Frank J. Tassone

Tag: photo

  • A Dragon-Riding Day (9/18/14): an .@ImageCurve #haibun

    I leave late. The traffic begins at the Garden State Parkway connector. The New York State Thruway, covered in fiberglass and steel, stretches into the blinding brilliance of sunrise. I arrive at work after 8, when I needed to get there well before. taillightsthe long gap in frontof the car before me I turn my…

  • Bleak Awakening: an .@ImageCurve #haibun

    The passing of faces or the flipping of pages, the same feeling permeates the last spoken words I recall from my dream: they won’t listen. The tension: tightness, shortness of breath, exhaustion from that frustration: “they won’t listen.” I fight the conviction, the accusing voice condemning from shadow, sounding like myself: “I am ineffectual. Impotent.…

  • Flattening Curve Fantasy: a #TankaProse

    This is what we strive for, now. The hope that daylight lies ahead of us. The hope that a flattening curve means life will return to normal. The hope that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is at an end. Some societies begin to reopen. Spaniards take to the streets to exercise, while Italians look…

  • Grief-stricken: an .@ImageCurve #haibun

    Mira cries. She opens her arms and holds them out toward me. I envelop her. Feel her chest heave with the staccato beat of a carpenter’s hammering. Listen to her muffled sobs. All I can do is hold her. Reassure her that she’s not alone as a lifetime’s grief swallows her. damp collargrasshopper songsfade in…

  • Ascension Testament: a #NaPoWriMo2020 / #GloPoWriMo2020 #ultimate #haibun

    On the day of my ascension, gratitude! Thank you, mentors and teachers, friends and enemies, mountaintop and desert moments. Thank you, Immanuel, for walking the whole way with me. wind an eagle soars On the day of my ascension, praise! to you, red rocks of Sedona; Grand, Bryce and Zion Canyons; You, Animus, Susquahana and…

  • #Publication Alert: a Premier in the Inaugural edition of Drifting Sands Haibun

    I’m happy to announce that one of my Haibun, “The Renewal of an Apocalyptic Affair,” has been published in the first edition of the new Haibun Journal, Drifting Sands Haibun! Thank you, Richard Grahn and Cyndi Lloyd!

  • Total Second-to-lasts: a #NaPoWriMo2020 / #GloPoWriMo2020 #TankaProse

    Graduation day precedes final report card pick-up. The “Last Dance” at Senior Prom precedes some final melody. A roll of thunder follows a lightening strike–before the last flash of the storm. A parry during a fencing match lands before the ultimate riposte. How these penultimates eclipse the end! dogs, fish, lizards, mice … that heartbreaking…

  • Travel Reminiscence: On ASW ‘19 Travel Notes (7/17/19): a #NaPoWriMo2020 / #GloPoWriMo2020 #haibun

    Shelter-in-place. Curtailed flights. Masked ambulations. “The New Normal” of “New York Pause,” and its sister terms in other states, confine us to save lives. It’s easy to stir against that confinement. But as the last songbirds vie for their territory with every note, I recall travels this past summer, and again feel free. sights and…