Love and Politics: a tanka
(Japanese extended haiku-like verse-form: 31 syllables in all; lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables, rhyming ababb)
1 (Love-Poet)
Love is life sublime!
So say we lovers, crooners,
We who’d spend our time
Banging dustbin-lids soon as
Strike up with you harsh tuners!
Give us the sweet stuff,
Love-songs, poems lyrical,
Not rough-house street stuff
Or verses satirical –
Why scant it, love’s miracle?
For god’s sake spare us
That Brechtian sermonising;
Don’t try to scare us
By all the time devising
Plans for the next uprising.
Just leave us piping
Those love-songs, lyrics graceful
Like ours, not sniping
Or letting fly a case-full
Of slogans in-your-faceful.
So here’s a handy
Tip from us: do please treasure
The love-struck dandy
Whose every lyric measure
Brings value-added pleasure.
2 (Activist-Poet)
Croon on, you luvvies!
Carry on cuddling, kissing;
‘Push-come-to-shove’ is
The one item missing
From all your commie-dissing.
You lyric poets,
Spare us your love-clamouring;
Surely you know it’s
The bother-boots hammering
That message, ‘quit yammering!’.
Sure, better tucked up
In bed with your darling-hearts,
Not getting sucked up
In it when the snarling starts,
Or batons on body-parts.
Just spare us a thought,
Us anti-fascist fighters,
When we’re up in court
And those race-hate inciters
Go free as lyric-writers!
Just know, we’re taking
The flak while you continue
With your love-making,
And that only our sinew
Holds back the thug who’d chin you.
So, love-bird, let it
Sink in: you’re perching
In Cloud Nine, get it?,
And all your deep soul-searching
Won’t stop the branches lurching!
