Official portrait
Twenty-seventeen birthday
“Time’s an illusion”
Famous Albert Einstein quote
So why do I look so old?
© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: CS playing for the Santee Swampers 4-5-17
tanka
LAST NIGHT’S BLUEGRASS CONCERT (TANKA)
*scroll down for a YouTube video*
Bluegrass banjoing
Eating black beans on white rice
Vamping mosquitoes
Sounds and sights memory-etched
In the logbook of my soul…
© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
*Sarah Jarosz doing Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Annabelle Lee youtube video https://youtu.be/gyBPdlqcbss
IMAGE: Bluegrass instruments, Wikipedia Commons
A BIRTHDAY TANKA
(Previously titled A January Convergence Tanka)
Somehow, the mirror
Reflects the confluence of
Last summer’s green growth
This winter’s shriveled, brown leaves
Sprouting bright red poke berries
© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: My swamp’s January poke berries
MEMOIRS ARE A GENRE TANKA
Time has now become
Dripping sweet honey on sand
Only to be cleansed
By the obedient tides
Slave to the moods of the moon
Memoir poetry
Is History as art form
Bitter pill sweetened
By cloaking words and events
Seen through rose-tinted lenses
(c) 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Free clock image, European city
MOM & THE PASCO COUNTY FLOOD TANKA
Mom twirling in grave
“Take off those wet socks and boots!”
Immune system test
Have only sneezed seven times
If flood subsides, I’ll be dry…
© 2015 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
(this is really about how many years we hear our mother’s voice after she has died)
PSYCHOPATH TANKA
How could he not think
Before slaughtering Cecil
“I will be despised”?
Dentist inflicts heartless pain
And a beheaded king dies
© 2015 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
NIGHT VISIT TANKA
(Another dream about Poe)
Cats and ravens black
Hidden hearts, death, tolling bells
Edgar Allan Poe
Ideal man of mystery
Soul-baring in moonlit dreams
© Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja) Tanka & Haiku Collection
IMAGE: UNIDENTIFIED from WordPress blog
UKULELE TANKA
My fingers so itched
To play a string instrument
One more time for fun
“Oh my darling Clementine”
Ukulele, you are mine…
© 2015 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
MORNING TREAT TANKA
Craving some sweetness
Mostly poisonous sugar
Delicate flower
Hibiscus so red and sweet
And sumptuously fat-free
© Image: My front yard hibiscus
PROGRESS 59 SUPPLY CRAFT TANKA
Disintegration
Over the oceans is still
The likely outcome
As the Progress fifty-nine
Hurtles to Earth parts unknown
Six thousand pounds of
Food could feed our hungriest
Nations and the fuel
Could warm shivering bodies
Run if you see fiery streaks!
© 2015 ViataMaja
IMAGE: PROGRESS SPACECRAFT ABOVE EARTH
