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cupped hands - tanka


goldenlangur

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goldenlangur

in my cupped hands

a ladybird traces the lines

what does it see

our karmic link from the past

or our new rebirths ?

 

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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Golden,

 

You excel in these short forms. The first two lines show a vivid, lovely image, the next thee, ah, that's what a fortune teller normally does. What an imaginative mind!

 

I'm thinking we should start a workshop for tanta, too.

 

Thanks for sharing these insightful poems.

 

Lake

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goldenlangur

I like very much how you've read a 'fortune teller' here, Lake.

 

The impulse to know what the future holds, I suppose, runs deep in us.

 

 

I like your idea of a tanka workshop. Perhaps you could run it by Aleksandra, Tony and Tink. icon_smile.gif

 

 

 

Look forward to see what follows.

 

 

Thank you for the read and you lovely comments. icon_smile.gif

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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Aleksandra

Golden I love this tanka. ( as all of yours icon_smile.gif ).

The metaphor with the ladybird is wonderful, and really the narrator's wondering is worth and make sense.

This poem and that questioning gives me imagery on one man under a Bo tree, and meditating.

 

I agree with you and Lake. It is ok to have some tanka workshop. We would think about that.

 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece GL.

 

Aleksandra

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth - Jean Cocteau

History of Macedonia

 

 

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goldenlangur

Hello Aleksandra,

 

You're right - all paths of quests lead to that embodiment, you describe well:

 

Aleksandra wrote:

 

This poem and that questioning gives me imagery on one man under a Bo tree, and meditating.

Aleksandra

 

Thank you for another great reading.

 

And yes, a tanka workshop would be fun icon_smile.gif I hope we can do it.

 

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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GL, I am not familiar with tanka but your work is making me so much curious about this form. Another beautiful one.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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goldenlangur

Delighted JoelJosol with your interest in the tanka icon_smile.gif

 

Thank you so much for your lovely comment.

 

Aleksandra has started a tanka challenge thread in the Poetry Playground Forum and Tink has posted great details about the tanka form in the Archive Forum. I hope you'll give this rewarding form a try. I notice that you write about thwarted love, life's incongruous situations and also political iniquities - all themes that the Japanese and other tanka writers have explored.

 

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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I had to google ladybird, and now that I know what it is this makes sense. Somehow, this one seems introspective.

 

I, too, want to get in on the tanka challenge, but I'm nervous ... after I bombed out on the haiku challenge. icon_neutral.gif

 

Tony icon_smile.gif

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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goldenlangur

Hi Tony,

 

Your remark about googling for ladybird took me googling and how fascinating that this lovely creature is called lady bug or lady beetle in Noth American English (quoting Wiki here)! Thank you for this icon_smile.gif

 

I'm so glad that you read this as being 'introspective' - most gratifying.

 

Please do give the tanka a try and your haiku was, I thought, going well icon_smile.gif

 

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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beautiful! lady bird as mystic and fortune teller...

 

subtle, delicate. i almost saw an inversion of sorts here - you holding the small, fagile, mystic ladybird - you as a fragile, ephemeral life being held by the universe and fate.

 

magical. icon_smile.gif

To receive love, you have to give it...

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