(Water color with gold leaf: “Hummers”, Jane Kohut-Bartels)
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Mist drifts in waves
Ribbon-ing maple branches
The rising of moon
Make Egrets shimmer silver-
Gauzy ghosts of nothingness.
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Cranes wheeled in the sky
Their chiding cries fell to hard earth
Warm mid winter day
A pale half moon calls the birds
To stroke her face with soft wings.
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How could I forget
The beauty of the pale moon!
A face of sorrow
Growing thin upon the tide,
disappearing into dawn.
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Autumn wind startles–
Lowered to an ominous
Key—Ah! Mournful sounds!
The fat mountain deer listen-
Add their bellowing sorrow.
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I wander the fields
Snow covers the barren soil
Sharp wind plays pan pipes
A murder of crows huddle
Black laughing fruit hang from limbs
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Jane Kohut- Bartels
Copyrighted, 2018
Tags: Japaneses poetry form, Painting of Hummingbirds Jane Kohut-Bartels, tanka
April 15, 2018 at 11:52 pm
First of all, the painting is gorgeous. You do such fine work. Your tanka are wonderful. I especially like the third one. I am a sucker for poems about the moon.
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April 16, 2018 at 5:38 am
Gorgeous artwork, Jane, and I love the tanka, especially:
‘Mist drifts in waves
Ribbon-ing maple branches;
The rising of moon
Make Egrets shimmer silver-
Gauzy ghosts of nothingness’
and.
‘How could I forget
The beauty of the pale moon!
A face of sorrow
Growing thin upon the tide,
disappearing into dawn’.
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April 16, 2018 at 11:33 am
Hello Kim! Thank you so much for reading and your comment. i love tanka too, and intend to go back to the formal study of it after “The Kimono” is out. I find great comfort in reading the classically done ones and of course they inspire. Thank you again.
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April 16, 2018 at 11:36 am
Hi Kanzen! First, thank you for reading and your lovely comment. I, too…am a sucker for any moon poem. In any form! For some reason the gold leaf doesn’t show up well on the photo, but it is there…mostly on the back of one of the birds….
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April 16, 2018 at 11:48 am
I’m looking forward to reading The Kimono, Jane!
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April 16, 2018 at 1:50 pm
Hi Kim…me, too. LOL! I’m slowly reading the 60 some chapters as I go, trying not to make any changes, leaving that for the final edit. This novel took 11 years to research and write and I have forgotten so much of the earlier chapters. In a few months it should be ready for publication…and we will hit up Amazon first. Thank you, Kim, for your continued support and interest and encouragement on “Kimono”
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