Category Tanka

by HEMAT MALAK autumn leaves hang beside flying foxes in the breeze… I unpeg the line of socks and carry them inside twigs with berries pile up on the footpath under the galah… so many wasted words in our conversations…

by BRADLEE JENNINGS East to East an autumn road trip through Victoria: a tanka string three cooling towers pierce the Gippsland morning sky through the fog blanket unannounced and surprising they call back to bygone wars rail bridges unused rotting…

by JEANNIE HAUGHTON a gaudy spill – frosted autumn light on my op shop haul of bohemian glass and window-sill daffs sun on my shoulders mucking about in the trees away from adult eyes – the soothing embrace of childhood…

by CRAIG LINCOLN through the window I see trees bend and sway as leaves dance about I stay inside as is my wont viewing the scene through glass

by aGI DOBSON gnarled poplars and oaks leaves orange, yellow, scarlet a last bravado hairdresser tomorrow turning grey to blazing red Mossvale Park, South Gippsland, VIC grey sterile room single bed, a chair on the nightstand mints, glasses and a…

by cOLLEEN KEATING walking the beach beneath a reddened moon breath of acrid air where black ash trails the tide line an empty sky where the blue gum stood – returning birds perch on a brick wall chirping incessantly Tuggerah…

by aNDREW HEDE each morning more reports of more terror another sunrise I ponder on suffering retreating into stillness I sit by the bed of my dying friend rigidly frozen the powerlessness of Parkinson’s Disease

by GWEN BITTI drenched peace a tanka string Seminyak… running in the rain a street vendor offers me a flattened cardboard box motorcyclists and pillion passengers raincoats thrashing slide across the bridge my quivering heart nearby unperturbed monkeys chatter their…

by DAVID BRIESE only my footprints soft traces on golden sand salt-tanged wind and crashing surf am I alone if the sea speaks to me barramundi lurk beneath mangrove shadows water dark and still fishing in the Kimberley crocodile eyes…

by HAZEL HALL Silent Soloist Macquarie ACT 2001 – a tanka string trash and treasure the porcelain boy with cello – she ransacks her purse and sifts through silver a gold coin and the cellist is hers she gazes at…