Tanka
a new chill
and so much I want to say
as above our heads
swallows weave their garlands
of farewell to summer
isolated
by silks of my own making—
who will pass this way
through a wilderness of pines
and catch my sunstruck beauty?
washed up on
the shore
of myself by the sea
of this lonely night
I am an island
lying next to you
when the
night becomes
too dark a pain to bear
my mind steps out
across the stars to dance
in their poetry of light
this tapestry
of invisible threads
weightless in dawn's hands—
all night, my mind and the moon
in and out of each other's dreams
finding comfort
in the constant stars
I tack
my pale and restless soul
to the stillness of the night
rising
in a sky of sleep
cloud poems
glide as shadows
across my dreamscape
embracing space
unafraid of silence
this autumn night
with inks of red and gold
writes a score for the wind
moonless night
the willow in the sway
of autumn—
how much I love you
for all your changing moods
the comfort
and yet the loneliness
of this one flame
held up to the darkness—
a robin's impassioned song
About
Claire Everett, UK
Claire
Everett lives in County Durham, England with her
five children and two beautiful cats. She has been
writing poetry since she was a small child, but has only
recently started to submit work to publishers. Her poems
have appeared in Bolts of Silk, Lyrical Passion
Poetry e-zine, Haiku News and she has other work
forthcoming in journals such as Simply Haiku.
This is
Claire Everett's first appearance in Sketchbook.
