May 2015
I have survived 30 years in Information Technology and am now retired. I live in Massachusetts with my wife and two cats. My tanka poetry has been published in many online and print journals. I won second place in the 2012 Tanka Society of America contest, and received an honorable mention in the 2014 contest.
Author's Note: Before computers, we submitted typewritten poems to poetry journals. Most required a SASE - a self-addressed stamped envelope - to be sent along with the poems. My favorite poem at the time was T.S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and I wrote a little parody of it. Inspired by Janice Canerdy’s excellent parody in the April issue of Verse-Virtual, I decided to submit mine for this month.
Prufrock On Rejection
I have measured my words
measured them all
made a thousand visions and revisions
and worn new metaphors old
so how could I begin
to open what I sent -
all the works and days of my hands
and all my hopes
promptly returned
in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Was it worth it, after all
after searching the floors of silent seas
for an idea or an image that would please
someone, anyone, save you and me -
after clawing the barren ocean floor
(I should have been a pair of ragged claws
that cannot hold a pen)
Was it then worth it, after all
after the lived-for letter I just now read
the form letter that politely said
“That wasn’t it; that’s not what we wanted
at all.”
Now as I sit here scratching my head
we may yet be famous when we’re dead
ever the fool, I pick up my pen
and continue writing, with a sigh,
poems that no one may ever read -
no one, that is, except you and I.
The poet Issa wrote many haiku about insects. Here is one of my favorites:
don’t swat that fly!
see how he prays
with his hands, with his feet
These two tanka of mine were inspired by Issa:
on the wall
sharing my shower…
a spider
let’s pretend, my friend
we never saw each other
tiny crabs
scurry for their holes . . .
I promise, friends
to tread softly
and carry no stick
Credits: “on the wall” originally published in Gusts 16; “tiny crabs” originally published in Atlas Poetica 12
don’t swat that fly!
see how he prays
with his hands, with his feet
These two tanka of mine were inspired by Issa:
on the wall
sharing my shower…
a spider
let’s pretend, my friend
we never saw each other
tiny crabs
scurry for their holes . . .
I promise, friends
to tread softly
and carry no stick
Credits: “on the wall” originally published in Gusts 16; “tiny crabs” originally published in Atlas Poetica 12
©2015 Ken Slaughter