Category Archives: 5-7-5-7-7
Imprecations
Fingers framed by light,
clutching an old rosary
carved of human bone,
she mutters imprecations
in lizardspeak and owltongue.
Tanka © 2020 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Poring
Fall foliage (2016) in Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Arizona
autumn memories—
poring over photographs
from a year ago
and wondering if the leaves
will turn vermilion again
Photo © 2016 and tanka © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Memories”
Kintsugi
Broken dinnerware, littering the desert near Yuma, Arizona
Kintsugi master,
gather up these scattered shards,
and with your lacquer,
glue them together again,
more beautiful than before.
Photo and tanka © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Kintsugi: Art of Mending”
Winter Afternoon
A splintered tree on a winter’s day, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
~~ 1 ~~
Winter afternoon—
all his broken promises
come back to haunt her.
~~ 2 ~~
Winter afternoon—
her resistance to the cold
is growing weaker.
~~ 3 ~~
winter afternoon—
hearing the forecast with doubt
and great suspicion
~~ 4 ~~
Winter afternoon—
that clown of a weatherman
talks only in lies.
~~ 5 ~~
Winter afternoon—
her defiance of the cold
weakens by the hour.
~~ 6 ~~
Winter afternoon—
something in her soul demands
a bold new action.
~~ 7 ~~
Winter afternoon—
unafraid of the wind chill
she ventures outdoors,
embraced by the great white void
that erases her footsteps.
Haiku and tanka © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #96
More Poetry Pantry #338 at Poets United
Desperate Poems
A fallen mango, Guadalajara, Mexico
~~ 1 ~~
an orange crayon—
using its tip to scribble
desperate poems
~~ 2 ~~
swirling maple leaves
driven by a sudden gust—
first days of autumn
~~ 3 ~~
first days of autumn—
underfoot the leaves crackle
ancient melodies
~~ 4 ~~
growing vegetables—
her tiny backyard garden
yields the sweetest beans
~~ 5 ~~
the smallest orchard
blazing with bright red apples—
another harvest
~~ 6 ~~
little barn swallow
seeking a new nesting place
after last night’s storm
~~ 7 ~~
The old brass doorknob—
she buffs it to a high sheen,
and studies her face.
~~ 8 ~~
the sacred grotto—
only a partial healing
for the bent woman
~~ 9 ~~
The orchard’s border—
a young man stands by himself,
watching plums ripen.
Deciding whom to marry,
he turns away from the plums.
~~ 10 ~~
Seeking signs of life,
she climbs the sacred stairway
with fear and trembling,
barely able to shuffle,
for the knocking of her bones.
~~ 11 ~~
A four-year-old speaks
her first five-syllable words—
chickadeechatter,
sizzle-n-sazzle, and one
that no adult can pronounce.
Poems © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #79
More Poetry Pantry #322 at Poets United
On a Crumbling Wall
Section of a mural, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
~~ 1 ~~
on a crumbling wall
iridescent hummingbird
in eternal flight—
its whirring wings never stop
as it hovers for a sip
~~ 2 ~~
empty garden bench
where last night’s conversation
still lingers at dawn
patterns of loss and longing
nestling in the wooden slats
~~ 3 ~~
all things softening
as summer moves toward autumn—
even field mice seem
to dwindle into mere fluff
a child’s breath can blow away
~~ 4 ~~
a cold deep pool
where she comes to bathe at dawn
dropping her silk blouse
into the dry stems and weeds
detritus of late summer
~~ 5 ~~
offering herself
as an exile from the world—
the burdock knows why,
and so does the peony
with its extravagant bloom
Tanka and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #312
More Sunday’s Whirligig #69
Imagine
~~ 1 ~~
imagine
red roses growing
in tar pits
among loathsome bones
with rotting sinews
~~ 2 ~~
The bowl of water
does not sense its own wetness,
nor the twig its bud.
Mud knows not its sliminess,
nor do thorns their prickliness.
~~ 3 ~~
When the ship I love
leaves the harbor without me,
seagulls lose their voice,
their little silvery tongues
weighed down by loathsome cankers.
~~ 4 ~~
heaped in the temple
ten thousand desperate pleas
unanswered by God—
perhaps a thief in the night
will snatch the sweet ones away
~~ 5 ~~
last downpour of spring—
even the woman who sins
murmurs prayers of thanks
Tanka and haiku © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #307
More Sunday’s Whirligig #64
Yearnings
Weathered window on an old adobe house, Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve, Riverside County, California
In the reading room
she finds a tiny tendril
curling round one word
and tries to keep the volume
of her growing sorrow low.
~~ ~~ ~~
the more I fill it,
the more I have of nothing—
my empty basket—
not even a phrase or two
makes up for what is missing
~~ ~~ ~~
jagged rice stubble—
no place for their lovemaking
in the harvest field
though still their yearning is strong
as sun beating down on stone
Tanka and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Ruby Tuesday Too
More Poetry Pantry #290
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #47: “Basket, Jagged, Missing, Sorrow, Keep”
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 239: “Free, Volume, Sun, Yearning, Still, Phrase, Two”
Runes
A stone left at Roxaboxen Park, Yuma, Arizona. (Read why people leave stones at Roxaboxen.)
painted on a stone
taken from a dragon’s den
minuscule stories
that no one can decipher—
puzzling are the sacred runes
Tanka and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Four Tanka
~~ 1 ~~
Sing me a riddle:
How many crooked pathways
make a journey whole?
How much food for sustenance
will you need on the long walk?
~~ 2 ~~
Making no progress
while trying to navigate
her soul’s deep waters,
she struggles to breathe slowly
to conserve her energy.
~~ 3 ~~
Murmuring prayers
that could double as weapons,
a renegade priest
transforms wine into water—
his convoluted world view.
~~ 4 ~~
Run to the orchard!
It is time to name the fruit
clinging to the trees,
and to pick the juiciest
with your deft and practiced hand.
Tanka © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 221
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