Poetic Musings: Black Negligee Tanka by Margaret Chula

the black negligee
that I bought for your return
hangs in my closet
          day by day plums ripen
          and are picked clean by birds

Always Filling Always Full, 2001

Margaret Chula

Commentary: ...here indentation is used to emphasize the poem’s two component movements. Rather than a personal comment or reflection, Margaret Chula’s final two lines offer a stark “objective correlative” to the image and mood of the preceding three lines, encapsulating the poet’s thoughts in implicit metaphor. The juxtaposition is surprising, and the despairing realization is made even more powerful by not being named—the bleak image of the ripened plums “picked clean by birds” says it all... the two images here are not directly compared but set in sharp contrast...

-- excerpted from "Introduction to The Tanka Anthology" by Michael McClintock

Note: You can read the full text here, "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock" )