tanka

NaPoWriMo Day 29 – Instinct Strolls Along

/ Just Barry / 6 Comments
Adolescent fawn strolling just outside my window (I wasn’t quick enough to catch his mom.) Image by Author.

Instinct Strolls Along

grazing through meadows
displaced from hazy dogma
gazing through windows

wish I knew how to let go
yearning to yield to the flow

Written for NaPoWriMo Day 29 Prompt:

“Imagine a window looking into a place or onto a particular scene. It could be your childhood neighbor’s workshop, or a window looking into an alien spaceship. Maybe a window looking into a witch’s gingerbread cottage, or Lord Nelson’s cabin aboard the H.M.S. Victory. What do you see? What’s going on?”

NaPoWriMo Day 29 Prompt

For Adam Toledo

/ Just Barry / 1 Comment
Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

For Adam Toledo

midnight has feasted
enveloping light, purpose
reason, an orphan

how can we move on from this?
we dwell in bizarro-world

a sun collapses
seeds scatter for their rebirth
from star’s violent end

an unarmed son falls again
and all perspective is lost

crestfallen shadow
specters of past vertigo
howls rendered speechless

rage, yielding to apathy
the kid was only thirteen

I just don’t have it in me to do a prompt today. Too depressed.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Winter’s Breathing Lesson

/ Just Barry / 4 Comments

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My driveway, about a winter ago. Perhaps two winters ago?

Winter’s Breathing Lesson

wolves thrive in winter
a matter of attrition
as their prey weakens

though her canines are not fanged
her biting air stirs my lungs

this winter is tamed
El Nino tempers her howl
flurries become rain

I’m steeled for a land of white
the mist still chills our pack’s trail

weather-guessers clash
none know what tomorrow brings
I embrace the void

cooler, darker than last moon’s
I keep my howls to myself
***

Written for Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Winter, Posted by Sumana Roy.

NOAA predicts a warm, wet winter for the Seattle area this time (so no snow days), but Farmer’s Almanac says batten down the hatches for unseasonably cold weather.

I was going to write a satire about the two conflicting predictions from the dual weather sages, but mindful presence moved me in a different direction. 

I haven’t looked at the data for myself, but meh, I’m genuinely good with either outcome. 🙂

And because I love BOTH versions…

Prayer at Journey’s End

/ Just Barry / 21 Comments

alvin-engler-32339

Photo by Alvin Engler on Unsplash

Prayer at Journey’s End

A fork in the path

I smile at the road you’ll take

I envy your route

It leads you where I know not

I pray for your safe journey

 

Nothing ever lasts

Majestic mountains erode

I will miss your shade

A cool relief from harsh light

Your kindness hugging the winds

 

Faith rarely leads me

And yet I pray for your fate

On roads, still unknown

May your smile inspire smiles

And your kindness, met in kind

 

Wielding gentleness

Against the tide of cruelty

Your morning respite

Filling my cup with promise

Restoring my karmic faith

 

All endings are thus

Our Eras intersecting

Peace where our lines meet

Your smile, gifted upon mine

Engraved upon flesh and stone

 

I’m not known to pray

But I’ll stomp and shout for you

Evil spirits leave!

Do not darken my friend’s fate!

Leave her spirit light as air!

 

Temporal waves crest

Energy fuels momentum

We tumble forward

Unsure of destination

Yet better after meeting

 

A fork in the road

Your fate awaits your footfalls

As mine veers away

May your journey bring you joy

Your good fortune, unending.

***

Day 7 – untitled

/ Just Barry / 1 Comment

jose-fontano-223781

hazy shades of gray

lazily blurring the lines

I exist, but not

 

my blood rushes to color

the margins clutching my soul

***

A storm is brewing. We may lose power. I’m tired. I’m cold. I’m also grey. 

Meh. Have a tanka. It’s all I got.