Ten Tanka Poems by Joshua St. Claire

 

Ten Tanka Poems

the weight
of stone
on stone
on stone
Zubenelhakrabi





grocery shopping
for New Years
I thought I saw you
but you wore your hair straight
and were still alive





frozen waves
of the Iapetus Ocean
the rise
and fall
of the Appalachians





high-rise office
the virga and I
take all day
for our feet to touch
long mountain





first monarch
her head
in his lap
as he reads
Baudelaire





the sound of sand
rolls onto the strand
as it leaves the land
the repetons
of a villanelle





the greenwhites
of the last hydrangea
the many worlds
that bloom and die
in my hands





rereading One Art
the mist’s whiteness
up and over
the Appalachians
over and over





deeper
into the scent
of chestnut blossoms
an old dirt road
into the what’s gone





white wings
flitting in and out
of white pines
the rise and fall
of Pissarro’s green

Joshua St. Claire is an accountant from a small town in Pennsylvania who works as a financial director for a non-profit. His haiku and related poetry have been published broadly including in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, and Mayfly. He has received recognition in the following international contests/awards for his work in these forms: the Gerald Brady Memorial Senryu Award, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational, the San Francisco International Award for Senryu, the Robert Speiss Memorial Award, the Touchstone Award for Individual Haiku, the British Haiku Society Award for Haiku, and the Trailblazer Award.