Tag: Poets United
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A November with Basho, Day 20
We crossed Mount Unohana and Kurikara Valley at noon on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon and entered Kanazawa, there we took rooms at an inn with a merchant from Osaka, a Mr. Kansho, who was in town to attend memorial services for the haiku poet Issho, locally renowned for his verse and devotion…
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A November with Basho, Day 17
After all the breathtaking views of rivers and mountains, lands and seas, after everything we’d seen, thoughts of seeing Kisakata’s famous bay still made my heart begin to race. Twenty miles north of Sakata Harbor, as we walked the sandy shore beneath mountains where sea winds wander, a storm came up at dusk and covered…
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A November with Basho, Day 6
A little anxious, thinking of the Shirakawa Barrier, thinking on it day by day; but calmed my mind by remembering the old poem, “somehow sending word home.” I walked through heavy green summer forests. Many a poet inscribed a few words at one of the Three Barriers–“Autumn Winds” and “Red Maple Leaves” come to mind.…
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Thwarted Ambition: my latest .@ImageCurve #haibun
We arrive at our niece’s house for her daughter’s 3rd birthday party—early. Mira wants to “hug the babies”—our newborn great niece and nephew, both of whom will be there. She had hoped to have them to herself. When we pull up to the house, however, a Nissan Altima with a Portuguese flag is already parked.…
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O Francis: a #tankaprose #Ekphrastic #ode
What was it like, Francis? To experience the wounds of Christ? How did you do it? You were another noble-aspiring Merchant’s son, fighting for Assisi in another of the Italian city-states endless wars. Was it the illness you endured during your captivity? Did that brush with death open your eyes to the Truth? How did…
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An Environmental Prophet’s Welcome: a #tankaprose
Greta Thunberg sat alone outside her school. She had gone on strike to protest climate change. A year later, children throughout the world joined her. NYC students received exemption from school absense for participating in the strike. She even spoke before the UN General Assembly. For her courageous witness, a multitude of (mostly) conservative, climate-change-denying…
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Obscure perils: a #haibun
A safehouse of sorts, although why I need one remains unclear. Nor why I need help I don’t get to play some video game. Then more instructions: “You’ve got to do this…” and “Don’t do that…” It’s like I’m being prepped for some mission. Only the parameters aren’t clear. I have the sensation that some…
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Balance: a #TankaProse
Stark images. Virulent quotes. Intensities of expression across social media platforms and lunch tables alike. A jaded comment sits on a Facebook post. A sharp retort forms, a reaction in the making. All of the agitation, and yet the problems remain. A clear sky. Heavy humidity from the Maples’ transpiration. The song and countersong of…
Frank J. Tassone 