My Latest Collection Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

JAN OSKAR HANSEN

A collection of Tanka

Senryu, Haiku and Zen


Jan Oscar Hansen

[Pick the date]



Regarding Tanka, Senryu, Haiku and Zen, I follow my own rules.


 





Addiction

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?



……….

Endless rain
We sit indoors
Learning to know each other



…………

Candlelight
Electricity gone
She is beautiful tonight


…………..

Dawn
Rain falls softly
As not too wake us too early












Tanka (Animal Welfare)


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.
















Senryu

Today
I see what was best for me
Yesterday

………

Today
I see what’s best for me,
Tomorrow


………………

Today?
How I’m supposed to know?
It’s still early day






Tanka


Time has altered
After the quack In Chile
Seven o’clock is late
It only arrives near eight
And we get to live longer














Senryu


Death is not the foe
It is a columniation of living
Sea of nothingness


………………

Forever is a word
Too awesome for one to grasp
It has no horizon



………………

The worried man
Was so very fortunate
Died before doomsday














Senryu

Peace in our Time?
From coliseums of our days
Fans scream for blood.



Senryu

Afghanistan
When bombs has creates wasteland
Then we call it peace.


Tanka

When the masses shriek
A soldier’s silence stands out
He loves his enemy
Knows of his fear and courage
They are true brothers in arms











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 suffering
Victory without valor.















Senryu

She looks kissed
Has been eating strawberries
Night is closing in


…………

Her love long fallow
An old man smiled broadly
Now she’s his nurse



----

He cheated the rich
They sent him to jail forever
So mind whom you rob



………………..

Now that I’m old
I welcome every new day
But I still hate rain










Hell. (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













Haiku
Rain takes a break
Jaded by its own languor
White clouds and sunlight


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 mind’s mere
Tiny, silvery fishes swim
Called senryu

Senryu
Poor Barack Obama
One year as US president
And he tows the line






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










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











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









Haiku

Algarvian rain
Falls mainly in opaque nights
When moggy kills mice

………

On cold winter days
When sky is icy sapphire
Sun’s 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.

………..

Chopping winter wood
The eye of a fire is blue
The colour of yours
……………

At twilight,
I shot a raven
Night fell down.










Tanka

The seashell I found
On the people empty beach
I can’t listen to
If the siren’s 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.






Tanka.

Painted the floor green
Sit in a corner and wait
Quick drying paint
Four hour it says on the can
Where I sit it’s a life time.

Senryu

Epiphany me now
With your enchanted smile
The forever I’ll 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
Don’t sarcastically laugh
When I walk past
On my way to the kitchen
To eat another strawberry tart


Tanka

There was a time
When the famous kept leopards
As an accessory
Now they keep an orphanage
Of colourful children






Senryu

God doesn’t do email
Hand delivered post only
Stamps not needed.

……….
Lucky butterfly
It doesn’t look like a gnat
And get whacked.


Tanka

I wake up early
Think the new day’s lovelier
Than the one before
Sit up and recklessly laugh
It’s my bonhomie you see.













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
Didn’t drive his reindeers though
But crashed uncle’s old Volvo






Haiku (stillness)

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
















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 rabbit’s eyes
I saw the vast empty sky
Unmoved and godless




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 Gobi’s new moon
Bit by scorpions
Seen tall ships sail up said down
Yet, found my way back home




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 won’t share
Limelight with autumn.






Senryu

Mighty flood
Ocean is your destiny
Deadly her embrace

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.

Rocks in the lake
Are older than the blue mountain
Petrified stars?


Senryu

When mother moon
Illuminates birch trees
Tears of silver fall







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


They sang and cried
Then walked out into the sun
Leaving me alone.






Kashmir
Cannons splinter rocks
On high mountain tops
Frost kills soldiers.


Guilt
Linked embryos
Carries a nuns silver cross
She bears our sin.

Image

Grim is poverty
The rich find it colourful
When seen on film.

Class

I shed the shackles
Of the working class slums
Free now to dream.

Love
After tantrums she laughs
Cooks me a curried chicken
I’m often hungry.














Senryu

The electric fan

scornfully circulate warm air

throws it in my face.


……………

Today’s oppressive heat

will be a winter day’s dream

of a summer gone.

………………

A dazzling woman

Deserves a beautiful poem

After she’s forty.

……………..

An ugly woman

Deserves a dazzling poem

Every morning.








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.







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.














Senryu
Night rain fell
Softly as lover’s 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



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