Triad Poems

A Triad of Tanka IX

Fragrant rose petals

Streaked in trickling rivulets               

Of shy, tearful zest;

But more poignant your red lips

Moistened by the cooling air.
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Curtains partly drawn

I waited till the frost came;

Still you had not come.

The guiding candle I lit

Left in my lonely window.
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Hunters silver Moon,

Touching down

A Triad of Tanka VIII: At October's End

Calm, coy October

Brings forth melancholy days,

The emptied branches...

And all harvests put away

Before warm mists leave the fields.
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Tumultuous Fall,

After spectacular blaze

At Octobers end,

Stripped of all her finery

Rejoices in rude nakedness.
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Where more mellowness

Or more agreeable days

Than when October's

Sparkling and mosaic beams 

Spilling over branch and bough.
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A Triad of Tanka VII: Under The Pale Hills

Under the pale hills,

Enchanting and elusive,

Autumn's jewelled mists

Reminding me, once again,

All things are transitory.
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Half-bathed in mauven...

How compelling the far hills.

Wistful; yet...lovely.

For always these opaque hills

Forever pulling on me.
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Never forgetting;

And on sparkling, misty days,

Lifting on sunshine

I will see your faint outlines

Etched against reflective cloud.
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A Triad of Tanka VI: Autumn Failing

A cracked, lone brown leaf

Spiralling quickly downwards

Knows only the ground;

But in that motion exalts 

As if a plunging falcon.
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Fallen, wind-blown leaves

Huddling against grey kerbstones

In abject neglect.

Already parks quieter...

Their iron railings more stark.
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The thick sap retreats

When gnarled bark tightens its grip

On inner heartwood;

Summer faded into nights...

Autumn, failing, covered all.

A Triad of Tanka V: Forever Her

That first piercing stare

Which shoved my young innocence

Into confusion.

Suddenly...my little pond

Was tipped into her ocean.
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On the way to work

I would linger in the streets,

Shopping in windows,

Hoping to catch a shy glimpse

Of breezing cloud wrapped in flame!

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The long road was wide;

But could not hold the whole World.

Though at that moment...

It seemed to me that the road

Desperately

A Triad of Tanka IIII: Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji waking,

Lifting on girdling pink cloud

In early dawning,

Casts its slopes and snowcapped peak

On flat mirroring water. 
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Fuji; slow sunrise.

Then a sea of blazing cloud 

Sets the hills aflame!

Crowding onto a shoreline:-

Hosts of purple lavender.
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Fuji in Moonshine.

Floating cranberries, amassed,

Shiver in cold light,

Ruby redness contrasting

Against crystaline night sky.

A Triad of Tanka III

Young children should grow

Straight upright, honest and strong

As giant bamboo.

We shall take them to Kyoto...

There to know contemplation.
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Filtered beams pausing

Deep inside Sagano's groves

Of rustling bamboo...

Where at rest and undisturbed

In immortal sereneness.
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Rikugien's Maples,

Lit up at night time - ablaze!  

Incandescent fire

Whom, through which great splendour made...

Can scorch the very heavens.

A Triad of Tanka II

The dragons have gone;

Disappearing into wind

Which bore them eastwards.

Sunset fell into shadow...

And the World became legend.
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Beneath tired maples

The lone bridge is at leisure;

An old canal dry.

The lone bridge reminiscing:-

Leaves carpeting flat ripple.
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Autumn in Kyoto

Overwhelms a persons senses; 

It beguiles the eye.

Whether river, hill, garden;

All beyond compare.

A Triad of Haiku V

A leaf detaches

From some resplendent, green twig.

All Summer shudders!
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The wind calling out,

Like a high, mewing buzzard,       

Behind nearby hills.   
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Winter came around...

Slipping in beneath the door

As I lit the fire.
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A Triad of Haiku IIII

Neck-craning grey goose,

Alerted head half-turned;

An eye fixes me.
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Madly racing Swifts,

Screaming loudly cloud to cloud,

Scythe through the hot air.
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Autumn, why approve

The harvesting for your yet

Unfinished produce?

A Triad of Tanka I

Sat on a park bench

She exposes her heavy breasts;                

Offers him a teat.                           

Lewd

A Triad of Haiku III

Small, Unctuous frog,

Squatting on his lily pad,

Only yawns to eat.
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Gaudy cherry trees,

Fearful of a rising wind,

Grip their blossoms tight.
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The stream's headwaters

Have not yet seen the valley;  

Nor we yet Heaven.
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A Triad of Senryu: The Peeping Tom

Placing the candle

Upon the wide window board...       

She unpins her hair.
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Her bare white shoulders

Outshine the frail Moon's weak gaze;

Her coy disrobing.
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Him moving the screen!

Bamboo and silk will not mask

His greedy intent.

A Triad of Haiku II

We are as stiff wheat

Stood waiting in dusty fields -

Both to face the blade!
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We ran barefooted

Throughout our young, carefree days

Never caring why.
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Summers late Swallows

Re-building their sticky nests

Are mindful of time.
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A Triad of Haiku I

Last year's leaves long blown;

Soon new leaves will fade and fall.

Years fade...fall as leaves.
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A proposal made

On Shiroyone's terraces;

Rice is patient too.
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I awoke too late,

You left before the dew came;

The stars went with you.

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