POETRY > “Chasing”

Chasing

Chasing you will not

cure me of this loneliness

in the deep-jawed mist

I lose in the trail of loss

my bright wish for adventure.

NOTES:

Lately, my partner has been looking for owls at night. When I expressed a wish to join him, he said no because he wants space. For me, that felt like a rejection of my desire to escape and the IDEA of the collusion of escape as a romantic ideal. It’s taken quite a lot of writing (I like tankas!) to figure out that because I have gotten into writing, I haven’t been singing, making music or have any performance plans. These things are sort like my “owls”.

I’d like to improve my poetry so I’m experimenting with traditional forms. Tanka is a Japanese poetry form that I find better for me than the haiku for expressing because it has a 31 syllable count. It’s possible that the ones I have written are not quite correct yet, but that is why I am sharing them, to learn as I go along and gather feedback.