Earlier this month, Michelle Barnes, of Today’s Little Ditty, interviewed poet Margarita Engle about her new book Orangutanka (Henry Holt, 2015). Margarita challenged Michelle’s readers to write a tanka, a traditional Japanese form with five lines and a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count.
As I was driving to work yesterday, I noticed a red-tailed hawk perched in a tree near the edge of a field. That sighting inspired this tanka:
Still as a statue,
keen eyes scan the field below,
spot a flash of gray.
Swooping down on silent wings,
red-tailed hawk scoops up breakfast.
![By Dori (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 us (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hawk_3713.jpg)
By the Christmas tree
a shiny yellow dump truck
with wheels the size of
saucers, wrapped in a huge red bow,
waits for the boy’s shouts of joy.
© Catherine Flynn, 2015
Thank you, Michelle and Margarita, for inspiring me to write these tanka. And thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Reading to the Core 
Great to see your slice shared to be inspiration for all today, Catherine. Your tankas are nice, too. I have written Haiku but not in this Japanese form.
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Love your two tanka. I often see hawks hovering and waiting for their breakfast. Tonka trucks and tanka, fun word association there.
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Very nice, Catherine! I always feel humbled somehow when I am lucky enough to catch a hawk in action. Your truck tanka reminds me of when my own son was young. To this day, he’ll tell you that “Wheeler” was his favorite childhood toy.
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This author and illustrator are featured on Mr. Schu and the Nerdy Book Club today! I never knew what a tanka poem was before. Yours are beautiful!
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Such fun, Catherine – what a moment you caught with the hawk!
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I love the first one, but even more I love the second-just perfect, Catherine. I hope you’ll share these with Michelle!
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Ah, Tonka trucks and tankas. Perfect. Love both poems, but I’m partial to the second. I have such memories of Tonka trucks. Both from my brother and my sons.
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