• Poetry Outburst
• Tanka ☥

Poetry Outburst

Victims of pesticides
A shoal of sparrow
petals fall.

The shoals of sparrows should remain to gladden your granddaughter's days. Now, if the sparrows fall and a wealth of larches are not found singing any more, take a look at the effects of artificial fertilizers or pesticides before all the birds have died out. (Group 2014)

Sad

Proverbs assist good upbringing still, and so does telling good tales.

If you spread a proverb over a few lines and peel away some "glue words", you could end up with a novel haiku or similar, as shown here: [More]

If your style is new, however, much depends on markets. Besides, the more stress for modern man, the less likely is great thriving, and the less likely are fairy tales told at the bedside night after night -

Some sayings amount to help against great folly. Features of science fiction novels by Ray Bradbury and others from the past century, have come more or less true in today's society: largely dehumanising conditions and follies by large strokes. A control-ridden society is here already.

Great and shared follies often go unrecognised. You need to assess your odds for thriving by other yardsticks than commercial ones. To go for sound main adaptations in life is hardly for everyone who is held down - that's how it often is.

There vould be much more to learn in a family, and much to master, keeping one's privacy healthy and intact. Culture enhancements of various sorts may work too.

~ೞ⬯ೞ~

Tanka ☼

1. Looming phenomena need perhaps figurative allusions to them

Tanka poems are from China, and found new life in Japan. Tanka summarise and aim for sifted, faceted essence in mainly private, informal modes.

Haiku derive from the first main unit of the tanka. Tanka can be sung by court-dancers. It has many predecessors, and relates comfortably to "blank verse". (2)

2. Some despair in their jobs; others for other reasons.

Terse utterance may be had and then sifted. There are old rules and later rules for poetry-making.

3. Sensible proverbs could help you on

Proverbs are often poetic, and with outright helpful content too, some of them. You may have to think of them a bit to "harvest the hay," so to speak. Not all sound art activities are for entertainment. In Tibetan Buddhism there is a tradition where proverbs and mottoes and maxims are used as tools of mind development. You may record mind-helping sayings and listen to them for some time before you fall asleep.

Two compilers of Japanese tanka have said:

Poetry has its seeds in man's heart ...
Poetry, without effort . . .
can touch the gods. [Bownas and Thwaite 2009, lxii] ✪  (8)

This is a quote turned into haiku-like poetry in its own right.

So: The art of getting happy is not had by faking along. A weakened family fare with break-ups, divorces, and harmed children does not back up artful happiness, but there are exceptions. Many are bedazzled by bright lights, appearances, facades, and decor, and do not make their way out of the noisy city and its cramped living alive. Rustic living should have helped many of them.

⚶ ⚶ ⚶

Apropos alternative living: Dr Philip Zimbardo has studied young American students and found that insecurity is a main reason to join alternative groups or sects (1977).

Shyness among adults is now escalating to epidemic proportions, according to recent research by Dr. B. Carducci in Indiana and my research team in California. More than 50 percent of college-aged adults report being chronically shy (lacking social skills, low self-esteem, awkward in many social encounters). (Zimbardo 1997, 14)

Tips for alternative living: Consider who or what you compete with on the "market". You can't be shy, and should't get poor either. Personal shyness is in part a function of how growing youngsters are dealt with. It might work for good to learn to sense suitable and good friends instead of joining cults or adapt unwholesomely otherwise too, and end up in ruts with a much locked mind by and by.

These three - sensible meditation, sensible norms of living, and good and rewarding company, are cornerstones of the upward path in life, says Buddha.