delicate blossoms
gracing slender branches
breach new sky
presenting tenderness
into unknown morning
Tanka #7
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Category Archives: Haiku & Tanka
Spring Haiku #1
deep night rain hammers
outside on the old tin roof —
blossoms arising
—
I drove home from work after midnight last night. It was my son’s eighth birthday. The cake from his celebration that I had missed sat half-eaten on the counter, surrounded by cards from his grandparents.
I haven’t had the time to capture poems and words lately, even as small snippets of them have run through my mind, my days. As I crawled into bed next to my wife last night, I heard the spring rain outside. For a moment, clarity.
Tanka #6
early morning
sun and shadows streak
thinning ice
clinging against hope
for a day’s reprieve
Winter Haiku #5
yesterday’s snow
streams across asphalt —
blue skies deepen
—
I’ve been working on letting go of a rigid syllable structure for haiku and tanka. It has been difficult – it turns out that letting go of one structure simply means giving myself over to another, however it might be veiled.
Tanka #5
the shallow stream skirts
softened edges of a field —
emptiness surrounds
steady retreat on a path
through morning grey and stillness
Winter Haiku #4
orion hangs low
birdsong presages light
of weeks approaching
Winter Haiku #3
stalks of wild grasses
reach skyward through drifting snow —
brittle remembrance
Tanka #4
the old sentry watches
over mist and heavy water
weathered by time yet
outlasting the faded road
no escape from loneliness
Tanka #3
hundreds of winters
have loosened the barriers
between wind and warmth —
the coldest mornings leave gifts,
delicate intermingling
Winter Haiku #2
breathless light struggles —
long shadows arrive early
in the day’s passing
—
I feel like I’ve been writing around the edges recently. Circling around words that need to be expressed but aren’t ready to be committed. My notebook is littered with opening lines and untitled strings of paragraphs that don’t quite go together. This haiku managed to emerge complete, perhaps a part of circling inward. It is, in any event, one step next to another step, and what this moment holds.
bussokuseki 