(Zen) and the way of birds

A selection of my Tanka reworked from those written in response to the Tanka Society of America’s Special Bird Series (April 2024) featured on Twitter/X. Thanks to VP Susan Burch for the feature.

Thanks also to the editors and publishers of the following journals who originally published the haiku from which many of these poems are drawn …

Wales Haiku Journal
hedgerow: a journal of small poems
The Pan Haiku Review/Blo͞o Outlier Journal
failed haiku – a journal of English Senryu

Presence Haiku Journal

first frost – journal of haiku & senryu

tsuri-dōrō – a small journal of haiku, senryū

Scarlet Dragonfly Journal

民句 folk ku: a journal in honour of Masaoka Shiki

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punctuating time
a blackbird’s song—
waking up
we snuggle back down
under the covers

easy listening
a woodpigeon croons
an old favourite
lazy sunday (afternoon)
sounds of the sixties

fresh snow
drifting from the sky
winter swans
the only sound
my footsteps

hanging out
our winter woolies
first swallow
across the fields
a rainbird’s call

The green woodpecker or yaffle is often known as the rainbird because is has the uncanny ability to forecast rain – announcing the fact through its famous “laughing” call.

swift scream
down cobbled streets
bikers follow
the pulsing beat
of a cruising car

squally showers
sweeping the saltings
a peewits cry—
a grey heron
blending with the day

passing storm
the wind chimes
tangled …
goldfinch song
filling the space

at the edge
of the wood
‘Trespassers Wil’
announcing my presence
the scritch of a jay

cold moon
the herons frozen
shadow …
a twinkle in the
snowman’s eye

morning chores
done and dusted …
the sunshine
filling every room
a cuckoo’s call

higher than
our highest kite
skylarks sing
across the meadow
… distant bells

skimming stones
at the edge of the lake
ducks and drakes …
one two three
fourfivesixseveneight

buzzards
chasing thermals;
doodling
in my notebook—
writers block

Beethoven
drifting through
my window
the song of a
yellowhammer

The call of the yellow bunting (aka yellowhammer), a favorite of Beethoven, whose rhythm (dit-dit-dit-dah) and descending third are said to have inspired Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (or possibly his ‘Fourth’)

ice creams melting
under the linden trees
a hot date …
oystercatchers whistle
from the beach

empty feeders
a frosty glint in
the robin’s eye—
the rime on my boots
left outside

wagtails
playing hopscotch
after school
my gym teacher …
late for detention

somewhere—

lost in the mist
a bittern booms
leading me along
untrodden paths