Force of Gravity (tanka, 2001)

deceptively still,
far suns of night burn
in silence,
drawn away as I am
by force of gravity

DW Bender
unpublished tanka, May 8, 2001

Sorry, I've been busy with some other things, and have not been visiting my poetry blog for a little while...I do need to answer your kind comments, friends, readers. Soon.

A couple months ago, I discovered a wonderful artist/photographer, Donald Cecil, aka Don Cecil who posts many of his creations on Flickr. I am blown away and transported by the awesome wonder of his work, which call forth the language of dream, imagination, childhood... . I hope he will one day publish some of these in books. I can't begin to describe what kind of profound and stong feelings and yearnings (related to childhood and creativity) the images he creates bring up in me:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullcecil/

Visit all of them, but especially see, these Sets:

Kid Years

New Story

Cancer Time

50 Years

January 23, 2008 - tanka

dream on, dear one,
only I am wide-awake
this winter night...
how silence gently seeps
around our limbs

DW Bender
tanka

and older modern haiga image:

Tanka, January 18, 2008 (HODB Theme: A Childhood Story)

Untitled Tanka for - Haiku: One Deep Breath
Week 85, Theme: A Childhood Story


paper snowflakes
that Daddy taped at every
windowpane...
the twinkling hush beyond
drifting whitely through time

DW Bender
Janauary 18, 2008
untitled tanka

The warmth of friends - Winter haibun

Every morning and late afternoon brings visitors—two tomcats—to my front door for free meals. Both the strays have something like a code gratitude, expressing affection to me before eating, and often between gulps of food. I have given both names to which they respond. One is a hefty young adult; judging by the state of his orange coat, he's a fierce warrior. His beguiling golden eyes are pink-rimmed, matching his nose and skin color. The other is nearly a year old, a muscular, velvet-gray foundling, who was apparantly adopted by my next door neighbors after being discovered as a tiny kitten — according to their other next-door neighbor. A friend of our indoor-outdoor male longhair, the graycoat prefers human attention. Unlike the orange tabby, the gray comes indoors when invited, to warm and rest himself. He has taken up as temporary residence, the main bathroom.

chill-damp night
into which sound has fallen—
slumbering deeply

DW Bender
Friday, January 18, 2008
haibun