Passages

Old high school yearbooks,
Sitting on shelf for decades
-voices of the dead;
time to recycle these now,
my old self died long ago.

Copyright©2009

Murphy's Tanka #59: Mortgage Blues

A pile of papers,
We signed the contracts for hours
-the attorney said:
There's still one thing I will need.
It was the one thing missing.

Copyright©2009

Summer Frost

I thought I knew you,
For years we told our stories
-guess not afterall:
today you walked right by me
like a chill wind in Summer.

Copyright©2009

Family Tapesrty

At Ellis Island,
Clerk read Franz Rurka's Czech tag
-wrote down Frank Robbins.

Grandpa showed bookshelf,
Where he kept family tree
-we looked at the lines:
Some back to Ellis Island,
Others back to Mayflower!

Copyright©2009

One Single Impression: Assimilation

Walled In And Out

Sitting in his cell,
He no longer sees the walls
-only lonely past.

In children's park,
Vines weave through the chain link fence
-forming leafy walls:
a cocoon for children's dreams
acted out on playing frames.

Copyright©2009

One Single Impression: Walls

Long Labor Lost

Pushed rock up mountain,
It slipped from grip, rolled down hill
-contemplated move.
Went to the pile of boulders.
Is there another to push?

Copyright 2009

Creating In Circles

Pieces of a Labyrinth
Photography: Edward S. Gault

Somebody comes by,
He sees stones, then builds something.
It stands for that day,
As we all walk by and see it.
Next day, somebody comes by....

Copyright©2009

One Single Impression

and Forest River Creations

Murphy's Tanka #51

Riding in comfort,
Our train re-routed halfway!
-windchill at zero.
Walked a good seven blocks home,
can't turn key-doorlock frozen.

Copyright 2009

Orthodoxes And Paradoxes!

Riverway Street Parallels
Photography: Edward S. Gault

Even though this verse
Has seventeen syllables
-it is not haiku.

x

I wrote half tanka

Then wrote one half the next part

Followed by next half

And continued in this way

Until I got to the en

x

Her smile was friendly,

She looked directly through me

-speaking policy.

In Congress many years,
On the ticket of Values
-feds arrested him.

Wearing a ski mask,
He killed in the name of God
-in hopes of heaven.

Copyright 2008

One Single Impression: Paradox

Counting Blessings

When she comes to me
And ask me to play with her
My answer is yes!
-even if I don't have time,
She may not always be here.

Copyright 2008

The Wisdom Of Not Listening

Nobody, they said,
Would be able to do it
-yet somebody did!-
With everyone still talking
Of the sheer futility.

Copyright 2008