A Tanka Response beginning with Genie Nakano from Los Angeles, CA, United States and Gerry Jacobson from Canberra, Australia–Australia’s Capital.
Gerry’s tanka are italicized.
Governor declares our city is in drought barefooted in the falling rain happy I don't believe oh there's carbon in the air and the levee is dry for the climate is a changin' oh, sky don't cry trees that look up to you are dying from your tears that drop the acid rain ribbon gum next door attacked by chainsaws- I leave the house and dull the pain with tea and cake and poetry prose keeps the insane, sane after I'm underground I'll have no use for words earth churns winter into spring out of tombs and sepulchers the wildwood grows fertilized forgotten griefs seeds blown to foreign lands burrowing deep into black lava sands a hybrid survives Australian airman 'neath English turf since 1941 "greater love hath no man" pulling me down the cries of living ghosts mankind with war and bombs sets the earth on fire scarred by broken glass my playground rubble and ruin the bomb sites of London ashes, ashes on fallen snow the mulberry tree blooms again nature changes -- never dies crunching frost in the glow of dawn and the full moon hanging out up there with Jupiter and Venus Genie Nakano, and Gerry Jacobson--a collaboration. First published 2016 by GINNINDERRA PRESS PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide SA Australia www:gininderrapress.com.au Gerry Jacobson In a past life, he worked as a geologist. Now he travels to visit grandchildren in Sydney and Stockholm writing tanka in the cafe's of those cities. Gerry also composes 'tankaprose, which has been published in journals including Haibun Today and Atlas Poetica. His recent chapbook, Dancing with Another Me, celebrates his resurrection as a dancer.
Genie Nakano 