Poems

Original Poetry by Warren Gaston

Tanka (2)

rainy cold damp day pink blossoms on the driveway sky dark mood descends where do I find happiness pen on paper, heart on world 2016

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Death Meditation

Sometimes I find it necessary to meditate on being dead. I’ve never been dead, but I can imagine. How different can it be than my state of being ten thousand years ago or a hundred for that matter? I have no recollection, even though I know I am now a re-collection of...

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Anastasia*

Outrageous Easter, a man back from the dead after two days down in some subterranean nightmare where the wicked live forever and a day. Resurrection is crazy, but is it crazy enough to be true? It is believed to be true by people who just as likely would believe it...

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Where Are You Hiding, Walt Whitman?

 Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. last line in Leaves of Grass Where are you hiding, Walt Whitman, you, a man of action missing in action? I have looked through the bones and bowels of...

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Tanka: Sailors

swift ship, flying foam white seagulls chase the masthead sails ablaze with wind I speed through ancient water with homesick Odysseus 2016

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Japanese Haiku and Tanka

Tanka and haiku are forms of Japanese of poetic art that have spread far and wide and found a home in many distant places. Although haiku is better known, Westerners are now discovering tanka.  Like the island nation itself, and its other native arts, calligraphy,...

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God’s Nieces and Nephews

God has a multitude of nieces and nephews, the children of God’s maladroit brother. It seems they are the ones who rule the world. We do not speak of them. Multiplicity does not fit our monotheistic schemes. Instead, they hide in newspaper headlines and we unwittingly...

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On a Shore

On a shore in west Montana the universe grinds on a stone. Waters rush, sturdy grasses rustle. Farther out, bright-eyed iridescent trout hunt trap-mouthed for plump, delicious bugs flashing in the sun. Nearby, stolid mountains feigning sleep, await orders from deep...

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