For 6 days in The Stafford Challenge, I've written a tanka each day. The tanka is a Japanese poetic form — 5 lines with syllable counts of 5/7/5/7/7 (think of it as a 5/7/5 haiku with a 7/7 couplet. Here's a description. Untitled, though if you have a tanka sequence (linked tankas), that is often titled.
On Day 54, 11 March 2025, here's a poem about my mom.
I haven’t written
about Mama yet this year:
soft sweet musky scent,
steam in the kitchen, sizzle,
crisp brown chicharon.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
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Chicharon—Philippine snack made from pork rinds
or pork belly. Descended from Spanish chicharrón. |
On Day 55, 12 March 2025, a tanka on childhood memories again.
my nights as a child
were filled with the distant cries
of a lovelorn beast
through thick San Francisco fog . . .
sad foghorns moaning
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
On Day 56, 13 March 2025, a tanka from Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday prompt for 15 January: a dream poem.
In my dream I rise
into soft air like bright fire:
fly, soar, swoop . . . I wish.
I can almost feel the wind
sweeping me up. Oh, I wish.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
On Day 57, 14 March 2025, a tanka about a missed opportunity in the sky.
Missed the blood-red moon
last night: the lunar eclipse.
Instead, my eyes turned
inward, eclipsing themselves
in sweet, dreamless sleep.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Day 58, 15 March 2025. Day before yesterday, I wrote a "dream poem" which was actually about a dream I wish to have. Today, I'm writing about my actual dream from last night. A tanka sequence with title.
Weird Dream
In my sleep last night
on some beach in Africa,
I’d set up sound gear
to splice and compile mixtapes:
strange, rhythmic, spacey music.
I wasn’t sure why
I was there, or even who
I was. Just some guy
with a spaghetti bundle
of wires and boxes on sand.
And that weird music
like a thick cloud around me:
a hard pulsing beat,
invisible instruments
played by aliens.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Day 59, 16 March 2025. Back to a single tanka today, based on an art photo by my friend Eric Garcia-March.
thin tendril of white
rising into a dark room,
calla lily blooms,
just a wafting plume of smoke
that vaporizes, like life
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
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| Photo by Eric Garcia-March
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Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking.
Ingat, everyone. ヅ
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1 comment:
Beautiful, Vince! Thanks for posting.
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