Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NapoWriMo: (1) Write a "waiting" poem, and (2) write a poem about the moon. Two pretty basic prompts today - NaPoWriMo offers theirs almost apologetically, because so many poems have been written about the moon. I've written several in my poetic career that are directly about the moon, and probably dozens in which the moon at least makes an appearance.
I'm surprised though, that neither blog mentioned that today is International Haiku Poetry Day, being the 17th day of National Poetry Month and all. (As in 17 syllables in a haiku, get it?) So I decided to write a haiku about waiting and the moon. Actually, it turned into a tanka:
owl waits patiently
perched in the tall cedar tree -
hoo hooo... hoohoo hooo....
mouse darts under a full moon
bright enough to cast shadows
perched in the tall cedar tree -
hoo hooo... hoohoo hooo....
bright enough to cast shadows
And just as a bonus, here's a moon poem of mine that was published in Writer's Journal and Mad Poets Review way back in 2002. (Writer's Journal awarded it second prize in a poetry contest.)
Li Po
That night in the drunken boat,
or so the story goes,
you leaned up and out
to embrace your lover the moon,
and with that reach
that exceeded your grasp
fell into dark waters,
breaking your lover’s sister
to a hundred flashing pieces.
And as she re-assembled
on the black-glass surface
to smile at her twin above
you were already gone,
your legacy bubbling
back to the world.
That night in the drunken boat,
or so the story goes,
you leaned up and out
to embrace your lover the moon,
and with that reach
that exceeded your grasp
fell into dark waters,
breaking your lover’s sister
to a hundred flashing pieces.
And as she re-assembled
on the black-glass surface
to smile at her twin above
you were already gone,
your legacy bubbling
back to the world.
3 comments:
Cool little tanka, Bruce. Thanks for the reminder about International Haiku Poetry Day. I added a waiting/moon haiku to my post today.
Bruce, the Li Po sequence is great. You're right; they do feel like linked haiku.
By the way, I responded to your comment in my blog.
When it was published in Writers Journal it was a 2nd prize winner in their poetry contest, and the poetry editor did a nice, positive critique of it in her column.
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