Father's Day
the newborn's hand
curled in his
My Dear Friends:
Today is Father's Day, I would like to share with you a set of selected haiku and tanka that show the many/changing faces of fatherhood and challenge readers to rethink the influence of fathers in society.
Selected Haiku and Tanka:
her tiny voice --
the apartment fills
with dad-dads
John Hawk
crayon map
my son shows me the way
to Neverland
John McManus
father's advice
... the faded blue
of his ball cap
Elliot Nicely
family dinner dad's stony gaze bursts in my mouth
Ken Sawitri
on a shelf
in her dining room ...
the red truck
her father bought
hoping for a boy
Ken Slaughter
father poses
in his first suit
of lifelong desire --
lightness of being him
in my wedding
Ramesh Anand
a plastic bank
in the thrift store
takes me back
to when I last saw him ...
I inhale my father
Mary Davila
the apartment fills
with dad-dads
John Hawk
crayon map
my son shows me the way
to Neverland
John McManus
father's advice
... the faded blue
of his ball cap
Elliot Nicely
family dinner dad's stony gaze bursts in my mouth
Ken Sawitri
on a shelf
in her dining room ...
the red truck
her father bought
hoping for a boy
Ken Slaughter
father poses
in his first suit
of lifelong desire --
lightness of being him
in my wedding
Ramesh Anand
a plastic bank
in the thrift store
takes me back
to when I last saw him ...
I inhale my father
Mary Davila
twilight chill ...
on the street corner
a young man
yells at his father
who is not there
Chen-ou Liu
To conclude today's post, the Father's Day Special Feature, I would like to share with you the following remark:
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
-- William Shakespeare
Happy Father's Day
Chen-ou
Depictions of fathers in the media and in public policy debates would lead one to believe there are but two types of fathers: the new nurturing father who is as comfortable in the nursery as in the board room and the “deadbeat dad” who gives neither his time nor his financial support to his children. The reality is that most fathers fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Today's fathers show a diversity of life-styles and a broad range of relationships with their children. So diverse are America's fathers that participants in the workshop agreed there is no consensus on what constitutes the proper role for fathers today....
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from the opening paragraph of "The Many Faces of Fatherhood: America's Fathers and Public Policy," accessed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231402/
Very touching verses here! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete- Kanchan Chatterjee. India.