Blue Skies: a tanka

Its been a very long, tiring day for me so far – and it is still early! I was heading off for an afternoon nap when I saw the weekly TRC posted to the CDHK website. As you may know, I have a particular fondness for these tan renga; don’t ask why: I just do. 

The hokku, as I (finally) learned it’s called, was written near the end of the author’s life and I could feel that. The last two lines, my contribution to make the haiku into a tanka, came to me almost instantly; I only had to tweak a few words and I had it. Make sure to see the original post to learn more about this exercise, the author, and all things Japanese -poetry related really. 

this autumn
why getting older is like
a bird into clouds
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

gliding along through skies
on the way to where he came
© Greg Wolford