The tragedy is
Not that the world is broken.
The tragedy is
That it seems to be working
Just fine as it is
Blast from the Past:
Which is worse?
Lamenting the end of empire
Or knowing it’s very alive and well
09/23/25 A New Tanka for a New Day
Category: Poems that Aren’t Haikus
09/21/25 A New Somonka for a New Day
You left me behind
I was always by your side
But you walked away
Now there’s no one to lean on
As I pick up the piecesI was there for you
Each time that you needed me
But it was too much
I couldn’t keep going like that
I just needed it to end
This is my attempt at a Somonka, a Japanese style that is two tanka poems back to back. Often it is two love letters, but here they express their “love” through the pain of a breakup.
This was my original version, but later in the day, I rewrote the second stanza to the one above:
You left me behind
I was always by your side
But you walked away
Now there’s no one to lean on
As I pick up the piecesWe wouldn’t have lasted
We were just sinking slowly
Grasping each other
I had to end it before
Either of us got too hurt
09/18/25 A New Poem for a New Day
How many times have
I just stared transfixed into
Those spots on the wall,
As if this time, they would each
Converge to a single point?
Blast from the Past:
Two patterns collide
On the floor, breaking the world’s
Uniformity
09/17/25 A New Poem for a New Day
(Fall^Crisp) + Sunshine = Contentment
Blast from the Past:
Glorious fall weather
Providing reprieve from
Dreary snow to come.
09/16/25 A New Ovillejo for a New Day
Who feels anxious every hour?
Those in powerWhere does the devil make his perch?
In the ChurchWhen are we most resigned to fate?
When we hateEven now, it is not too late
To look past how it’s been defined
To ascertain what lies behind
Those in power in the church when we hate
Today’s poem is an ovillejo, or at least my attempt at one.
Blast from the Past:
Oh what do you do
With your time when you finish
With all of this hate?
09/14/25 A New Poem for a New Day
I woke up this morning to darkness
Where am I? What am I doing?
The world feels quiet, like an absent dream
What should I do now?
I sit up before realizing that I would rather go back to bed
To that bed where my rescinding dream invites me back
Where neither time nor light matter
Where I do not need a purpose to keep going
Blast from the Past:
The wave meets the beach.
Is it a beach without sand?
You’re dreaming again.
09/12/25 A New Poem for a New Day
The waves crash against the shore
Waves of joy
Waves of anger
Waves of sadness
All push against the unmoving shore
Blast from the Past:
We sit here struck by
Waves of strange emotion as
We think together
09/09/24 A New Imayo for a New Day
He kneels for a nice long sob – soft licks smear his face
He turns his glum gaze outwards – his dog pants waiting
Tears breach the dam his eyes held – the dog strides his lap
He whimpers now aware that someone’s there to care
This is my first attempt at an imayo, a form of poetry made of 4 lines. Each is 12 syllables, split into a 7 syllable and 5 syllable section.
Blast from the Past:
Wake happy and cry
By the day’s end. Start doubting
And end satisfied.
09/07/25 A New Poem for a New Day
I
Grow
My
Grand
Lie
To
Fly
So
High
This is a poem form I invented, based on Magic 9 poems, which I was reading about recently. Basically, each line must be one syllable and must follow the rhyme scheme: abacadaba.
Blast from the Past:
I stand here confused.
I shake my wings intently,
But I do not fly.
09/05/25 A New Than-Bauk for a New Day
It’s here I wait
At the gate where
My late bus isn’t.I just look on
Eying dawn as
A yawn consumesThey all still sleep
Few cars creep past
No peep from themIf my eyes take
A quick break, will
It snake right past?
Today’s poem is a than-bauk.
Blast from the Past:
Once again I face
The dauntingly simple task
Of falling asleep…