Poetic Musings: Question Mark Tanka by André Surridge

the old woman
with a walking stick
bent over
her daughter's grave
like a question mark

Ash Moon Anthology, 2008

André Surridge

Commentary: Ls 1-3 tell readers the subject of  the tanka, an old woman  like many we have seen in our daily life, but L4 makes a sudden shift of theme and mood, turning a picture of old age into a "portrait of grief." And through the simile in L5, the tanka  "reverberates with the anguish of "Why?", effectively capturing one of the saddest moments in one's life with the breathtaking beauty of  words (pp.17-8, Take Five:Best Contemporary Tanka, II, 2009)