Tanka by Gabriel Rosenstock

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Pic by Pok Rie

 

Gabriel Rosenstock’s Tanka Series – 5

 

1.

will You forever remain hidden
appearing and disappearing
as some noonday moon
           mistaken for a cloud
           concocted by an errant roving mind
 
Francis Picabia – Date: 1912 – Style: Cubism


 

2.

enough of this flesh and blood
enough of hair bones eyes
enough of mouth and nose 
            ears? ah enough, I am straw
            beloved, a wisp in the wind
 
The Straw Manikin – Francisco Goya – Date: 1791 – 1792


 

3.

useless the lives they lead 
repairmen sent out to mend
last night’s broken hearts
                       now their own hearts
                       begin to break: what is to be done
 
Repairmen – Tahir Salahov – 1960 – Style: Severe Style


 

4.

why do You come
as a nymph to tempt me
I am already Yours
                    since the dawn of time
                    who else have I been but You
 
Menaka the nymph tempting the yogi – Raja Ravi Varma – 1900 –
Style: Academicism


 

To read more Tanka by the same author click here

About the Author

Photo: Jim Berkeley.

Gabriel Rosenstock is a bilingual poet (in Irish & English), haikuist, tankaist, playwright, novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator, writer for children and champion of ‘forlorn causes’ – the phrase is Hugh MacDiarmid’s. He is a Lineage Holder of Celtic Buddhism and a member of Aosdána (the Irish academy of arts and letters). Among his awards is the Tamgha-i-Khidmat medal (Pakistan) for services to literature. Gabriel’s most recent volume of poetry is Glengower: Poems for No One in Irish and English (The Onslaught Press).