Day

Day - tanka

The sun slides across

the skin of the day in a

hot, searing caress.

What can I do but sigh in

voluptuous contentment?

~~~

NaPoWriMo 22 - Homecoming

For NaPoWriMo 22, a poem celebrating Earth Day.

Homecoming - tanka

It is always  pure
pleasure. Walking on grass, leaves, 
the bare-bodied earth.

As though my body-soul knows 
it has come home to Mother.

~~~

Dusk - tanka

the day ripens from 

pale yellow to bright orange

into dusk's bowl falls

someplace else a fresh dawn blooms

in my garden, night jasmine

~~~

Birthday - tanka

one early spring dawn

the sun bloomed as I was born

I too Christ be

I celebrate this knowledge

in deep stillness and wild joy

~~~

Sensuous Sundays - Brewing nostalgia

Brewing nostalgia - tanka

the pot on the stove

bubbles up aromas from

childhood. Warm, soothing

comforting, like Mother’s touch

like a loyal puppy lick

~~~

Sensuous Sundays - Eddies of memories

Eddies of memories - tanka

fleeting sandal scent

like a rogue wind whirlpools leaves

stirs up memories

chasing the light on your skin

all the way into shadows

~~~

The gift

On dVerse Poets, it’s Abhra’s birthday and he asks, what gift we would like to give him. Or the world. As I was reading his post, quite by happy chance, I heard the tui call …

THE GIFT – tanka

into the cup of

the evening the tui

drops its golden song

my beggar heart rejoices

the moon rises in delight

~~~

Death poems

On dVerse Poets Pub Gayle sets the challenge :  To write in haiku or tanka style to the theme of Jisei (Japanese death poems).

Gayle also says, "In ancient Japanese, Chinese and Korean cultures, a practice was used at the time of death to capture the last words spoken. This practice was called jisei (in Japan) or death poem and is the “farewell poem to life.” Jisei was written by monks, samurai, the literate and poets of these cultures. One of the earliest recorded jisei dates to 686 C.E. (Common Era) or in Christian terms, B.C. (before Christ) with the death of Prince Otsu who was the son of Emperor Temmu of Japan."

Japanese death poems - tanka

~~~

I hear the sea sing

in my veins, of homecoming.

Save your salty tears

for life and its sorry tales,

not me. I am going home.

~~~

This vain, heavy shell

I no longer need, fading

softly like daylight

surrenders to night, sighing

soft promises of return.

~~~

This shell will return

to its womb. My sinews will

turn into roots, limbs

into tree-trunks. And my song

will trill out from the tree tops.

~~~

Soon, I will be rain,

falling on seeds, springing them

into life. Lusty,

fecund, virile, alive. Death

is a mere wisp of a veil.

~~~

The power of awe - tanka

What's a poem but

the shell around the heart being

split open by awe

beauty comes out of hiding

and love does a little dance

~~~

What does the watchman see?

Watcher – haiku

a coiled tense spring
the cat watches its victim
eat its last meal

~~~

Watchman – haiku

you watch over me
like a lighthouse, always there
forever shining

~~~

Watchkeeper – tanka

third watch of the night
the clock stops still in mid gong
Death has come calling

“your time is up” gaily says
that relentless watch keeper

~~~

For DVerse Poets prompt What does the watchman see?

Flower fall - tanka

curt, sharp-edged light
fells blooms from trees gathering
in an orphaned arc

soughing into pregnant grass
rosy tales of birth and death

~~~

For Dverse Poets Modifiers- Use modifiers in wild and whacky ways :)

Like a pebble - tanka

Autumn drops a leaf

on sky-coloured still water

gold seeps into blue

blue seeps into me. I am

cloudless, skyless, limitless

~~~

(Image from - http://www.goodfon.su/wallpaper/autumn-maple-leaf-water-osen.html)

Written for the Carpe Diem prompt - Like a Pebble

Spurts of freedom – tanka

I wonder sometimes
if the blood rushing through veins
wishes to be free

to rise, to rain in glorious
red arches of liberty

~~~

For the photo prompt at Mindlovemisery's Menangerie -

Photo credit – Paulix8

Rainwalk - tanka

rain falls like feathers

sashaying down the catwalk

of sky air

I suspect the trees clapped

and the rain god was made proud

~~~

All night rain falls

in the hills

an owl calls out for a mate

 all night rain falls

~~~

sleep sprites unreel

dream movies on closed eyelids

 all night rain falls

~~~

I wake from this dream

into a dream more real

 all night rain falls

the moon is an orange

the sound of rain a warning

~~~

Befriending silence - tanka

your endless talk

on festers of loneliness

are but band-aids

come, let us befriend silence

the fullness of nothingness

~~~

Being - tanka

the trees sing

the birds are in song all day

the night silence sings

all of creation brimming

with the ecstasy of Being

~~~

The wounded heart - tanka

I do not know when

you impaled yourself in me

daring, unflinching

the wound has been bleeding 

nothing but exquisite joy

~~~