How Was Your Summer?
I'm thinking of this post, in a good way.
Yesterday I was taught about tanka. Its lines have syllables of 5,7,5, and then 7,7. I wrote a few, still getting my feet wet. My friend and colleague Dan Rosen told me that he remembered the exacmple given when he learned of this form as a child. And here it is:
Now indeed I know
That when we said "remember"
And we swore it so
It was in "we will forget"
That our thoughts most truly met.
-Saigyo Hoshi
I posted that because it was my friend's example and struck him so - to the extent that he remembers the name of the author. It reminds me of the "Have nice summer! How was your summer? Have a nice Sukkos! How was your Sukkos?" - syndrome. It raises the question of what conversations mean to people. Are conversations a taking in of words, ideas, person? Are conversations an often awkward, often mindless passing of time? Is it somewhere between the two?
4 Comments:
Here's an attempt...
Wife to Husband
Words I say at night
Touch your hand asking comfort
Then a sigh and sleep
But in the morning I ask
If you paid the water bill.
Miriam! That's very beautiful and true.
Let me try to update yesterday's haiku into today's tanka:
Body, bone, brain, heart
Weary, aching, confused, full
Trying just to breathe
Come love, laughter, still moment
Weave a net to save my life
Really nice guys - thanks!
Miriam - I love the details: hand touch, sig, water bill because they convey so much more thjan general words.
Kishka - Even better than the haiku alone - a true prayer. Sigh.
Thanks. The two-line ending took me about twice as long as the original haiku.
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