Today I have attempted my first tanka. I’m not sure why it’s my first, as I’ve written plenty of haiku (though I must confess a lot of them haven’t necessarily been following the ‘rules’ about a moment in nature). As you can see, a tanka is an expanded haiku, with an additional pair of 7-syllable lines at the end. Given that my poems are not usually renowned for their brevity, this seems like an ideal form for me! The central third line is supposed to act as a ‘pivot’, and can be read as either following the opening two lines, or introducing the last two.

Tanka and haiku aren’t usually titled - I suppose as everything is supposed to be said within the poem. Mine is about a sundown at the beach in Carmel, California. The photograph below illustrates it better than my holiday snaps, and is reproduced here with kind permission of the photographer Manny Espinoza.

at the horizon

the day’s egg cracks and spreads gold

across the water

pelicans’ steady wingbeats

carry them into the dusk