Gabriel Rosenstock’s Tanka Series – 5
1.
will You forever remain hidden
appearing and disappearing
as some noonday moon
mistaken for a cloud
concocted by an errant roving mind
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1.jpg)
2.
enough of this flesh and blood
enough of hair bones eyes
enough of mouth and nose
ears? ah enough, I am straw
beloved, a wisp in the wind
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2.jpg)
3.
useless the lives they lead
repairmen sent out to mend
last night’s broken hearts
now their own hearts
begin to break: what is to be done
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/3.jpg)
4.
why do You come
as a nymph to tempt me
I am already Yours
since the dawn of time
who else have I been but You
![](https://www.modernliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4.jpg)
Style: Academicism
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).