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Monday 20 September 2010

Tanka Time

To pledge undying love
hearts and names carved on your tree
are thought too passe now.
Instead, fix padlocks to your bridge
then throw away the key.

9 comments:

CiCi said...

Tanka is a new form of poetry to me. If this is it, I like it and you are good at whatever form you write.

Conda Douglas said...

The padlocks as on the Great Wall? Nice imagery.

AP said...

And what if the locks were cut in half too? If tokens could not die...

Kass said...

Very intriguing. I would like to hear the back story to this Tanka.

Mariana Soffer said...

Very interesting, innovative, it left me wondering about tanka

Raj said...

deep as always. the first line touches a chord somewhere. something different abt it.

Unknown said...

Such sweet traditions! Hopefully trees will still be de rigeur in the countryside!

Dave King said...

Thanks Everyone
I have thrown in the odd tanka before, but not for a good while. Traditionally (in English!) it is a 5-7-5-7-7 format, but that is flexible, as with Haiku.

It seems that the latest "thing" (especially on the Continent, but increasingly here) is to attach locked padlocks to bridges to profess your love. They do quite a trade in these padlocks, which have hearts on them. The local authorities are trying to outlaw the practice. Apparently it is most rife in Rome.
Guess the next step will be couples padlocking themselves to the bridges.

Carl said...

Dave - I'll try to photograph a heart shaped padlock for you next week in my travels!