till the last rose is placed ...
through the ether
he breathes words into me
for his death poem
—Ribbons (Tanka Cafe, "The Afterlife"), Spring/Summer 2013
Posted recently at Haiku-doodle, the blog of poet Margaret Dournaus, as part of her All Souls Day/Day of the Dead series
Posted recently at Haiku-doodle, the blog of poet Margaret Dournaus, as part of her All Souls Day/Day of the Dead series
This tanka refers to a longer poem I wrote several years ago about "his" (my grandfather's) death. Or maybe I should say, "we wrote," because I felt I may have gotten a little help.
Eeerily powerful!
ReplyDeleteTranscendent and metaphysical – very moving.
ReplyDeletethanks, you two. :) the weather on the day of his funeral was strange. and I did feel like he was there when I later wrote a poem about the day.
ReplyDeleteYou captured the chill! Would love to read the longer piece too!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jennifer. I'm not sure how I feel about the longer poem - a bit clunky in places (was a number of years ago) - but maybe I'll post it sometime!
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem.
ReplyDeleteAdelaide
thanks, adelaide!
ReplyDelete