inner art journal

Once I wished
my open kiln
would show me a Buddha
now spring days
fire the hills

at a sunless evening
the sea is still and dark
like a large swath of gray
my future
lies ahead of me

on the phone with a friend
we go over my PhD worries
hearing my inner voice
harshly roar
she lends me a calm counter voice

my storyless day 
the closer I look
the more there is to see
the less there is
of me?
  
traipsing through the world 
a marionette
big smile, hollow identity
hoping if I move fast enough
no one will notice

white sugar – refined
stripped of color and fiber
sweetness, but no substance
is this what it is to be nice 
and nothing else?

invisible ink
revealed only in the right light 
what light reveals me?
I struggle to find that light within
can invisibility reveal itself?

I introduced my young friend, Maia, to tanka writing. She is just beginning to explore it. Here is one of the first ones she sent me:

Long ago this planet
was beautiful
it used to be all full of blue and green
I had better glance back
and see if there is any left now.

I tweaked it a little for her and with her permission we came up with this:

long ago this beautiful planet
full of blue and green~
glancing back now
I look to see
if there is any left

I think Maia did a nice job understanding that tanka has five lines. She found a nice and simple idea with some sense of sadness in it. I’m going to ask her to continue to work with tanka. After she explores it for a while I will try to teach her about the shift between the first three lines and the final two.