Herpetological Matrix Tanka

Out for my health walk

I see little fence swifts,

A type of lizard.

But there's always only one.

Are they all the same lizard?

Hospital Tanka

You are prepped and tubed,

Waiting for the surgery.

I should be thankful

That the minutes feel so long.

At our age clock hands move fast. 

Tanka, February 25, 2023

Almond trees in bloom --

Like mine their heads have turned white.

Snow on the mountain --

An old man in a white shawl.

And yet -- and yet! -- new Spring grass!

Tanka - After This Year's Wildfires

The lightning passes;

Summer fires fall into ash.

Autumn smoke blows far,

Leaving emptiness, loss, tears.

Time now for healing, and rain.

Tanka for June 13, 2015

Nearly midsummer
Bare stalks with round bead-like seeds

All along the path
Under warm scent of laurel
Pinhole pictures of the sun

Base of Mount Wanda trail

Indian Soap going to seed

Acorn Woodpecker work -- but where are the acorns?

Tanka for 7 April 2015

Pounding wind, rain, hail --
April can't make up its mind.
Sparkling in the trees:
After the rain, bright sunlight.
A scent of thyme from the path.

A Triptych of Tanka About Running

June 8 2013



I.
Hot red rubber track,
Four hundred meter repeats.
Best part of my run --
In suddenly clear focus:
A lizard on the sidewalk.

II.
On a predawn run,
Against the luminous sky:
An osprey hunting,

One wheeling white pelican,
A black line of cormorants.

III.
Cracked adobe trail,
Doing some miles in the hills.
Highlight of the run:
Up in the wind on the ridge,
Luminous stalks of dry grass.

[Tanka  is a form of poetry that originated in Japan, in which the lines are arranged with a set number of syllables, in the form 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.] 

 

Tanka for 13 February 2013

 

Bare elderberry

Branches reaching to the sky

The violet sky;

Winter wind has stripped the leaves

But -- ah -- soon new leaves will come.