Tanka and Tankaesque Poetry Sample 1

how distant
those years when I worked
for a slight wage,
it helped my wife ear her degree
a magic in the getting paid

                    - Sanford Goldstein (Japan)






the moon
turned me on my head
a white crow
asked if i was truly dead
or merely dying

                - old pajamas (USA)








On The Grizzly

I cross my life
in five diensions

the ridgeline
is clear from the glacial slop
for the next shift

                 - jacob kobina ayiah mensah (Ghana/ Spain)