New tanka added: October 12, 2020
from GUSTS 32, 2020 
with words
in a notebook
I’m painting
unseen, in plain sight,
an elegy for the blues
Michael McClintock (USA)
two guitars
and two suitcases of songs,
journals, and art—
that final note stretched you
so thin you disappeared
James Chessing (USA)
remembering
how he bundled me up
in his coat—
will I have such moments
of tenderness again?
Joyce Wong (Canada)
from GUSTS 31, 2020
an unexpected death—
searching the sky
I find
snowy peaks graced
with a veil of pink cloud
Vicki McCullough (Canada)
a spill of light
through the cracks
of a poem—
carrying Leonard Cohen
in my coat pocket
Marianne Paul (Canada)
how cookies
C r u M b l e
a message
to seek the fortune
within oneself
James Won (USA)
from GUSTS 30, 2019
with every swing
of the pendulum
the arc diminishes…
for the first time I park
in a handicap space
Sally Biggar (USA)
plowing,
she finds potatoes,
carrots
and words
buried in the mud (Writer Sei Yoshino)
Natsuko Wilson (Canada)
accidental brush
of a hand agaist bare arm
elevator going down
gentle realization
that my marriage was over
Josephine LoRe (Canada)
energizer bunny—
how you go on
and on
and on
about yourself
Susan Burch (USA)
in front of
the Tiffany
I took a selfie,
eating a croissant
from a paper bag
Noriko Sato (Canada)
from GUSTS 29, 2019
scent of spring...
inside the fabric shop
a six-year-old
playing in the button box
tells me grown-ups are boring
Maria Steyn (South Africa)
precious lost souls
like a fallen oak
leave a hole
in the sky
of the heart
Edna Searles (USA)
dementia
I can still travel
the dark halls
that lead
to her soul
Huguette Ducharme (Canada)
from GUSTS 28, 2018
in the window
of the shoe store
on display
silver stilettos
aged feet fantasise
Jan Foster (Australia)
my aunt’s diary
paragraphs about
doing the laundry
her wedding day
three words
munira judith avinger (Canada)
groceries in the bag
the elderly gentleman’s
eyes glistening—
unable to remember
the pin number
James B. Peters (USA)
from GUSTS 27, 2018
this vine-covered shed
totally unremarkable
until that one week
of long, warm days
when the wisteria blooms
Elinor Pihl Huggett (USA)
a single cry
above the darkening
lake…
the bittern flies into
its loneliness
Robert Kusch (USA)
agitated pea green sea
tempest
in a matcha bowl
the storm preceding
tranquility
Tom Lyon Freeland (Canada)
from GUSTS 26, 2017
my mechanic’s
new apprentice
lights up
the entire garage
with her smile
Maxianne Berger (Canada)
my old PC
won’t co-operate
with me any more
…just like a teen-ager
trying my patience
Noriko Sato (Canada)
beyond the trees
the golden moon
a coyote
lopes through
the silence
elena johnson (Canada)
for your eyes only,
she says with a shy nod—
I think about this
then raise a hand to caress
her remaining breast
Michael Dylan Welch (USA)
from GUSTS 25, 2017
gulls shriek,
the ocean shrugs over
empty shells
this fine line between
being alone and lonely
Carole MacRury (USA)
spring thaw
splintered ice patches
in pieces
numbly I listen
to condolences
Terra Martin (Canada)
passionately
at a fish market
a mother is explaining
to her three-year-old son
the benefits of Omega 3
Yasuko Ito Watt (USA)
resisting
yet
pulled to you. . .
tonight’s
dark moonrise
elehna de sousa (Canada)
once a week
a care worker visits my house
and carefully
cleans
both the rooms and my mind
Fujiko Sato (Japan)
from GUSTS 24, 2016
continuous
rainy days on the island
I soak myself
in the stormy ocean
of Dostoyevsky
Natsuko Wilson (Canada)
remnants
of sun and sea
the deck chair
where he used
to sit
Huguette Ducharme (Canada)
this October wind
blows the leaves
up and back…
maybe on a lonely day
you’ll think of me
Stanford M. Forrester (USA)
whiskey voice
and a steel guitar
bluesman
slides his music
along my spine
Jeff Seffinga (Canada)
outside
the cafe window
a woman
with green fingernails
taps the first day of spring
Gerry Jacobson (Australia)
from GUSTS 23, 2016
sharing
the glass—
a taste of lipstick
just before
the taste of wine
Colin Bardell (Canada)
your footsteps
on the wooden stairs
as you leave
this old house echoes
with loneliness
Anne Benjamin (Australia)
slipping back to sleep
the rumble
of the midnight train
on its routine run
a lullaby of steel and fire
Richard St. Clair (USA)
from GUSTS 22, 2015
coming directly
towards me across snow
a red fox
her cubs all gone now
her loneliness complete
Susan Mary Wade (UK)
holding her
in her sadness
the world
not as we wish
yet perfect
Christina Nguyen (USA)
tired
of rejection
a panhandler
asks me
for the time
Robert Piotrowski (Canada)
from GUSTS 21, 2015
dark energy
pushing space itself
apart…
a ribbon of birds
wheels across the winter sky
Jenny Ward Angyal (USA)
cafe coffee
with friends not seen
for a while
listening to them chatter
wondering why I came
Kirsty Karkow (USA)
All men
become brothers… it says
tonight
I listen to Beethoven
in deep resignation
Tony Boehle (Germany)
my nieces
sort out their toys
for the needy…
tiptoe out at night
to rescue them back
Dawn Bruce (Australia)
from GUSTS 20, 2014
every night
the far high room
calls to me
every night the snow
falls in my sleep
Joy McCall (UK)
just as you told me
now in the stream bed
the braille
of river-stones
under my feet
Kath Abela Wilson (USA)
a pine-dark hill
in the distance—
unceasingly
my thoughts
return to you
Marje A. Dyck (Canada)
from GUSTS 19, 2014
is it the river
they follow in the dark?
cranes crying
hundreds, thousands,
under a waning moon
Ingrid Kunschke (Germany)
two foreign girls
on vacation
my cat
suddenly fluent
in their language
Jeff Seffinga (Canada)
I watch him
glide the bow across
a cello's strings
closing my eyes
I am cello in his hands
Genie Nakano (USA)
cabin fever
the sound
of a snow plow
scrapping away
my loneliness
Pamela A. Babusci (USA)
from GUSTS 18, 2013
name tag. . .
as if you might know
who I am
hidden deep
in aubergine ink
Carol Judkins (USA)
going into a cafe
to be alone, I choose the table
surrounded
by the ebb and flow
of French conversation
Makoto Nakanishi (Japan)
my wings
feel broken today
my corduroy coat
flung over a chair
in winter light
Michael McClintock (USA)
lavender
coming into flower. . .
my mind drifts
to the oncology ward
your quiet acceptance
Mary Franklin (Canada)
seventeen years
does not erase
the memory. . .
marigolds still bloom,
water runs in the creek
Susan Constable (Canada)
from GUSTS 17, 2013
if I leave
this colorful world
before you. . .
look for me in clear rain,
in the dew on a rose
Carole MacRury (USA)
the things
I couldn't imagine
at twenty
I understand at sixty-nine
mom's love affair at seventy
Jeanne Jorgensen (Canada)
clouds clearing
silver streaks on the sea,
this long long beach. . .
is seventy-one too old
to be ambitious
Amelia Fielden (Australia)
from GUSTS 16, 2012
the goodnight kiss
my daughter says . . .
what she missed
the most
when I left home
Ken Slaughter (USA)
I miss
the slight sound of
deer
walking on dry leaves
in our backyard
Naoko Kishigami Selland (Japan)
written in pencil,
great-grandfather's letters
from Ceylon . . .
how far can one travel
resisting change?
Maria Steyn (South Africa)
damson stones
in the gravel
path—
so many
missed chances
Robert Davey (UK)
from GUSTS 15, 2012
she holds
her newborn brother
close to her chest
he's breathing
in time with my heart
Dawn Bruce (Australia)
one grey goose
floating amongst
the reeds
the shape of
my solitary childhood
Marje A. Dyck (Canada)
a thousand fireflies
out of dark woods—
light springs
from unexpected
sources
Luminita Suse (Canada)
from GUSTS 14, 2011
sunrise . . .
you hand me a cup
of coffee
darkened with what
you think of me
robert d. wilson (Philippines)
Fukushima—
a land
uprooted
and yet
the cherry blossoms
Pamela Cooper (Canada)
from GUSTS 13, 2011
just by chance
the trail of a falling star
all my life
this unpredictability
of grace
Michele L. Harvey (USA)
trying
to tightly wrap
my anxiety
this furoshiki should do
with its flying cranes
Sanford Goldstein (Japan)