Today, I'm going to start sharing my favorite tanka from Kathy Uyen Nguyen. She posted these on The Collaborative Photo-Haiku Project (February series).
Click the entry to see the photo of Tif Holmes.
Entry 1
morning stillness
climbing into the dry birdbath
rose vines..
the deepening hollowness
of things just found
Entry 3
which stones
should I place my worries under?
from the garden
stirring in Buddha's hands
a mourning dove
Entry 4
from the shutters
the slash of sunlight
to where you used to be--
how many more notes can I hold
between my palms?
Entry 5
this tilting planet
watching you
watching me
watching the scatter
of breadcrumbs in the wind
Entry 6
the times when I find
disappointment in myself
but from your arms
I rise from the ashes to skim
every sky of your heart
Entry 7
your song leads me
to follow my heart...
from this shattered nest
a nail rusting
in the sun
Entry 8
creviced sky
the stir of dreams
from a pigeon's breast...
the part of me in you
that I call home
Entry 9
stepping over
fragile ground
all the words
I never meant to say
before you died
Entry 10
falling
in between
the sidewalk cracks
your goodbye
last fall
Entry 11
slicing
the edge
of this onion. . .
how it feels to fall
into the meaning of us
Entry 13
like lovers
trading secret kisses
how each maple leaf
slips onto our bench
and lingers in our shadows
Entry 14
he loves me
he loves me not . . .
even the spring wind
tries to find love
under unturned stones
For somebody who claims to be shy of submissions, her poetry is worthy of sharing to the whole world.
More of her tanka on my next post. :-)
Oh my goodness. *blush* Thank you kindly for this honor, dear Christine! Such a surprise! I am humbled that you have featured my tanka here, although I think some of the tanka may kind of fuse with gogyohka too. :) Still, I am so tremendously touched. <3
ReplyDeleteI have been enjoying how your blog has been turning into one of the many favorites of mine just because of your lovely haiga. How unique your haiga is and distinct. It's one of my future projects I would like to work more on, especially the visual aspect of it! :-P
Again, thank you, Christine! :) Also, a pleasure to stop by this lovely blog of yours!
Now I learned a new word - gogyohka. I have to look that up and learn more about it. I've been noticing that your style of writing tanka is quite different from some of the tanka I've read. I guess it's the fusion between the tanka and gogyohka.:-)
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled that you are enjoying my blog. Do stop by from time to time. Thanks for the support!
Watch out for the next posting of your tanka. I'll wait for the end of the month. Most probably, you'll be getting the highest votes. We'll be celebrating it here :-)
:) Yes, gogyohka was coined by Enta Kusakabe. It's a wonderful form. To me, it feels even much freer than the tanka itself (tanka has more structure though, of course). Perhaps you are right about the fusion for my own writing because there are many days when I'm not sure what to call them: tanka or gogyohka. Which one? Ahhhh! It's a mental battle. So, I just let them be, and let the audience read for their enjoyment. If someone tells me it's tanka, then I'll call it tanka (same for gogyohka). Otherwise, I'm not an expert. I just study and read the forms in both tanka and gogyohka, and I just write whatever inspires me. You know how that goes. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I am planning on stopping by as much as I can. I look forward to reading more of your work honestly. :)
I wasn't expecting another post! Thank you so much in advance, dear Christine! I am very, very humbled. Thank you! I shall look forward to it! I also have already received one of Tif's wonderful photos. It is not that I wish to win another; I just want to promote her work and get more poets to participate in haiku writing. She's such a talented artist. Her vision for the CPH project is wonderful and carries the essence of beauty in art and writing at the international level. It is also one of my reasons to post random haiku/senryu that I really like onto my Facebook community page. :) And plus, for me personally, it is both a challenge and honor to be working with Tif's photos and to push myself to experiment more with the Japanese forms in different levels. I have studied Japanese form poetry for over 3 years now, but I am enjoying how my own style and experimentation have grown and evolved. Some days, I can churn out lots of haiku/tanka/etc., and other days, maybe nothing at all. So, for me, writing haiku, tanka, etc. is like doing yoga or meditation. You just never know where it leads you, but yet its practice is a pleasurable, peaceful journey.
Oh... Thank you so much for finding time to write back. Your posts on Facebook have been very helpful. One of them is CPH project, of course. I notice that I don't write good haiku when I'm forced to write daily, but the website has been a good writing exercise. Her photos depict ordinary things, but inspires one to find extraordinary moments. I love her photography! I also find myself looking forward to each haiku, wondering how each person reacts to her photos.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, I'm still new in writing haiku. I hope to be a better haiku student, and soon learn other forms of Japanese poetry.
Congratulations on receiving one of Tif's wonderful photos. I'm not surprised if you win again. :-)
Hi Christine! :) First, I'm sorry to know that you aren't feeling very well. Hope you feel better soon! *hugs*
ReplyDeleteI used to be that way too. It was difficult to write a haiku daily, but what I usually do is to just free-write all the memorable moments I've experienced daily in a journal. Then, from there, pick out what seems good enough to fit in a haiku. :) Once I got that down, I started searching for sites that do prompts, and I've gotten better at writing "on demand" if you will. lol So no worries, I'm new to haiku and Japanese poetry too. There are many days when I feel like I can't write anything. But as prolific as I am, I journal a whole lot. It helps with creativity for me. Sometimes it takes me an entire day just to compose a haiku! So, for you, Christine, there are gems in your work--at least the ones I've read so far! All very lovely too! :) And yes, that's how I feel with Tif's photos too! I hope she wins the Shorty Awards!