(2013)
I wrote this tanka about the month of October.
Self-expressional Crooked poster on the wall Self-intentional Will you shatter, will you fall? Who will fix your frame of old?
A blank white tablet Fuzzy buzzing silences Click, click, click, and yet That single black divider keeps Blinking an endless cycle
Sweet little black box From metalic elogy Sleep now, sing no more
Why does music speak Without line or threads of time We plug ourselves in Forming an echo cocoon Never wanting to come out
Tiny flashing lights Figures entwine together Closer and closer ‘closer than ever’ they say Beside our computer screens
To hide in plain sight Something we all yearn for, but Our differences Do not belong in the mud For mud cannot be polished
I pray for the day When my mind is clear Silence, sweet silence Schemes and impulses forgone To live without a shadow
The darkest of nights It is on these nights I turn To these keys, clicking Fervently beyond reason Behind safely shadowed doors
To etch a love song No earthy ink can suffice Only color drawn From such a naive heart-well Could paint even an inkling
Ask me who he is A tall tree and branches keen words drop; leaves shaken I try to collect them all But forget them by the stream
Life’s obligations A daunting sea of turmoil With crest after crest I’ll hide in this briny shell Till the tide forgets my name
My White Cloak Part one: Place Entering day by day (1) Into a place to grow and stay Into the foundational walls of old
The mind of a girl That swirling vertex of bright Is unreachable So we put up these steel walls When we could have built a bridge!
To grasp at the root This longing for the seasons Hidden deep, deep down To say it’s just “Natural,” Would only scratch the leaf-tops
Just for a moment To glimpse from dusty pages A single white flash Tenuous seconds follow Until a roaring reply
