Poetic Musings: Lonely Maneuver Tanka by Sanford Goldstein

I spit

on tonight’s lonely

maneuver,

I floss,

I scribble poems

This Short Life: Minimalist Tanka, 2014

Sanford Goldstein 

Commentary: Written in a traditional style of "Onihishigitei (demon-quelling force, characterized by its “strong or even vulgar diction" (Japanese Court Poetry, p. 406),  Sanford's "I tanka" effectively depicts its speaker's character through a well-chosen set of verbs ("spit," "floss," and "scribble) with a [lonely] performative act, "maneuver," in the central line.

And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my "loneliness tanka" below :

at midnight

my thoughts and hand moving

across the page:

I tanka-barricade

the door to loneliness

Skylark, 3:2, Winter 2015

FYI: For more information about Onihishigitei, see my "To the Lighthouse" post, "Onihishigitei, Style of Demon-Quelling Force"

Reference:

Brower, Robert and Miner, Earl, Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford University Press, 1988, p. 406),