Only one guy and

Only one fly trying to

Make the guest room do.

(Basho, trans. By Cid Corman)

Black cloudbank broken

Scatters in the night…Now see
Moon-lighted mountain!.

(Basho, trans. By Cid Corman)

 On the Death of His Child

Dew evaporates

And all our world is dew…so dear,

So fresh, so fleeting.

(Issa)

The laden wagon runs

Rumbling and creaking down the road.

Three peonies tremble.

(Buson)

Take the round flat moon

Snap this twig for a handle.

What a pretty fan!

(Sokan)

The flowering bush

With only one bloom, the rest

Shut for the winter.

(Jane Mary Katherine)

Considerate dogs…

Stepping off into the snow

As I walk the path.

(Issa)

Bats come out at dusk

Woman over the way, why

Do you stare at me?

(Buson)

In unending rain

The house-pent boy is fretting

With his brand-new kite.

(Shoha)

When the waterpot

Burst that silent night with cold,

My eyes split open.

(Basho, trans. By Peter Beilenson)

The old dog lies intent

Listening. Does he overhear

The burrowing moles?

(Issa, trans. By Peter Beilensen)

Will it soon be spring?

They lay the ground-work for it,

The plum tree and the moon.

(Basho)

Making jazz swing in

Seventeen syllables AIN’T

No square poet’s job.

(Etheridge Knight)

Here are some contemporary Tanka, with haiku embedded, by Mary Jo Salter.

Tanker

On the horizon
One toy tanker pitches south
Playing hide and seek.

Broad as a fan, each rust-pocked
Leaf of the sea-grape.

---from "Fort Lauderdale," by James Merrill

Almost a tanka--

Which (to remind the reader)

Allows a haiku

To glide above two submerged

Lines of seven syllables.

____________________________

In my living room

Seven years after your death,

As a tape gave back

Your suave, funny-sad voice, I

Suddenly understood it.

______________________________

"Toy tanker," of course!

You’d pruned the tanka’s final

Syllables to five.

No one but you would have made

A bonsai of a bonsai.

____________________

The tanka I cite

Is the Mirabell of three:

A toy trilogy.

Florida: last stop before

The grandeur of Sandover?

_____________________

You played hide-and-seek--

Hoping a few fans might take

A leaf from your book.

Glimpsed behind the geisha’s fan:

Your quick smile, eyebrows lifted.

________________________

Some people make real

Tankers that can transport oil,

Do the heavy stuff.

Your father was one of them.

He greased your way: God bless him.

_________________________

Why count syllables

When half the world is hungry?

You had no answer,

Planted another sea-grape

In bright rows, ornamental.

__________________________

How many poems

Take the disappearing ship

As death’s vehicle?

Distant, you remain in view,

Still running on drops of ink.