the neighbor's garden
fading into moonlit dark
a foreclosure sign
fading into moonlit dark
a foreclosure sign
Added:
three glasses down
the lingering smell
of his apology
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CII: "between fireballs"
calm between fireballs ...
moonlit ravens' kraa-kraa-kraa
darkening
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIII: "Israeli settler"
First Three-Line Visual Tanka
under slate-gray skies
|
a settler aims his gun | a boy throws his rock
|
tank track marks on the grass
FYI: The "single vertical line" has become the standard format for tanka written by the Japanese poets since the latter half of the 19th century; However, Ishikawa Takuboku, author of Poems to Eat and Romaji Diary and Sad Toys, advocated for and started writing two or three lines, depending on the rhythm of each tanka. For more, see Hiroaki Sato, “Lineation of Tanka in English Translation,” 42 Monumenta Nipponica 3:347-56, Autumn 1987.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIV: "the sounds of death"
First "thought experiment" tanka to George Berkeley's ghost
if one-ton bombs are dropped
on blocks of houses, no Israeli’s there
to hear them ...
in a men-crammed pub I muse
does they make the sounds of death?
FYI: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is George Berkeley's philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception. For more about writing sarcastic tanka, see To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Sarcasm.
