Ephemeral Mist: We Exist Then Disappear Haiga is a Japanese concept describing a refined visual art of combining brush painting, Haiku (or sometimes Tanka, as here), and calligraphy. A traditional Haiga requires all three of these elements. Like the poetic form it accompanies, Haiga is based on simple, yet often what one hopes are profound,..
Tag: tanka poetry
On love and death Haiga is a style of Japanese art that combines a haiku poem with a painting or drawing, often using calligraphy to integrate the text with the visual art. It’s a visual form of poetry that seeks to capture the essence of the poem through both words and imagery. I use Haiga to frame poetic..
Anne as an indomitable decorator: A feisty artist whom brain cancer can impede but never defeat Everybody who knows Anne knows that she’s a decorator; she calls herself the “Decorating Turkey.” Our sons have dubbed her “couth”; even the house in which we raised our rowdy boys in suburban Quebec City was “couth” and..
Taigu Ryokan was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet of the Edo period, known for his unconventional lifestyle and unadorned, deeply personal poetry. https://allpoetry.com/Taigu-Ryokan Haiku’s more visual cousin, the haiga, unites a haiku poem, written in calligraphy, with a simple painting. https://poets.org/text/haiga-haiku-calligraphy-and-painting In our new world of shared grief and absurd wonder..
An update on Anne’s suffering from radiation treatments and chemotherapy Like life itself A world of beauty, Ikebana floral art: Fleeting poetry. My wife Anne is afflicted with glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma – Wikipedia https://www.braintumour.ca/fr/types_de_tumeurs_cerebrales/glioblastome/ Anne is currently suffering from severe nausea stemming from the intensive radiation treatments..
Pussy Willows by Silver Creek in Spring, Georgetown, Ontario, 1955-1964: A Tanka Poem Across from my home, A vast abandoned field: Pussy willow bliss. Sensual buds stir the blood: The long winter over at last. Note: My childhood home on Elizabeth Street in Georgetown, Ontario, was located directly across from a scrubby abandoned field intersected..
Cat mother with two newborn kittens: A Tanka poem That look on her face! Startled surprise…maternity Anthropomorphized? Offspring are forever nurtured; Motherhood is a life long trust. Tanka poetry Tanka poems follow a set of rules. They all have five lines and each line follows a pattern: the first line has five syllables, the second..
Splendid, resilient birds in freezing rain: a Tanka poem Beauty breaks the ice; The storm within subsides; Ethereal glimpse. Revelation with feathers, Gone… irretrievably lost? Photo credit @Lorne Coughlin Facebook Photo credit @ (20+) Beauty Of The Don (Toronto,DonValley) | Facebook Tanka poems follow a set of rules. They all have five lines and each..
Goldfinch in stark winter: a Tanka poem Photo credit Lorne Coughlin Goldfinch, puffed out… Protection or foolish pride? Too recognizable… We are so far from golden, But seem compelled to puff. Tanka poetry Tanka poems follow a set of rules. They all have five lines and each line follows a pattern: the first line has..
Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are as sand, as dust – or less than dust – in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing – Carl Sagan Celestial Deception: A Tanka poem Cocoon nebula Portending a butterfly To the naked eye… Our doors of misperception A cause for celebration?..









