Posts

the permeability of words tanka sequence

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the permeability of words silence has come to see my heroes— a growth of many inventions and rare combinations one sculpted a salt cathedral inch by inch out of tears and autumn wind songs but I love the one who wrote my funeral melody… the palimpsest  document of past misadventure   

A Small critique of Poetry Foundation.org

I feel like I must be honest, this month’s poetry entries at Poetry Foundation.org were very poor.  I did not enjoy a single poem they published.  I think it is time for them to hire new submission editors. Sergio Ortiz

milkweed meadow tanka

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missing clothes tanka

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missing clothes, but I don't have money on my mind... seed-pods blowing off the sycamores

days so bad tanka

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days so bad I couldn't afford a meal… independence has a price tag

you are everything tanka

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you are everything I ever closed a door on, the closet of my childhood where no one could ever find a broom

Just Published in Haibun Today

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A Quarterly Journal Jeffrey Woodward, Founder & General Editor  Volume 8, Number 2, June 2014 Sergio Ortiz  San Juan, Puerto Rico A Murdered Woman She prepared for the  Via Crucis  by putting the white silk mantilla on top of the  peineta  buried in her  azabache  hair.  La primera estación , hands clapped in dissonance, torches set on fire. Brunilda emerged from the shadows chained to the wall,  un alma en pena . She dragged the long, heavy fetters a few steps before she tore off the bolero jacket and exposed her small white breast. Then she darted into the crowd, her little feet hammering the wooden floor with a flamenco, arms outstretched until the chains gave out and her body threw itself to the ground. Her sisters grabbed the chains around Brunilda's wrist, wrapped them around their own arms. The guitarist's widow grabbed the fetters too. All the women danced and flung themselves at the crowd. They pulled on the cha...

another art tanka

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art, the history of air— follow this silence to its edge and you will hear me

art tanka

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art begins with a lie,            that’s the legend, a sharp speck in the eye

the bridges tanka

the bridges   we have failed to build between us... my ink, the color of veins and arteries 

he's been texting tanka

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he's been texting me all night... is that a booty call? I need to go to the bathroom but first let me take a selfie

the normal heart tanka

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the normal heart an ocean of tears   fighting against the tide… in the ruinous summer of a epidemic 

winter camouflage tanka

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in the arms of winter camouflage we can be anything we want-- a spot of warmth in an icy world

Shame tanka sequence

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Colonial Shame guilty words amassing faults-- a bird trails its shadow on the ground my injured airy forest at war... bought & sold a gallant extortion of the past I have no choice but to use blended words... I know there's something better down the road must I learn another language... I stand upon your back to face your destiny

to all the seashells tanka

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to all the seashells— I set fire  to the rain, watched it fall as I caressed your face

Tonight

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Tonight And I, have runaway to tell you– tonight God weeps in my hands. Call me, exiled tonight. Where are you now? Who lives in your arms tonight? Whom else from rapture’s street will you unarm tonight? My contenders for your love– you’ve invited them all? This is mere offense, an alarm tonight. Your treacherous love will be my harm tonight. I can’t flee your imaginary charms tonight. Love will not be familiar to my arms tonight. I’ll try to break out of your arms tonight.

aroma of history Tanka

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aroma of history, boiling water and a pinch of sage— life's triumph in the thick forest of a Japanese town

Van Morrison - Madame George

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above sorrow's tree second tanka

above sorrow's tree a flutter of wings in the rain clouds... we live our lives in an oasis of language

the board tanka

this board of curly maple – a map of the last age of my life in its wandering grain