Chen-ou Liu Poems

A Tanka Prose for Basho


In 1693, parting from his favorite disciple Kyoroku, Basho said, “Didn't the retired Emperor Go-Toba say of Saigyo's poetry that it contained truth tinged with sorrow? Take strength from his words and follow unswervingly the narrow thread of the Way of poetry.”
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Version I

Jesus shouted, 'Eli Eli lama sabachthani? ' which is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? '
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who claimed that '... there is no such thing as society... There are individual men and women, and there are families'


'Iron Lady Dead! '
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the first tanka in the sequence, Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing

a new immigrant
in the land of Snow White
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no sound in the black and white
Rodney King beating video
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Trayvon Martin Day
Justice and Peace painted
in black and white
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Ferguson at twilight
'Walking While Black'
painted in black and white
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a tanka set for all would-be/depressed poets


their fingers grasp
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