Tanka : Gabriel Rosenstock & Margaret McCarthy

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Pic by Miguel Á. Padriñán

 

Gabriel Rosenstock’s Tanka are paired with the black and white landscape photographs of standing stone structures captured by the photographer, Margaret McCarthy. The Tanka seem to tease the inimitable poetry that resides in the stone structures. Or is it the other way around?

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1.

beloved
from my prehistoric heart
from my petrified existence
                greetings to You
                embrace me with Your light
 
Dolmen Axeitos, Galicia, Spain                                                                          Photo: ©Margaret McCarthy


 

2.

it has been raining
for a thousand years
or more, beloved
           rain coming in from the sea
           in gentle syllables
 
Gallarus Oratory, Dingle Peninsula,  Ireland.                                                           Photo: ©Margaret McCarthy


 

3.

long gone, beloved
days when men knew
what it was: the Mên-an-Tol
            I shall tell You now
           the secret must be ours
 
Mên-an-Tol (Stone of the Hole) Cornwall, England.                                                 Photo: ©Margaret McCarthy


 

About the Poet

Photo: Jim Berkeley.

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). His website: https://www.rosenstockandrosenstock.com

 

About the Photographer

Inspired and indebted to mythology, Margaret McCarthy brings the eye of a poet to her photography, exploring archetypes of myth and dream in her imagery. A few of the fine art publications where her work has appeared include: BW Gallerist (Best of Best, 2016) , Artzealous  (“Photographer to Watch in 2016”), Lenscratch, Shadow And Light Magazine, Musee Magazine, aCURATOR, LE JOURNAL de la HOTOGRAPHIE, Elizabeth Avedon’s Photography BlogSpot, U. of Georgia’s Arts and Letters Journal of Contemporary Culture, Writing on Water (MIT Press), Parabola Magazine and South X South East          photomagazine. Her website: www.margaretmccarthy.com