Step by painful step
How far is it, I wonder
There, as the crow flies?
Alas, earth-bound, I must walk
This winding, wandering road

Link: progression–pebble-strewn path to winding, wandering road

Seeking balance as
I tread the pebble-strewn path
On these wobbling knees
The Middle Way is steady
But not free from obstacles

Link: balance to balance

Cheeky squirrel swaying
Upside down in the branches
Of that maple tree
Will you teach me how you keep
Your balance whilst the wind blows?

Link: Progression from fall to balance

Rainy autumn day
Droplets on the still-green leaves
Hesitate, then fall
Nature seems to hold its breath
For the inevitable

Link: Hesitating to hesitate, then fall, so link AND progression

Soft sweet summer night
Distant laughter echoing
Life and love and light
A moth flits, hesitating,
Drawn to that forbidden flame

Link: progression from ink-dark night to life and love and light.

In the ink-black night
Chased by nightmares, I awake
Shivering with fear
Morpheus, must your whispers
Even haunt my waking hours?

Link: black with ink to ink-black night

Mount Koya erupts
The monks of Mii-dera
Surging through the streets
From eve til dawn fires burn
Shut the garden gate and pray

Link: the light is there to fires burn

This poem was the result of a challenge: pretend for a moment that social media existed during your persona’s time period. What event would send them into a tweet storm, and what would that post look like? Bonus points awarded for posts under 140 characters.

Hey, that’s simple for tanka! Even more simple if written in Japanese. However, I got three lines in and my grammar failed me. Adjectival nouns are straight-forward (add な) but in Ancient Japanese, it would be なり, I think? Anyway, it didn’t scan. I need to study more. So this came out in English and not a stylish poem at all, but it fit the challenge.

The poem describes how the monks on Mount Koya, a holy place with several monasteries, used to occasionally get rowdy and riot through the streets of Kyoto, particularly towards the end of the Heian period. There were several monasteries involved, not all on Mount Koya. Mii-dera was just one of many.

The heavens shine down
Upon an uncaring world
Mired in darkness
The light is there if only
We would just lift up our eyes

link: progression: it’s full of stars to the heavens shine down

A little bird sings
In the surrounding darkness
Only crickets chirp
The fireflies dance and die
My God it’s full of stars

link: glow of fireflies in the twilight to fireflies dance and die.

“My God it’s full of stars” is from Arthur C. Clarke’s Novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although widely believed to have been said in the movie, it actually wasn’t. I refer here to things I thought I heard, but were not actually said. That seems to happen to me a lot nowadays. I don’t like it.

The poem can be read forwards or backwards.