Tanka with the Masters - Milosz

How
enduring,
how
we
need
durability.

The
sky
before
sunrise
is
soaked
with
light.

Rosy
color
tints
buildings,
bridges,
and
the
Seine.

I
was
here
when
she,
with
whom
I
walk,
wasn't
born
yet

And
the
cities
on
a
distant
plain
stood
intact

Before
they
rose
in
the
air
with
the
dust
of
sepulchral
brick

And
the
people
who
lived
there
didn't
know.

Only
this
moment
at
dawn
is
real
to
me.

The
bygone
lives
are
like
my
own
past
life,
uncertain.

I
cast
a
spell
on
the
city
asking
it
to
last.

Czelsaw Milosz

PRIMA LUCE

dawn
before
the
light

smooths
out
shadows
on
the
lake;

like
grey
phantom
limbs

i
miss
her
most
at
midday.

conrad didiodato

a
fragment

of
my
delusionary
stammer.

shutting
out
the
noise

of
sunset

these
eyes
fall

silent

Karina Klesko

* "prima luce" is latin for "dawn" (or "first light")

Tanka with the Masters

A PRIZE BIRD



You suit me
well, for you
can make me
laugh,

nor are you
blinded by the
chaff

that every wind
sends spinning
from the rick.



You know to
think, and what
you think you
speak

with much of
Samson's pride
and bleak

finality, and
none dare bid
you stop.



Pride sits you
well, so strut,
colossal bird.

No barnyard
makes you look
absurd;

your brazen
claws are
staunch against
defeat.



Marianne Moore




reflections

a blue jay bobs near
astride a limb hew towee!
mean across and lean,
gory crowns will streak and smear:
hew toweee to him who waits!

conrad didiodato

stories , unfold
among the axiom
of stars
how grand my self-reflecton,
beside the vigil of the moon
karina klesko