WHAT IF
Tanka Prose
you keep writing the same poem disguised as different women, playing the same chords and phrases, flubbing the same shot?
suppose you kept entering the same dark echoing hall, anticipating the raptures of the deep and its flip, the music of the spheres and what you get is more longing and obsession, those places you can only live day by day, where you wonder if the past ever really happened and where even the most innocent moves can careen you head-on into your pretend life and its routine relationships—
what if only waking with the woman you’ve slept next to for years can save you, or so you think …
what if we’re just passing thru?
when
can I
unwind
your kimono
again
—from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms
__________
Peter Fiore: “Writing Gogyohka poems and tanka prose is for me akin to playing jazz piano and playing tennis—complete immersion in the moment. It’s one of the things that helps me feel complete, part of the whole fabric of things and in touch with the spirit that flows through the thousand things. Many years ago I was drawn to the beauty and simplicity of Japanese poetry because, among other things, I thought it would help me attract exciting women. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way.”
