just when you
think you have a handle
on the mixing bowl
of life . . .
the recipe changes
© Julie Thorndyke
tanka
Merry Christmas
the squeaky reeds
of school-age buskers
their one tune
over and over
pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
© Julie Thorndyke
White Cotton Kisses
so many small
white-cotton kisses
on bright gingham
my grandma’s
unconditional love
© Julie Thorndyke
Seen and Unseen
we walk
with angels, seen
and unseen…
their music, their laughter
their powerful god-speed
© Julie Thorndyke
Image: Hesiod Listening to the Inspirations of the Muse
Edmond-François Aman-Jean – circa 1890
100 Tanka by 100 Poets
cows queuing
for the evening milking
no one home
but me… too young
to even light the lamp
© Julie Thorndyke
published in
100 Tanka by 100 Poets of Australia and New Zealand, 2013
(cover by Ron Moss, reproduced with permission)
also Carving Granite 2011, Eucalypt 9 2010.
Like most tanka, this comes from an actual experience, but in this case not mine. My mother told me of a time in her childhood when she was alone on the dairy farm, waiting anxiously for her delayed parents to come home. The cows, waiting to be milked, darkness falling…and with no electricity, without the comfort of light because she was forbidden to strike a match for fear of fire.
Julie Anne Thorndyke 