Some tanka done wrong

(Breaking all sorts of purist rules.)

I must go down to 

the sea again! all I ask

is a tiny boat

with two paddles, sunlight on 

the waves, and thou beside me

(Apologies to John Masefield and Omar Khayyam)

Prompt 'boat' at Tanka Poets On Site (fb).

solitude –

the luxury of time

all alone

in my own roving mind’s

delicious freedom

Prompt 'solitude' at Tanka Poets On Site.

Also sharing these two at Poets and Storytellers United for FridayWritings #212: Luxury. Both describe (some of) my ideas of luxury, though only the second uses the word.

November Tanka: Place and Time

 

piles of paper

overflow from my desk

to my table –

as if I could feast on

the written word (I can)

20/11/25

memory

wanders on the outskirts

of town

along the river bank

of my childhood

21/11/25

dark moon

in the month and sign

of my birth –

not surprising I’m loath

to tidy my house

21/11/25

good intuition

he says when I (next door) guess 

he was painting –

no, art gives a certain

quality to the silence

21/11/25

‘poor little girl’

I think, of my friend  

who died young —

a woman strong and free   

but I know her childhood 

23/11/25

the hot is here

I put on my sarong

tie it firm —

thin cotton towel I bought 

long ago in India 

24/11/25

?

November Tanka: Friends

long married

just turned eighty-seven

she ‘never

wanted another fella’ –

some fairy-tales come true

14/11/25

oh no! 

her new photo tells me

she’s old – 

so much younger than me

I know, how can this be?

19/11/25

next door

is quiet today –

the artist

I think must be working

deeply absorbed (like me)

20/11/25

unlike

in religion, politics,

lifestyle 

yet we are old friends –

we see each other’s hearts

21/11/25

Note: I'm referring to four different friends of mine who happened to come into my consciousness at this time. Some readers, here and elsewhere, have been a bit confused about that.

Sharing this with Poets United for Friday Writings #204 , where the optional prompt is to take inspiration from the quote,  ‘The most expensive garment you’ll ever own is your own flesh.’ But I didn't have time to write something new for that theme today. Instead, here I am looking out at other people.

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

November Tanka: Home and Family

(Decided it was time to play with this form again. But didn't think of it until November had well started.)

still wearing

my wedding ring

past his death –

the band thins, but

the gold remains bright

9/11/25

looking out

after sudden rain

what’s to find?

on the dying vine 

a single new bloom

10/11/25

I gift you –

brought by our Nana 

from India,

passed to Mum, then me –

these bracelets, Cousin

12/11/25

photo line-up: 

cousins, teens to babe –

decades on

oldest and youngest

become dear friends

12/11/25

morning porridge

childhood comfort food

thick and salty –

in old age I learn

to add cinnamon

13/11/25

Sharing with Poets and Storytellers United for Friday Writings #203: Why I Love /Hate ... The prompt asked us to write about three things we hate and tear them down, and/or three things we love and celebrate them. It's my own prompt, but I have been busy the last few days marking my 86th birthday. (I always seem to have extended birthdays, courtesy of kind friends who want to take me out and do nice things for me.) So I haven't written specifically to the prompt, but I had already decided to play with tanka this month, and these first few kinda fit. They are certainly about things/people I love. Perhaps it can be inferred that I also hate the attendant loss (of husband, dying vine, the past, my own childhood) ... the  ephemeral nature of all things.