Collection of Short Verse

8/9/2019 Collection of Short Verse

1/37

Collection of short verses

Tanka-Haiku-Zen-Senryu

36 pages

By Jan Oskar Hansen

Tanka

Rain has abated

A man under an awing

Counts falling raindrops

He has little else to do

He stopped smoking last night

Fiddles with a lighter

Clicks it on and off forever

Giggles to himself

Kicks in a sweetshop window

Grabs a handful of all sorts

Tanka

New Moon

Storm was throwing love about

Impossible night

Yet, she said she loved me

Who needs moon light now?


2/37

Senryu

Endless rain

We sit indoors

Learning to know each other

Candlelight

Electricity gone

She is beautiful tonight

.

Dawn

Rain falls softlyAs not too wake us too early


3/37

Tanka

Olympic Games

In Indias capital city

Nils left to chance

The poor, crippled and beggars

Are swept out of the city

New Delhi

High rise flats, middle class

India on display

The shining face of modernity

But need is a hidden menace

Tanka

If I were a chicken

I would love to live in Swiss

Protected by law

You have to kill me quickly

Before grilling me.

If I were a seal

I would like the open sea

Shun hunters on ice

Who would only sell my skin

To the rich ladies of Swiss.


4/37

Senryu

Today

I see what was best for me

Yesterday

Today

I see whats best for me,

Tomorrow

Today?How Im supposed to know?

Its still early day

Tanka

Time has altered

After the quack In Chile

Seven oclock is late

It only arrives near eight

And we get to live longer

Senryu

Death is not the foe

It is a columniation of livingSea of nothingness

Forever is a word

Too awesome for one to grasp

It has no horizon


5/37

senryu

The worried man

Was so very fortunate

Died before doomsday

Peace in our Time?

From coliseums of our days

Fans scream for blood.

AfghanistanWhen bombs has creates wasteland

Then we call it peace.

Tanka

When the masses shriek

A soldiers silence stands out

He loves his enemy

Knows of his fear and courage

They are true brothers in arms


6/37

Tanka

When Obama met Lama

Tennis players met in Dubai

China refused to play

When Hamas lost the first match

The winners hurriedly left.

Tanka

Moral nihilism is

Punishing a whole people

Celebrate injustice

Blind to victims sufferingVictory without valor.

Senryu

She looks kissed

Has been eating strawberries

Night is closing in

Her love long fallow

An old man smiled broadly

Now shes his nurse

He cheated the rich

They sent him to jail forever

So mind whom you rob

Senryu

Now that Im old

I welcome every new day

But I still hate rain


7/37

Tanka

The last man on earth

When the night sky is inky

Will die screaming

His cry will freeze the oceans

And its echo rent the sky

Tanka

Never been to Prague

Not seen the Kafka statue

And it makes me sad

I have been to East Germany

It broke my socialist heart


8/37

Tanka

Four small horned kids

Plays in my neighbours garden

The nanny is wary

She knows I think of mint sauce

And the aroma of roasted meat.

Tanka

My aim is modest

Driver of a ten ton truck

A king of the road

Loudly blare, scare you rigid

Get out of my way amateur.

Haiku

Rain takes a break

Jaded by its own languor

White clouds and sunlight


9/37

Senryu

Once ardour is ember

Out of the ashes flies

The bird of friendship

Tanka

Accept old age

The smug tellers of lies say

Accord is mortal

The smug think they are undying

Liars fear the truth

Senryu

In the minds mere

Tiny, silvery fishes swim

Called senryu

Senryu

Poor Barack Obama

One year as US president

And he tows the line


10/37

Tanka

As the world heats up

Surveillance will be easier

Naked and vulnerable

In a line stretching for miles

We wait to be castigated

Tanka

Airport humiliation

Standing there without shoes

And holes in socks

Belt, wallet, coins in a box

Me! I rather take the train


11/37

Senryu

Red plastic roses

Faded sepia by neglect

Melancholic bouquet

.

Red plastic noses

For us to look at and laugh

Sad is the joker

The gloomy guy

At the traveling circus

Is its funny clown


12/37

Haiku

Torn old diary

Thrown hotly into the bin

Tells of broken love

The old diary

Modest amongst bigger books

Keeps my many dreams

Brown old diary

Coldly exposes my sappiness

Leaves me mortified


13/37

Haiku

Algarvian rain

Falls mainly in opaque nights

When moggy kills mice

On cold winter days

When sky is icy sapphire

Suns a jaded eye

.

November still day

Peaceful chimney smoke shimmer

Fox spoors on new snow

Haiku

Compass pointing south,

I migrate, follow the sun,

But my heart looks north. .

At twilight,

I shot a raven

Night fell down.


14/37

Tanka

The seashell I found

On the people empty beach

I cant listen to

If the sirens calls my name

I will drown in her embrace

Tanka

Ashes on the sea

A showy and mean gesture

From earth to earth

Let me fertilize a tree,

Say, a flowering almond tree.

Painted the floor green

Sit in a corner and wait

Quick drying paint

Four hour it says on the can

Where I sit its a life time.


15/37

Senryu

Epiphany me now

With your enchanted smile

The forever Ill see.

Tanka

Lucid as the day

Blinding sunlight obscured you

When I could see

The night had devoured you

Into a cloudy haziness

Tanka

Mirror in the hall

Dont sarcastically laugh

When I walk past

On my way to the kitchen

To eat another strawberry tart


16/37

Tanka

There was a time

When the famous kept leopards

As an accessory

Now they keep an orphanage

Of colourful children

Senryu

God doesnt do email

Hand delivered post only

Stamps not needed.

Lucky butterfly

It doesnt look like a gnat

And get whacked.

Tanka

I wake up early

Think the new days lovelier

Than the one before

Sit up and recklessly laugh

Its my bonhomie you see.


17/37

Tanka

Woke up cheerful

And I greatly worried why

Till the sense ended

And I was my grumpy self

Happiness is frivolous

Tanka (x-mass warning)

Santa brought us gifts

He had jolly good dram too

Claus was arrested

Didnt drive his reindeers though

But crashed uncles old Volvo

Haiku

Echo of a phone

Ringing in another room

Rays of light and dust.

Buried her yesterday

My room is full of silence

Dog hair on the floor


18/37

Senryu

Stillness is

The flapping of wings

In the forest

Stillness is

The falling of a leaf

In October

Senryu

Morning zephyr

Flapping kitchen curtains

Aroma of coffee

A grizzled donkey

Under a big carob tree

Makes it pretty.

In a dead rabbits eyes

I saw the vast empty sky

Unmoved and godless


19/37

Senryu

A smile from you

Erases the cosmic loneliness

Of icy stars

Tanka.

Talk to the net

Listen to the faint echo,

Of virtual droning,

The unspoken loneliness,

Of dreamers caught in a void.

Tanka.

I have traveled long

Blessed by Gobis new moon

Bit by scorpions

Seen tall ships sail up said down

Yet, found my way back home


20/37

Tanka.

I have voyaged long

Sailed across seven seas

Canoed great rivers

Humiliated by the infamous

This I did and you married Fred!

Zen

Icy morning

Frost on window

Back to bed

Haiku

Indian summer,

Is an actor who wont share

Limelight with autumn.

Senryu

Mighty flood

Ocean is your destiny

Deadly her embrace


21/37

Zen

Sad sight

Is a butterfly

Not prepared

For winter.

Senryu

The kitchen clock

Ticks slow in December

Too fast in May

Air freshener

Perfumed chemicals

In spray cans

Haiku

On a sunny wall

Bluebottles hum and feel safe

Spiders like the dark.


22/37

Haiku

Rocks in the lake

Are older than the blue mountain

Petrified stars?

Senryu

When mother moon

Illuminates birch trees

Tears of silver fall

Senryu

When the Amazon

Meets the ocean

Its but a tear drop

Senryu

Beautiful ocean

Infuriated frothy green

Buckles iron ship


23/37

Senryu

Tedious ocean

Lacklustre mirror the sky

No wind in sails

Banal ocean

Shimmering carpet of gold

Jumping dolphins.

Haiku.

The ephemeral

Frost roses on my window

January morning

Forced silence is

A hushed scream of despair

At a funereal

Mourners tanned faces

Paled by the open grave

Beads on worried brows


24/37

Senryu

They sang and cried

Then walked out into the sun

Leaving me alone.

Mourners sit in pubs

For once I had their attention

Now they drink beer.

Senryu

Its been said before:

At night colours hibernate

Yet, tulips are black

Only deer can hear

How wild flowers scream

When uprooted.


25/37

senryu

KashmirCannons splinter rocksOn high mountain topsFrost kills soldiers.

GuiltLinked embryos

Carries a nuns silver crossShe bears our sin.

Image

Grim is povertyThe rich find it colourful

When seen on film.

Class

I shed the shacklesOf the working class slumsFree now to dream.

Love

After tantrums she laughs

Cooks me a curried chicken

Im often hungry.


26/37

Senryu

The electric fan

scornfully circulate warm air

throws it in my face.

Todays oppressive heat

will be a winter days dream

Of a summer gone.

A dazzling woman

Deserves a beautiful poem

After shes forty.

..

An ugly woman

Deserves a dazzling poem

Every morning.


27/37

Senryu

The transitory

Saw and touched her yesterday

Now I need a spade.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Tremulous anguish

Morning after a long night

No beer in fridge.

Curtained windows

Tremors and spilling coffee

Phone ceaselessly rings.

.

Outside my door

The nice couple from AA

Test their friendly smiles.


28/37

Senryu

The angry ocean

Left its irate foam behind

Haiku

Auburn leaf

Rustling along night streets

Whispering regrets

Senryu

In a mythic glade

Crane and vixen danced

Mortal tango.


29/37

Senryu

Night rain fell

Softly as lovers whispers

At dawn

.

Lone streetlamp

The only witness to snowflakes

Falling gently

Sea mist came

White as a coat of silence

And nirvana sighed

From an ash tree

Excess moonlight dripped

A treasure trove


30/37

Senryu

On the fenland

Escaped sunbeam danced

Late at night

Zen

Spun wishes

Make new day

Zen

A cock

That crew early

Loses its head

Senryu

When one talk

Another must listen

Let it not be me


31/37

Senryu

Murmur from the East

We ignored to our peril

Now it is a scream

.

The thunder afar

Is not inclement weather

But exploding bombs

.

Body part drizzle

When eager children pick up

Toys dropped from planes

Mans born to evil

Isnt it a miracle then

That goodness exists ?


32/37

Haiku

Inconceivable

That rain will fall, sun shine

Without you around

.

When yesterday goes

A galactic star gives birth

To the morrow

Lost hopes

Recuperate in moonlight

Sparkle at daybreak

.

Melancholy too

When in auroras bosom

Smiles at destiny


33/37

Haiku

When rain falls at night

Parched soil is grateful

The sun is a thief

.

Hushed moonlight

Shines on a forest lake

False dawn?

.

Deliciously

With her I pass the night

Till aurora smiles

..

In dawns light

Flowers open petals

Collect fecundity


34/37

Haiku/senryu

Dawns melancholy

Dissolves in the brilliance

Of suns bright smile

Hushed afternoon

Cold wind has blown us indoors

Sorrow has returned

Oak leaves drown

In my gardens ornate pond

Dignified grief

This I didnt know

The power a white pearl has

To transform a cornea


35/37

Senryu/Haiku

Blank is her facewhen

Thinking of its lost beauty

Submerged by sadness

On the villages pond

Silvery on sunless days

Float forgotten sunrays

..

The mountain lake

When kissed by the breeze

Trembles delighted

.

Only the black swan

In the mystic forest tarn

Knows where my car is


36/37

Senryu/ Haiku

Tropical lagoon

Clear as Portuguese vino-verde

Is soberly calm

Does spring offensive

Mean procreation and bird-song

Or war?

Morning Zephyr

Flapping kitchen curtain

Aroma of coffee

.

Field ploughing tractors

Red soil and shrieking birds

Horse empty landscape

A grizzled donkey

Under a big carob tree

Makes it pretty


37/37

Collection of Short Verse

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