I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

20 January 2010

Tanka on Tuesday: December 2009

3/12/09

at this time of year
before long lazy summer
inexplicably
time speeds up to a gallop
leaving us frantic, breathless


5/12/09   

Inspired by a Bette Norcross Wappner woodcut
(which — sorry! — you can only see if you're a LiveJournal member)

the vast landscape
goes to sleep in the cold
hunkering down
beside a sentinel tree
and a lone bonfire


8/12/09

all night
the smell of smoke
seeps indoors
from forest fires
two hillsides away


9/12/09

the smoke dies
the fire is contained
rain falls
I breathe and remember
my friend lately dead


15/12/09

rain
on a warm morning
breakfast
surrounded by sound
and that fresh smell


17/12/09

rain slowly dripping
from the underside of leaves
after the downpour
I remember my childhood
and the smell of the wet green   


22/12/09

the new home is high
to catch the summer breezes
Phil’s painting it now
in six more days we move in
there’s a huge rosemary bush


**********************************

Midsummer Sabbat
the old coven reconvenes
from all directions

the years since we last gathered
have seen us live our magick


 30/12/10

raining in Condong
don't take the steep hilly road
but up the highway
turning in at Chinderah
high out of flood range but flat

moving in the wet
Pottsville to Murwillumbah
and back many times
the new garage filling up
boxes and boxes and box...

2 comments:

  1. I like tanka (not that I knew about them before you started posted them!) and you are especially good at them, I think. They're like little glazed sweets made out of thoughts and moments :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, what a lovely description! Many thanks.

    I really don't know if I am good at them. I write them to learn, and perhaps depart too much from the traditional at times. But then, as our friend Pearl says in response to an earlier post, "communication matters. call it what you will in finer level after that."

    I do enjoy the attempt!

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