At Home
What is a trip to a place left behind,
one that always lives in my heart?
Have I returned home when I visit there,
or when I leave?
This is my response to Twiglet #308: returned home.
As an exercise, I have also written this as a gogyohka and a senryū.
(Also shared with Colleen’s #TankaTuesday
Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 303, Senryū.)
always present
a trip to a place left behind
always in my heart
at home in two places
past and present as one
never gone
have I returned home
when I visit the past
or when the trip ends?
Senryū are similar to haiku, but they tend to be about human nature, rather than nature.
Gogyohka (pronounced go-gee-yoh-kuh)
~ a form of Japanese poetry pioneered by Enta Kusakabe in the 1950s
~ 5-line poetry ~ like tanka, but with freedom from restraints
~ no fixed syllable requirement
~ no conventions regarding content
~ brief lines in keeping with the tradition of Japanese short verse
rivrvlogr 
What a clever tease!
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😀 Thanks!
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I love your question, Ken! An interesting thought!
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Thank you, Dwight.
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You are welcome.
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I like the last version the best. Its simple directness is very powerful.
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Thank you. It was a fun experiment.
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You’re welcome.
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Fascinating concept/question, Ken & you’re definitely a master at making these forms work for you. Salute.
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Thanks, Ron..
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I like the question you pose, Ken. A perspective I hadn’t considered before.
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Thank you, Lisa. It’s one I ask myself every time I travel that way.
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Life is circular. (K)
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And sometimes it seems like we’re just along for the ride.
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Often, if not most of the time.
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Lovely poems. I especially like the first one.
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Thanks.
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Oh, nice! Thought-provoking and fascinating question.
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Thank you. 🙂
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Most welcome, Ken.
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I like the questioning in every variation.
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Thank you, Merril.
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You’re welcome!
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Ken, I love your kens!
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🙂 Thanks!
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Reblogged this on https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Thank you for sharing, Michael.
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Thanks for sharing this very philosophic poem, Ken! Best wishes, Michael
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Such a deep question, Ken! I love the way you posed it at the end.
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
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Thank you. it’s a question that rises with such deep connections to both places.
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This is fabulous, Ken. I like the idea of writing a tanka or gogyohka, and then writing a senryū inspired by the previous pieces. It really shows the evolution of your thoughts.
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Thank you, Colleen. I do like haiku and senryū, with their distillation of thoughts.
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Senryu are always fun to write. I like how different they are from haiku.
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Home, heart…. always difficult to leave, as well as return (to the past).
Having moved too many times; my heart is my home. I have visited old homsteads… and it can be heartbreaking to see the changes…
An excellent set of verses for promoting thought.
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Thank you, Jules. To be honest, I’m always “there” in my thoughts, but it’s my heart that keeps me here.
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Hard to think of old homesteads that have been changed or aren’t even there.
Hearts are good to have 🙂
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Great question, Ken 🙂
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Thank you.
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Pingback: #TankaTuesday #Ekphrastic #Poetry Challenge, 1/24/22, No. 304 – Word Craft Poetry
I wish I’d written this, Ken.
❤
David
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❤ Thank you, David. 🙂
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Now you’ve got me thinking about your question/s! Great movement, poem by poem. Bravo!
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😀 Thank you.
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