadows
for the day—
I re-knot my tie

—from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

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__________

George Swede: “I got hooked on short-form Japanese poetry in the mid-1970s after getting a review copy of Modern Japanese Haiku (edited by Makoto Ueda, University of Toronto Press, 1976). The twenty anthologized poets did unexpected, marvelous things with the form that made me see haiku as poetry rather than as a school exercise for counting syllables. Since then I’ve published twenty or so collections of haiku and two of tanka.” (website)

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May 21, 2015

“After Fukushima” by Mariko KitakuboPosted by

Mariko Kitakubo

AFTER FUKUSHIMA

Tanka Sequence

1

when
will my later years
start?—
a mother cat has babies
at the ruined village

 

2

dim light
of cherry blossoms—
unstoppable
petal storm in the ruins
beyond my five senses

 

3

sounds
of the stream
in my homeland—
Strontium is soaking
into the placenta

 

4

cherry avenue
my late mother’s favorite …
is there
another world?
petal drift

 

5

there were
days when I had
my dream …
are you there now?
Betelgeuse

 

Translated from the Japanese by the author and Kath Abela Wilson;
Oldflute Shakuhachi by Rick Wilson

—from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

[download audio]

__________

Mariko Kitakubo: “While composing poems is the primary thing to do, I want to continue expressive activities by means of reading performances in and out of the country. I feel it meaningful to vibrate Japanese traditional rhythm sounds, consisting of units of five and seven syllables, in front of tanka lovers whose native language is not Japanese.” (website)

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