tanka poem – Susan Joy Clark

Creative Life, Poetry

Midsummer Tanka Trifecta, #Haikai Challenge

the rain spritzes down,

leaving drops on lily leaves,

showering the plants,

providing wet nourishment,

shifting from spritz to downpour.

the strawberry moon

hovers majestically,

a giant pink orb

gleaming roseate brightness

in a purple-gray sky.

in her bright glory,

she looms peculiarly large

as seen just above

the ancient Acropolis,

seeming out of proportion.

sun glares light and heat

as moisture drips down my back,

car is now sauna,

dogs lie outside unmoving,

sidewalk is now frying pan.

This is a response to Frank J. Tassone’s haikai challenge, where we were challenged to write a haikai poem of our choice on one of three possible themes or a combination: midsummer rain, strawberry supermoon or smoldering heat. Perhaps, I did too much, but I wrote three tanka poems and one of them is a double tanka.

Creative Life, Poetry

King Chuck — #Tanka Tuesday, #Tanka, #Poetry, #Micropoetry

King Chuck sits so still,

and, seemingly, free of verve.

He begins to stir

then stretch, race and crash sidelong

into me — with affection.

This was written as part of the Tanka Tuesday challenge, hosted by Colleen M. Chesebro. For this challenge, we had to use synonyms of life and move in our poems.

In just a little end note, King Chuck is not my cat, but a cat I take care of from time to time. I have been the recipient of many of those funny, affectionate crashes. I also agree that his name is very comical.

Creative Life, Poetry

Purple Iris — Tanka Poem

I thought I had the perfect photo subject for this month’s purple theme in the Life in Color photo challenge, with this purple iris from my garden. It was difficult to get a decent shot with my phone camera. The sun was so bright that my screen looked black, and it was hard to tell what I was framing. After several attempts, I captured these two.

Yesterday, on a whim, I wrote a haiku about a tree on my street. After doing some reading on other Japanese poetry forms, I thought I’d try a tanka poem about my iris. A tanka poem has this pattern of syllables, 5/7/5/7/7.

Majestic and robed

in purple, the emperor

stands, dwarfed by his bright

entourage of attendants

brilliant in their regalia.

We grow some Japanese varieties of iris, and it would be great to pair those with a Japanese poem, but they are not in bloom yet.