Tanka by Alexis Rotella.
Ever since the tsunami, I had been wondering what was the sea look like, but could not find pertaining photographs or news. Now, here is one photo I found at an U.S. Navy website. There are some more photos there but this one hit me the most, it is visually powerful and almost surreal, and seem to have many layers of meaning. I posted it on my twitter yesterday, and Alexis wrote a tanka on it.
Initially, I was going to add Yamaguchi Seishi's haiku to this photo.
海に出て木枯帰るところなし
Once over the sea,
winter winds can no longer
return home again
Yamaguchi wrote this haiku, thinking of Kamikaze pilots during WW2.
3 comments:
Yes, this is a very poignant photo. I first saw it on a Reuter's blog. Your poems are very appropriate.
I shared this post on Facebook. Here is the comment that I made there:
This is, I think, the most memorable image of the Japanese disasters: a house of distinctly Japanese architecture, still intact, floating in the ocean. We wonder what remains inside... who may still be inside. We want to reach out, and to save, but we can only watch. It is a metaphor for all of Japan.
I made my own haiku:
Upon winter's deep
a great home floats before us.
We pray for Japan.
excited to have found your site - I look forward to following
Good strong and applicable tanka from Alexis. Good choice kuni_san.
Alan
Alan’s Area 17 blog
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