You Were There, and other poems - 5. A few Tanka and a Sonnet

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Tanka:

It must be summer –

The flies press against the frame,

For just like stained glass,

Their wings flutter to escape

The very presence of light.

Poem No. 12

Tanka:

My thoughts are worn out

By how temporal is our plane;

The things that we have

In the world are all soon tossed,

One tear always bringing more.

Poem No. 13

Tanka:

All the crowds are gone,

And the street for once seems mine;

These public buildings

Left to their beauty alone –

To me and the setting sun.

Poem No. 14

Sonnet:

What misery supplies is often met –

But not by cure, and not by solution –

For by injury our sorrows get wet,

And with tearful demand comes absolution.

Two parts seem to be afight within me:

Hope and no hope; love and spiting apathy.

Both beg from corners in a silent plea,

Through the eyes of cups looking for dignity.

Like a stroll on the beach, I see them scour –

One care pushing the incoming beneath –

To undermine strength with anti-power,

And bathe the tides in shallow points of grief.

But what Sorrow from us will sometimes take,

No one but He can a complete man make.

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