"Three Spring Haiku and Five Spring Tanka"

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It’s almost Spring here, with temperatures very spring-like. We didn’t have a decent Winter, but then again, we will pay for it with fleas and mosquitoes later this summer. But! There are tender buds on the peach trees, and daffidols blooming with other flowers out there…so we might as well call it Spring. The light is so delicate and clear, but it won’t last long. Summer has a way of harshening life.

Lady Nyo

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Three Spring Haiku
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Dogwoods are blooming
The crucifixion appears
White moths in the night.
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(Dogwoods are a Southern tree here in the South. White blooms
having the form of the Christian Cross, with nail heads. They bloom in the spring right before Easter. They are a symbol of Christianity in Nature.)
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Under the dark moon
I awaited your return
Only shadows came.
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The moon, a ghostly
Sliver sails on a jet sea
Wild dogs howl beneath.
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Five Spring Tanka

Plum in the water garden

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The sound of frog-calls
A pale moon floats in the pond
Fresh life is stirring
An early owl goes hunting
Wise mice scatter for cover.
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Thin, silken breezes
Float upon a green-ribbon
Of spring—pale season.
Scent of lilies, myrtle, plum
Arouse bees from slumber.
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Restless and confused,
Birds cry out, sky darkening
Rain lashes, flooding
Freshly planted fields drown
Wind sails red tiles from roofs.

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The full moon above
Floats on blackened velvet seas
Poet’s perfection!
But who does not yearn for a
Crescent in lavender sky?

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Like the lithe bowing
Of a red maple sapling
My heart turns to you,
Yearns for those nights long ago
When pale skin challenged the moon.

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Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2013

Tags: Almost Spring, Haiku, Jane Kohut-Bartels, Lady Nyo, poetry, Spring, tanka, tanka of love and yearning