Saturday, March 08, 2008

Atlas Poetica - Spring 2008 contributions

along the road
the gentle whisper
of wild grass
still he wonders why
the women leave him


walking along
Breda's cobbled streets,
musing ...
far away in Amsterdam
a woman awaits my husband


in the Veluwe
rumours of the hunt ...
warthog tribes

snouts pressed to the ground
warpaint on their hooves


after two days
at the orphanage
I died
then lived through
five more lives

this is still
the metropolis of
my youth
when my stepmother scolded
and called me dirty names


The original of this next one was written in Filipino, after news of yet another landslide in The Philippines. The English version is not a literal, but a figurative translation, although some of the words match: gubat = forest, bayan = country, nakalublob = buried.

ang gubat
ay wala na ...
sa putik
nakalublob
ang ating bayan

the forest
is no more ...
the land
has buried itself
in its own clay



These tanka were published in the first issue of Atlas Poetica, Number 1, Spring 2008. I'm rather proud of them, especially considering the fact that all of them were written very quickly and spontaneously. Thanks a lot, Mr. Kei!

1 comment:

Bill said...

You're right to be proud, Ella. Each of these is strong in its own way, and the variety is impressive.