The Uncarved Blog

Cold Wet Night
A Tanka

Rain on the trailer
Beating down its dismal song
Drop, by cold, wet, drop

A monotonous rhythm
Driving home … the loneliness

© Ken Chawkin
Fairfield, Iowa
Dec 20, 2006

Published in This Enduring Gift – A Flowering of Fairfield Poetry, 2010. See my other published poems in that book.

This poem was written in the presence of my muse, Sally Peden (Sali), as I was demonstrating to her how easy it was to write a haiku, which extended to this tanka. It tells the story of what was happening at the time. It was a very blissful process. Nothing depressing or lonely about it. I just selected the words that best conveyed such an image and accompanying mood.

Three years later things would change. On Jan 19, 2010, Sali would have to move into Parkview Care Center because of her dementia. Over 9 years later, I wrote this short, sad, 4-line Teapot Poem. In the 5th Response, I explain how it came to be written. Using the creative process described there brought relief from the grief I was feeling at the time.

^{— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.}

About 20 years ago, my 6 year-old daughter Shara brought home a large leaf. The outer skin had worn off revealing an intricate skeletal structure. It looked like a miniature replica of a tree. That image and theme inspired this poem. A few years later I wrote Pine Cone Trees, which brought about a variation on this theme. In both cases the last lines surprised me with their spiritual revelations.

As Above, So Below
Yatha pinde, tatha Brahmande*

As above
so below
allowing Love
to help things grow

Repeating the pattern
to copy each other
in the daughter
is the Mother

In each snowflake
a glistening star
this whole universe
is what we are

In each leaf
we see a tree
for every branch
a capillary

In each tree
not seen are seeds
and in each seed
is found a tree

So are we
found in Thee
as Thou oh Lord
in each of me

© Ken Chawkin
Fall, 1990, Fairfield, Iowa

*As is the atom, so is the universe.
As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
From the Vedas and Upanishads.

*This Vedic expression, Yatha pinde, tatha Brahmande, is explained by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in this video: “As is the cosmic life, so is the individual life,” and “The individual is cosmic.”

I originally read this poem to conclude the February 26, 2020 broadcast of MIU Radio KHOE’s Let Your Heart Sing, #62, “A New Variety Show.” You can listen to that segment on YouTube starting at 29:29–30:30.

I posted Five Haiku, published in THIS ENDURING GIFT – A Flowering of Fairfield Poetry, 2010. They were selected by editor Freddy Fonseca from: 13 Ways to Write Haiku: A Poet’s Dozen, originally published in The Dryland Fish, An Anthology of Contemporary Iowa Poets, 2003, edited by Matthew MacLeod. The 5 haiku already selected were: Defined, Translated, The Fall, Winter Memo, and Forest Flowers, numbers I, IV, VII, XI, and VIII, respectively. Rather than present the remaining 8 haiku, here is the complete collection in their original order.

13 Ways to Write Haiku: A Poet’s Dozen

I
Defined

3 lines, 2 spaces,
17 feet to walk thru;
then,   the unending

II
Discovered

a poem unfolds
as words take their place in line
this one’s a haiku

III
Transformed

Caterpillars spin
increments of commitment;
Butterflies fly free!

IV
Translated
(Inspired by Gareth Jones–Roberts’ painting “Egrets in Morning Light”)

on the edge of space
two egrets in morning light
woken from a dream

V
Galiano Island

West   Coast   Island   Time
Nothing   Moves,   Nothing   Changes;
Roosters   Crow   At   Noon!

VI
Cliffhouse Deck at Dusk
Inspired during a visit to Galiano Island

Tiny bells call me
Arbutus blossoms falling
Sounding the Silence

VII
The Fall

sudden drop of leaves
a negligée to the floor
trees stand stark naked

VIII
Forest Flowers

tiny white flowers
a constellation of stars
so low yet so high

IX
Be Spring

Brown Branch Bursting Buds
Beneath Benevolent Beams
Boughs Bearing Beauty

X
I Wonder

Do trees have a say
When to drop anchors away
As ripe acorns fall?

XI
Winter Memo

On seeing snowflakes
written on a piece of bark
I copied this down

XII
Foggy Perception

a yellow raincoat
from out of a thick white fog
appears      to be seen

XIII
Concrete Impression

cement truck droppings
on the road     solidified
········like elephant dung

© Ken Chawkin

Also see Another Fall Haiku

 ^{— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.}

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