Short Tankas Poems

deep in the pool
the harvest moon
bleak and surreal
too soon the image
dissolves in space


 MOON TANKA
 a single owl screech
breaks the silent
November night-
the Hunters moon
waxes blue...

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Bag of tricks contest sponsored by Linda-Marie
2 tankas 5/7/5/7/7
 
Concealer 
by Doris Culverhouse

Concealer covers
Restless nights, wrinkles and age
Spackle for the face
My bag of tricks will contain
Light and dark sticks for all flaws

Keep those telling flaws
closely covered never let
others see the real
superficial me later
Imperfections are pure...

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Like a Hungry Bear
I approach the Honey Jar
Slurping the Sweetness
Pearls of sticky glue dripping
Fast I Lick my lustful lips


Now the jar's empty
I Scoop the Delicious Dew
My restless fingers 
Rushing to work honestly
Leaving not a drop to wipe


My taste buds do speak
Savor the lingering last
Reaching the zenith
Grateful to  flowers and bees
My blissful heart blesses them...

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Night poet as, I create
Other poems possible
Tankas intimate
Heroic rhyming poesy
Iambic couplets plenty
Nursery rhyme tales
Greek elegy odes
Italian novellas fables
Mournful elegies
Poesy, sestinas, villanelles
Other verse lyrics
Short rhythmical compositions
Spiritual rhyme versifications
Innovative poetry stanzas
Book anthology prefaces
Literary novelettes
Epic narratives...

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Before my eyes blink
In rays of a waking day
I can see you smile
As my arms gently embrace
Another night spent with you.

My lips can still taste
The passion found in your heart
Relighting embers
Of my own sensual hunger
As I move into your kiss

I know your essence
The scent of your love lingers
From my dreams each night
My hand reaches the pillow
But you are no longer there.





Form: Tanka...

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out my glass window
sways the silenced sunflower
facing herbs of gold
and silver-winged butterflies
glazed in honeysuckle hope

But in this darkness 
I knit lyrical tankas;
Ink that unchains gate
to glistening moon gardens
where I'll flee from heartless ghosts

So if tomorrow
there's no poetry or prose
remember these words
as these are suppressed daydreams
of a caged blue nightingale...

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I weave rhapsodies   |  words dance before you
     Enshrining words on paper  |  obelisks of enlightenment
       Heartbeats quicken pulse  |  hark metered rhythm
   As i map stars with my quill  |  Ursa Major could guide me
    To rendezvous with cosmos  |   perhaps map a planet ‘B’

A cleaved tank duo can be read as one poem or 2 stand-alone tankas. This was a collaboration between Yasmin Khan, and myself. Yasmin is responsible for the tanka on the left....

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