tanka

Four Bottle Vignettes written in Tanka Form

lillian32 Comments

i
On the street corner
used and discarded needles,
broken bottles too.
The downtrodden neglected,
Mother Teresa long dead.

ii
Bottled up feelings
like a Molotov cocktail,
stuffed and volatile.
When circumstances throw him,
he’ll blow his top like Etna.

iii
Bottle tipped over,
red wine stained white tablecloth.
Lipstick on glass rim,
her perfume scent still lingered.
The filthy slut betrayed him.

iv
Glass milk jug bottles,
Wonder Bread pb and js,
Father Knows Best, Roy Rogers,
saddle shoes and bobby sox.
My fifties and sixties life.

Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, Grace asks us to write about bottles.

The Tanka form is a 5 line poem with the following syllabic content in each line: 5-7-5-7-7

Roy Rogers and Father Knows Best were very popular tv shows in the 1950s. Roy Rogers vied for viewers with Gene Autry and also the Lone Ranger.
We always got glass milk jugs from the grocer….no such thing as waxed cardboard containers in those days. Wonder Bread is a spongey white bread, still sold in groceries today. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder Bread were always in my tin Lone Ranger lunch box!

Victorious Tanka

lillian10 Comments

Caught in his maelstrom
she survived a winter’s tale.
Fighting against his  
blizzard of heartless demands,
she left when the crocus bloomed.

Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, Ingrid asks us to consider the bard, William Shakespeare. We may choose a title from a list she gives us, a partial list of his plays. I’ve included A Winter’s Tale within my poem

Also, off-prompt today for NAPOWRIMO, Day 26.

Tanka: A poetic form of 5 lines with the following syllabic requirement: 5-7-5-7-7. Image from Pixabay.com

Death Stalks a Tanka

lillian23 Comments

Death rattles nearby
cold winter has stripped trees bare.
Branches jerk in wind
create shadows in our room.
I seek comfort in your arms.

Frank is hosting MTB at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, he asks us to write a Japanese death poem which can be in the form of a tanka if we choose. He explains that a Japanese death poem speaks of imminent death but at the same time, extolls the significance of life. A tanka is similar to a haiku, but longer: 5 lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.

Tanka with polytoton

lillian33 Comments

Shadowed moon flickers
on windblown cornstalk stubble.
Red fox stalks its prey,
hunting through snow covered field.
Hunter in wool cap takes aim.

fox-4101341_1920

Frank hosts dVerse tonight, the virtual pub for poets. We are to consider the polytoton: rhetorical repetition of words within a poem, but each time used in a different way (cornstalk and stalks; hunting and hunter).  
I’ve used the Tanka form: 5 line poem with 5, 7, 5, 7,  and 7 syllables.
Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us! Image from Pixabay.com