Tanka ~ Anita Virgil

autumn rain
the Blue Ridge lost in mist
but I know
my way
by heart

October morning
I cut down my brown
sensitive fern
leaving it for another year
thinking of you

as though that giant silver moon
were lodged within my chest
this fullness
this shine
from you

winter pond
the goldfish lie still
overhead
ice needles
spread

our words
ever
wet
& fresh as dew
at sunrise

October chill . . .
the hummingbird feeder in–
I grieve for those
who journey and will not
come back

in the night you call me
from a mountain of sad
and a fresh wind
picks off the clouds
leaves us a night of stars

soon as the sun
withdraws
the petals of the waterlily
begin
to close

Anita Virgil lives in Forest, Virginia. Though relatively new to tanka, Virgil's haiku are known worldwide and were recently featured in the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets edition, Haiku, edited by Peter Washington (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003).

A more complete bio can be found in her interview by Robert Wilson in the Features section of this issue of Simply Haiku.

A review of her recent e-book of haiku, Summer Thunder (Peaks Press, 2004), can be found in Simply Haiku, September-October 2004, vol. 2, no. 5, or at:
http://www.poetrylives.com/SimplyHaiku/SHv2n5/book_reviews/Anita_Virgil_review.html

Copyright 2005: Simply Haiku