Some Tanka

This is a belated response to another challenge on One Stop Poetry.

"Belated," I say because I should have had this up yesterday, but poetry takes a certain frame of mind, and I am not always up to it, but I have been intrigued by the Tanka form for a while. At last, I have some.

First, I am cautious

Better to compose
In the mind before I place
The words on the tongue
For that which is said once
Cannot be ever be unsaid

Then, I know that I can't be TOO careful

Better to say it
Than endure sullen silence
I'd rather risk
Your disagreement with me
Than suffer dishonesty

Finally, I am just my generally insouciant self

I am too happy
To ever be a good poet
And I do not care
It's better to be silly
Than to be nothing at all

I have some more, but they are purer forms, love letters in the true Tanka tradition. They don't fit with these. I shall save them for another day.