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~ poems and photos

Tag Archives: family

homework- review- by tom clausen

01 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by Tom Clausen in americana, Chapbooks, haiku, Haiku Way of Life, Lynx,, tanka, Published Poems, senryu, tanka

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Tags

book review, chapbook, family, family life, haiku, home, homework, life, poems, poetry, senryu, tanka, writing

Homework by Tom Clausen. Saddle-stitched, full color cover, 4″ x 6″, 36 pages. $10., ppd. ISBN: 1-903543-00-2. Order from Snapshots Press, 132 Crosby, Liverpool, L23 8XS, England.

To quote the jacket notes: “Focusing squarely on domestic life, this collection of haiku, senryu, and tanka is often funny, often sad and always paradoxically both familiar and eye-opening.” It cannot be said better nor more succinctly what this newest book by Tom Clausen contains. I can only add my continuing praise for Tom’s work. It is always a revelation and delight how he seizes on the tiniest experience, and through his examination of it and the cool observation his own feelings, carries it over into a major event. This leaves the reader wondering, “Now, why did I not notice that?” and “Why did I not think of that as material for a poem?”. It seems that tanka is especially designed for the methods of Tom Clausen. Even when aware of the smallest thing, he is also aware of how that thing or event is affecting him. This occurs even in his haiku.

While some purists might fault his haiku for not being closely enough aligned with the nature-nature viewpoint, his sensibilities are absolutely accurate for tanka. This collection gains, I think, by the inclusion of his haiku (which often portray the lighter moments of family living). They seem to play off and actually highlight the attributes of his tanka. Altogether, the editing and arrangement of the poems seems especially fine and relevant. For anyone who has grown up in a family or is living in a family now, this book will take away those terrible moments of aloneness when one felt that no one else in the world ever had such moments of doubt, despair and pure undiluted joy. Tom has been there, and he has the courage to face them directly and honestly, and to continue to hang with the feelings until he has created pure poetry out of them.

no longer me
it proves a mystery who it is
I’ve become
walking around this house
with my family there inside

I sort of knew
my coffee cup
was empty –
so much I look in it
just to see

The sensitivity of the editor, John Barlow, is shown in the choice of a drawing done by Tom’s young daughter, Emma Clausen, as cover along with the insider joke of the title of the book – Homework. Delight piles on delight with this one. Review written by Jane Reichhold

pieces by tom clausen

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

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Tags

art, beauty, design, details, dreams, family, Finger Lakes, gravestones, haiku, Ithaca, photography, pieces, poetry, stones

the pieces
of our life
left behind

bits of stories on pieces of stones scattered around...

bits of stories
on pieces of stones
scattered around…

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out walking by tom clausen

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

art, beauty, design, details, dreams, exercise, fall, family, Finger Lakes, free, freedom, haiku, letting go, now, observance, photography, poetry, practice, revelation, reverie, ritual, routine, senryu, sequence, series, sky, summer, sun, thought, truth, weather, whimsical, witness, zen

out walking…
no leash
on my thoughts

a gallery of clouds proves once again it is all about change!

a gallery of clouds
proves once again
it is all about change!

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Image

time by tom clausen

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

Tags

art, design, details, dreams, family, leaves, photography, poetry, ponds, reflection, Sapsucker Woods, summer

DSCN7293

Posted by Tom Clausen | Filed under poems and photos

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spreading oak by tom clausen

31 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

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Tags

art, beauty, East Lawn Cemetery, family, family tree, Finger Lakes, haiku, Ithaca, lawn, New York State, oaks, photography, poetry, roots, shade, summer, time, trees

spreading oak-
each family a world
unto itself

taking time in the cemetery for some shade

taking time
in the cemetery
for some shade

good life by tom clausen

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

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Tags

art, beauty, design, family, farms, fields, Finger Lakes, friends, haiku, life, photography, poetry, rural, summer

day break-
the spider centered
in its web

the cows all headed off to other pastures...

the cows
all headed off
to other pastures…

mother mallard by tom clausen

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

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Tags

ducks, family, haiku, mallards, mother, nature, observance, photography, poetry, sitting, summer, sun, witness, zen

daybreak-
the rubber duck alone
in the empty tub

mother with her young ones  all lined up...

mother
with her young ones
all lined up…

father’s day by tom clausen

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in poems and photos

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Tags

dad, family, father, father's day, Ithaca, loss, love, memory, photography, poetry, rememberance, tanka, time, tribute, years

the photo of my father
that I like best
is the one in the yard
the very year
I was born…

Father's Day- this long term wish to know him better...

Father’s Day-
this long term wish
to know him better…

yonder by tom clausen

04 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in clouds, poems and photos

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Tags

family, light, love, memories, photography, poetry, tanka

high clouds…
one horse leans in
against another-
before our children
my wife and I were like that

wild blue yonder... a cloud celebration of the gift of today

wild blue yonder…
a cloud celebration
of the gift of today

pontiac by tom clausen

03 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Tom Clausen in americana, Old Vehicles, poems and photos, roads, Wabi Sabi

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Tags

art, beauty, design, details, family, found art, history, light, old cars, photography, poetry, pontiacs, reflections, small towns, tanka, time, vacations, Vermont, wabi sabi, witness

wanting my old life
when I wanted
my present life
stirring the soup she made
as a cold rain falls outside

asked to pose with an old Pontiac her stoic look...

asked to pose
with an old Pontiac
her stoic look…

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