January 26: Robots

January 26, 2011January 28, 2011 / Melissa Allen / 4 Comments

all winter
the cold outside
the robot inside

cloud drift —
a robot wonders
where it’s going

heat —
an afternoon spent
with robots

January 5 (Dirty Snow)

January 4, 2011March 20, 2011 / Melissa Allen / 6 Comments

dirty snow
my neighbor’s
cigarette
smoke
drifting

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Two tanka in one week? What is this? Am I losing my knack for brevity?

Actually, as with the last one I wrote, this is plenty brief enough to be a haiku — twelve syllables. It just seems to work better as a five-liner, because of what it says and what it alludes to. I’m actually still not sure what to call things like this, haiku or tanka or gogyoghka or micropoems … but it probably doesn’t matter, except to obsessive-compulsive types like me.

December 30: First Snow

December 30, 2010December 28, 2010 / Melissa Allen / 24 Comments

first snow
I finally
track you down

first snow
we’re warm
under that blanket

first snow
you’re starting
to drift away

________________________

By now here in Wisconsin, our first snow is a long distant memory — I think we’re about on our ninth. But “first snow” sounds, you know, more poetic than “ninth snow.” Although now that I have written this I think I will go off and write some haiku about snows other than first snows, because they deserve a little attention too.