Frozen Stars: a tanka

Today for Tuesday’s Platform at Real Toads: A tanka.  Tanka are not titled.

nbc news – public domain

 

December night sky –
snow like frozen stars silent
as dust falls to earth –
no wishes on these lost stars –
summer photo fades with time

 

 

I am published in this fine anthology of poetry from contributors to dVerse Poets Pub.  An incredible gathering of most excellent poets available at Amazon US and UK.

Snowflakes

In Japan there are various words and nuances for “silent” or “silence”. Shizuka means total silence. Chinmoku is reticence, holding back or, more intriguing, the silence between the notes. For Real Toads, 30 in 30. This is day five. This is the farthest I have gone in NAPOWRIMO Day 5.

Snowflakes
Shizuka –
the first snowflake is silent –
at night they drift –
falling one by one
slowly piling into drifts –
silent they fall into the night –
the wind gets into them
blowing them this way and that –
chinmoku – they hold back their words
their noise their speaking –
sound comes from the wind
or the tree branches rattling –
the snowflakes speak
various forms of silence –
snowflakes fall – drift –
only the owls hear them –
gliding through snowflakes –
they hunt more silent
than the snowflakes – I walk
among them listening to
the silence of the flakes,
the swish of the owl’s wings

public domain image

Poets United Midweek Motif: Silence

For Poets United Midweek Motif – Silence

Afterwards
The silence after the argument between us was devastating –
like the silence after an F-5 tornado –
trailers were coming to that last roll,
electrical wires were still buzzing and popping.
We sat on opposite sides of the fireplace –
burning its warmest friendliest best
but we were not to be lured into its trap.
We were imprisoned inside my house by the snow –
I wanted you gone and you wanted to be gone.
All civility between us was shattered.
I made myself a cup of hot chocolate –
with a bit of bourbon and offered you none.
The snow fell silently
and steadily outside.
I sipped from my mug.
At last the cats came out of hiding.

dVerse Poetics: The Smell of Chrysanthemums

Today Kim is prompting for dVerse Poetics: Autumn. I never get enough of autumn. Come join us and read. https://dversepoets.com/2017/10/17/poetics-the-smell-of-chrysanthemums/ This is also posted for Real Toads: http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-tuesday-platform_17.html

Silence of autumn
I sit on my back porch steps –
Autumn is silent this year –
insects are quiet at night –
The moon is a thin s(l)hiver
in the black sky.
I smell autumn coming –
I see autumn coming –
but this year
autumn is silent.
Golden leaves among the green
drop to the ground – dead
from a dry spring and summer.
Autumn is silent this year.
The first frost is not yet singing –
It waits in the clouds
for a cold dark night.
Autumn is silent.
Too many losses –
Too many tears.
The moon is a thin s(h)liver
in the black sky.
Autumn is silent this year.
My mother loved chrysanthemums.

Quadrille Monday: Quadrille #31

Today is Quadrille Monday over at dVerse Poets Pub. The prompts are always interesting and a poem of exactly 44 words is win-win! Come join us for a variety of short short poems based on the word prompt “still”. the word “still” or stillness or other derivative of the word is one of the required 44 words. http://dversepoets.com/2017/04/24/quadrille-31/

Chiaroscuro
the flower moon is waning –
sleepless I drift through the rooms
in my house like a ghost.
shadows from the curtains
throw dappled patterns on the floor –
a puzzle I cannot read.
the stillness is a dull roar in my ears.
the flower moon is waning.

Heron

Another entry for the Imagist Poetry prompt over at dVerse. http://dversepoets.com/2016/01/28/image-ine-dverse-meeting-the-bar/ Even if you say you don’t care for poetry, I think you will like these linked poems.  No photo for this.  The poem is the image.

Heron
Lazy creek lined on both sides
by thick cedars – water the ancient color
of burnt sienna dyed by cedar tannins.
The marshland is silent.
The couple in the slowly floating canoe is silent.
A heron standing one legged in the creek
watches them pass.
He dips his beak in the water
before lifting himself to the sky.

侘 寂

silence.  midnight.
head bowed, white hair –
errant frost catches moonlight.
silence. crickets sleep.
sword across her knees
catches moonlight.
silence. dew falls.
wings flutter.
owl settles.
silence.