Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tonka by Jeanne Lupton
Tonka (Jeanne Lupton)
in a still wood
scattering Father's ashes
at Easter
rising up out of the brush
a wild turkey flies away
eucalyptus
in the wind
all
the time
in the world
winter woods are still
but for the crunch underfoot
and that moaning
that creaking high in the trees
stop - hear how they love their life
following
the lakeside trail
into quiet
this step, and this
all there is
how green the green
i the gray light after the storm
how lake the lake
and thistle, thistle
in these hills, how me i am
60th September
honeybees wild
in yellow blossoms
I was born
for middle age
When I asked Jeanne to describe form of the tonka, she answered as follows:
Tanka is a five-line Japanese poetic form. It is 1300 years old, and the 3-line haiku came out of it 400 years ago. Tanka traditionally are 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, but some who write tanka in English use a short-long-short- long-long pattern or two-three-two-three-three beats pattern instead. Japanese onji or sound units are all one length, whereas English syllables vary in length, so tanka of fewer syllables than 31 is thought by some to more closely approximate the tanka spirit. Tanka were originally love poems.
in a still wood
scattering Father's ashes
at Easter
rising up out of the brush
a wild turkey flies away
eucalyptus
in the wind
all
the time
in the world
winter woods are still
but for the crunch underfoot
and that moaning
that creaking high in the trees
stop - hear how they love their life
following
the lakeside trail
into quiet
this step, and this
all there is
how green the green
i the gray light after the storm
how lake the lake
and thistle, thistle
in these hills, how me i am
60th September
honeybees wild
in yellow blossoms
I was born
for middle age
When I asked Jeanne to describe form of the tonka, she answered as follows:
Tanka is a five-line Japanese poetic form. It is 1300 years old, and the 3-line haiku came out of it 400 years ago. Tanka traditionally are 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, but some who write tanka in English use a short-long-short- long-long pattern or two-three-two-three-three beats pattern instead. Japanese onji or sound units are all one length, whereas English syllables vary in length, so tanka of fewer syllables than 31 is thought by some to more closely approximate the tanka spirit. Tanka were originally love poems.
