We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

17.11.25

November Tanka: Birthday



water sign

(Tarot Queen of Cups) –

am I calm lake

vast moody ocean

or deep river?


13/11/25



three-day birthday

feasting with this kind friend 

and that, and those …

last night’s tea just a snack,

pyjama day today


14/11/25



‘eighty-six 

going on seventy-two,’

says my doctor

and, ‘I'm glad you’ve still got 

your brain. I see so many …’


14/11/25



gifts: flowers 

from her garden

food she grew

one  birthday candle

hours of easy talk



17/11/25



by the third day

I've already stopped

writing daily

in my new diary 

(birthday gift kindly meant)


*


now I inscribe

my journal's blank pages

with new tanka –

poetry is my way

to fill my days, my life


20/11/25



dark moon

in the month and sign

of my birth –

not surprising I’m loath

to tidy my house


21/11/25





4 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday (belatedly). 72, they say is a lot of fun! :) Am so glad you had a 3-day celebration with friends! Big hug and the very, very best!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!! It turned out to be 4 days; the final piece above was for the unexpected day 4. (Maybe I need to write a 5th now, about getting a huge big hug from India to crown it all!)

      Delete
    2. (No longer the final piece above. The latest two needed to be with this subject.)

      Delete

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