This is a responsive tanka sequence, which I enjoyed writing collaboratively with my good friend and excellent tanka poet, Janet Lynn Davis. We wrote the tanka alternately, each of us responding to the preceding "verse" or link. (Writing collaborative poems in this way has a long and venerable history in Japanese short-form poetry.) It was a fascinating process to see the poem emerge in completely unexpected ways.
Please visit Janet's tanka blog, twigs&stones, to read more of her fine work.
A Swatch of Gauze
Jenny Ward Angyal
Janet Lynn Davis
the clear wings
of a dragonfly
on my hand
a treasure map
of copper veins
poking
into the hollow
of an oak
I search for pennies
stashed away by an elf
hidden
among apple blossoms,
a gray tree frog—
I follow the trill
of another world
visions
of a watercolor
mountainside...
how to get there
when I have no brush?
quilting
the blue ridge
in light and shadow
I slip through the eye
of my own needle
left right
north south east west---
a feather
on a course of zigzags
becomes my compass
a sparrow
missing one eye
alights on my knee . . .
the distant music
of a blind harper
rendered mute
by a waterfall—
in a grotto
of lava and fern
I speak in poems
a scallop shell
bound in a bale
of mulch—
my inland journey
to the sea
at home
among pine needles
a strand
of golden thread
to bind my seams
Please visit Janet's tanka blog, twigs&stones, to read more of her fine work.
A Swatch of Gauze
Janet Lynn Davis
of a dragonfly
on my hand
a treasure map
of copper veins
into the hollow
of an oak
I search for pennies
stashed away by an elf
among apple blossoms,
a gray tree frog—
I follow the trill
of another world
of a watercolor
mountainside...
how to get there
when I have no brush?
the blue ridge
in light and shadow
I slip through the eye
of my own needle
north south east west---
a feather
on a course of zigzags
becomes my compass
missing one eye
alights on my knee . . .
the distant music
of a blind harper
by a waterfall—
in a grotto
of lava and fern
I speak in poems
bound in a bale
of mulch—
my inland journey
to the sea
among pine needles
a strand
of golden thread
~Skylark 1:2, winter 2013
Wow, Jenny and Janet ! ! So much here. Such an exquisite transcendent ride – and beautifully sympatico. (Are you two sure, you weren’t separated at birth – Smiles.) Just lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wendy! We were amazed to see how our two voices blended into one as we composed this.
ReplyDeletethanks again, wendy.
ReplyDeleteand thanks, jenny, for the kind words in your post. was truly an interesting creative experience.