Tanka Style: This September

(C) R.L.K.

Clouds like white suds in
a liquid blue sky; a brisk
wind shaking the oaks
on the hillside. Summer is
gone now, and I am weary.

Learning

(C) R.L.K.

It’s like
this
sometimes--

the wind,
the falling
leaves,

one
thin
dime,

and the sun
setting
around the corner.

Improvisations on an Old Typewriter

(C) R.L.K.
....
DUNES

dusk:
surf washing against the shore;
wind-
piled
sands
....
HOPPER

light reflected    reflected light
and so much
space
to pass time in

so what’s
a picture worth
and what’s
another word for

alone?
....
FRONT PORCH

a long day
done --
now,
to just sit here
under the clouds
and nod
along with the willows
beside the pond

Fragments from an American Journal

(C) R.L.K.
_______

Tonight this slow old train
rolls on. I sit alone,
staring out the window
and thinking distant thoughts
while the moon drags itself
across a ragged sky.

_______

after rain
a crescent
moon seen through
wind-parted
branches; stars
too, bright as
innocence

_______

What the scene is now
outside my window:
young leaves, brightened by
the sun, flutter in
the wind, daffodils
abound, and an old
wooden bench awaits.

Pentastich (Another Syllabic)

(C) R.L.K.

To come to summer once more: beams
of amber sunlight slanting through
the windows in the morning, slow
afternoons, nights when cloud-shadows
float under a violet moon.

A Philosopher At Eventide

(C) R.L.K.

"The facts of the world are not the end of the matter." -- L. Wittgenstein

What's with
the willow,
weeping outside

the window this
weary night? We
who are woeful

understand, while the rain
falls, down upon
the ruins. While the rain

falls, we who are weary,
we who are woeful,
will go on.

Drifts to Catch

(C) R.L.K.

1.
In the empty park
maples wave their silhouettes
at the red sunset.

2.
Sunlight moving, inch
by inch, and a single cloud
climbing on the wind.

3.
This clear April night
there's a moon in the sky and
a moon in the lake.