Stitching the Clouds

flying in a skein
wintering geese embroider
dense November skies
decorating angry clouds
with silken goose-foot stitches

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Image by James MCallum found on http://www.ournorfolk.org.uk/

My response to Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #7 Teika’s third Tanka Writing Technique “Elegant beauty”

Today Chèvrefeuille has shared the third of Ten Tanka Writing Techniques by Teika: ‘Elegant Beauty’, characterised by harmony, balance, and beauty of cadence. He has given an example by the 7th century poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro from the Kokinshū, #9:409, in which we can see the elegant beauty in the smoothness of the scene and the fragile morning mist.

honobono to / akashi no ura no / asagiri ni / shimagakureyuku / fune o shi zo omou

dimly dimly
on the shores of Akashi Bay
morning mist
vanishing by distant islands
longing follows the ship

© Hitomaro

The prompt he has chosen for this episode is ‘departing geese’. However, they arrive in the UK in October and depart in March, so I have written about wintering geese.