Frank J. Tassone

Tag: dVerse

  • Constance: a #tankaprose

    The same icicle-shaped lights hang from the neighbor’s front liter. The same indoor lights adorn our current Christmas tree. And another cold moon arises. The same clouds that brought snow this morning blot out the stars tonight. The same chill in the air sends a shudder through me. And another cold moon rises. The same…

  • Spirited: A #TankaProse #Quadrille

    Get up. I can’t. You can. Get up. I’m too exhausted. Too defeated. You breathe. You live. You’re not defeated. How can I? I fall a thousand times. Then get up a thousand and one. Another breath Somehow, my feet underneath I arise again for Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 156, #Poet’sChoice and…

  • A November with Basho, Day 21

    At a village called Komatsu: Aptly named Komatsu Child Pine, a breeze blows over pampas and clover Here we visited Tada Shrine to see Sanemori’s helmet and a piece of his brocade armor-cloth presented to him by Lord Yoshitomo when he served the Genji clan. His helmet was no common soldier’s gear: engraved with chrysanthemums…

  • Losing Snoodles: a #TankaProse

    11/16/19: loss and longing She was the second dog in our house. The first, a beagle, had been a “dog-sitting” trial ownership. She, a shephadoodle, came to us under no such pretenses: Dad simply showed up with her. I fed her dutifully, walked her consistently, played with her as only a devoted eight-year-old could. But…

  • A November with Basho, Day 12

    In Yamagata Province, the ancient temple founded by Jikaku Daishi in 860, Ryushaku Temple is stone quiet, perfectly tidy… Monks at the foot of the mountain offered rooms, then we climbed the ridge to the temple, scrambling through ancient gnarled pine and oak, gray smooth stones and moss. The temple doors, built on rock, were…

  • A November with Basho, Day 7

    Crossed on the ferry at Tsukinowa to the post town of Se-no-ue to see the ruins that were Sato Shoji’s house, beyond town to the left, near the mountains. We were told to look at Saba Moor in Iizuka, and we eventually came to Maru Hill where the castle ruins lay. Seeing the main gate…

  • Lupine Ultimatum: a #tankaprose

    …She is a howling in the wilderness we can never see… -from The Memory Palace, by Mira Bartók A mere howl away. That’s as far as the family has roamed. That’s all I need do, and their answer will guide me to them. Why don’t I? I am the Alpha, father to my cubs, mate of…

  • A November with Basho, Day 4

    Set out to see the Murder Stone, Sessho-seki, on a borrowed horse, and the man leading it asked for a poem. “Something beautiful, please.” The horse turns his head– from across the wide plain, a cuckoo’s cry Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior,” Translated by Sam Hamil, The Essential Basho, pg. 8-9 Another Momento Mori…