Spring tanka challenge

[Saionji Shonagon]

It's getting to be that time! I'm posting this early as I will be offline until Sunday night.

Here's the concept:
Write one tanka (waka)* a day for the month of April.

*Resources on tanka:
www.ahapoetry.com/TANKA.HTM
www.americantanka.com/
www.wodefordhall.com/heianpoetryjam.htm

The spirit of this poetic form being the impermanence of this dewdrop life, no other make-ups are permitted. If you miss a day, you miss a day and as in real life, you never get it back. (You're on the honor system here....)

No limits on subject matter other than any you chose to impose upon yourself. Hopefully, some moment in your day will inspire you to write about it.

If you write more than one tanka a day, fine. However, you may not carry over tanka to other days. You have to write a poem on each day.

(If you are inspired to "answer" someone else's poem, great. Personally, if I do so, I am not going to
count it toward my daily assignment. The idea is to come up with something myself each day. What you do is up to you.)

Adherence to the 5-7-5-7-7 line/syllable count is required, otherwise it's not a tanka.

It's poetry, not stereo instructions. It should say something and it should make sense.

No rewrites. (I know, I'm evil, but it's part of the process of practicing this form. At least for me.)

This challenge originally premiered in 2008.

Good luck everyone!

[Saionji Shonagon]

Ha, in before midnight!

Another moon sets
On a good conversation
And many shared cups.
Would we sit up so late if
We could do so more often?

My thanks to everyone at Estrella for an epic good time. Will post more later, but I did want to get this in for today's challenge.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.2.12

For a few brief hours
We warred and feasted beneath
Bright painted banners.
No longer a lady, I
Sit and fold my own laundry.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.3.12

The temple bells toll:
A spring night's dreaming mirrors
Life's impermanence.
In the dark I lie, counting
Beloved faces like coins.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.4.12

At this time of night
One can hear each creaking beam
As the house settles.
Outside the window, boughs sigh
As I sip my tea and think.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.5.12

Tugging at my hair,
Winter protests spring's coming
With chill, vengeful gusts.
The tap of my footsteps is
Accompanied by bird song.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.6.12

What must they have thought
Of those strange eyed men with their
Black ship and dying god?
I ponder missions and guns
As I slice namban sweet bread.

(Two batches of kasutera made last night to be served at this weekend's event.)

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.7.12 (Go me, I didn't misplace it!)

The sky blazes blue
While all around the list field
Banners wave gaily.
I sigh at their fluttering,
Wishing I had brought a kite.

******************
4.8.12

A golden moon crests
The hilltop as we crowd in
Close to the night's fire.
Leaning back, we point and wave
at Orion and the Bear.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.9.12

The flowering trees
Vie to catch the eye with their
Gay show of colors.
Beside them, the maple seems
Barely dressed in greenish buds.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.10.12

Was I that timid
When I faced the o-daiko
At the beginning?
Sticks in hand, I stared into
That blank eye and found myself.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.11.12
Slowly I climb stairs
At the end of a long day
And prepare to sleep.
Perhaps I will dream of things
From a Mars that never was.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.12.12

A flash overhead
Precedes blaring thunderclaps
Making us all jump.
Beneath the BART tracks, fighters
Drill to the wet hiss of rain.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.13.12

After days of storms
Patches of blue peep shyly
Out from walls of cloud.
I wish I could dance the sun
From her cave like Uzume.

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.14.12

I crest the hill to
The sinuous notes of strings
Delicately bowed.
Across the road our eyes meet
I drop a note in his case.



(I know him only as "The Erhu Guy." He's usually sitting on Grant Street in the shadow of Old St. Mary's Cathedral.)

[Saionji Shonagon]

4.15.12

There it is again,
That sharp thump at the window
That just startled me.
A sparrow bounces from branch
To sill, then back again to the branch.