I was talking to my Mom last night about my Poetry Challenge project, and she gave me one. She said:
“How about one about cats?”
So here is my poem about cats. I’ve decided that I’m going to occasionally integrate my photography and my poetry. Some people aren’t very excited about poetry so maybe this will engage them a little better. This poem is again a Japanese form. I’m still studying the English stuff. I just want to get a bit better at it before I humiliate myself. This form is called a Tanka and traditionally has a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern, though in modern Tanka as in Haiku, that is no longer always the case. Tanka is not something I’ve done before, so this is still a challenge for me. I hope I’ve got it at least somewhere near what it is meant to be. I decided to put this one on a photo I took of Truffle, one of our cats. I suppose you could call it a sort of photographic Haiga. Obviously no great skill was required in this case, and my mastery of Zen, well – what mastery? Anyway, enjoy.
Cat
by M.J. Adams
the midmorning sun
shines through the vertical blinds
onto the table
I fail to attract your gaze
you ignore me as always
