Gabriel Rosenstock’s Tanka Series – 4
1.
the flower seller is left
with her flowers
I am left with my poems
will they wither and decay
beloved, what happens to poems that die
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/flower-seller.jpg)
2.
stay among flowers
they are your true companions
in fragrance and innocence
we must wait for many aeons yet
beloved, before the world is ready
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/garden.jpg)
3.
emigrants waiting for their ship
what will they bring with them
to a new world
beloved, what will be in me
of You in worlds to come
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/the-emigrants-last-ship.jpgLarge.jpg)
4.
what layers are there
that make up You and me
peeling an onion
until nothing is left
beloved, how many layers can there be
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/onions.jpgLarge.jpg)
To read more Tanka by the same author click here
About the Author
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/gabriel-and-gandhi-300x238.jpg)
Gabriel Rosenstock is a bilingual poet (in Irish & English), haikuist, tankaist, playwright, novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator, writer for children and champion of ‘forlorn causes’ – the phrase is Hugh MacDiarmid’s. He is a Lineage Holder of Celtic Buddhism and a member of Aosdána (the Irish academy of arts and letters). Among his awards is the Tamgha-i-Khidmat medal (Pakistan) for services to literature. Gabriel’s most recent volume of poetry is Glengower: Poems for No One in Irish and English (The Onslaught Press).