Spring Tanka Challenge

Last November we had a lot of people participate in my little tanka challenge. I also had several suggest doing it again.

Well, spring is here, birds are flirting behind veils of sakura blossoms. What better time than to revive this exercise?

Here's the concept:

Write one tanka (waka)* each day in the month of April.
*Resources on tanka:
http://www.ahapoetry.com/TANKA.HTM
http://www.americantanka.com/
http://www.wodefordhall.com/heianpoetryjam.htm

The spirit of this poetic form being the impermanence of this dewdrop life, no make-ups are permitted. If you miss a day, you miss a day and as in real life, you can never get it back. (You're on the honor system here....)

No limits on subject matter other than any you chose to impose upon yourself. Hopefully, some moment in your day will inspire you to write about it.

If you write more than one tanka a day, fine. However, you may [i]not [/i]carry over tanka to other days. The point is to write at least one poem each day.

(If you are inspired to "answer" someone else's poem, go for it. Personally, if I do so, I am not going to count it toward my daily assignment. The idea is to come up with something myself each day. What you do is up to you.)

Adherence to the 5-7-5-7-7 line/syllable count is required, otherwise it's not a tanka.

It's poetry, not stereo instructions. It should say something and it should make sense.

No rewrites. As the cherry blossom falls, so must your verse. 

Challenge begins April 1, ends April 30.

Have fun.

That wasn't my imagination, that was a B-17!

My place of work is located on the flight path to and from Oakland International Airport. Jaded things that we are, we tend not to look up unless something sounds like it's coming in awfully low.

I was just leaving the building to walk to my truck and go grab some lunch when I hear an unusual rumble from above. Loud, really loud, and not in the "normal jet or small plane" range I'm used to hearing. Pre-jet-age loud. I look up.  It's big. It's silver. The wings are not raked back like a jet and it has two big engines on each wing. Blue circle with white star on the fuselage, yellow flashing on the tail.

That had to be her, I thought.

The Liberty Belle is touring airfields in our area. The reason I know this is I got a flyer (pun inevitable) in the mail addressed to previous tenant "or current resident." An afternoon excursion on a 65 year old, deafening, vibrating tin can, costs more than roundtrip airfare back east, which is kind of unfortunate because it would probably be a fascinating way to spend an afternoon.

Kaga chochin paper test.

Left: Synskin fiberglass shoji "paper". Right, plain sumi-e (ink painting) paper right off the pad.

Light source, one votive candle each.

The Synskin is denser than the paper, which had me concerned about how much light would get through. However, it outperforms the paper, as seen here. It's also far more likely to put up with dewy or downright wet conditions, and the vendor sells it for lampshades and lighting (as well as other applications), so I don't expect it to melt or burn, as long as I keep flame candles in a cup or chimney. $6 got me more than enough for two lanterns.

These are gonna look so awesome.