William Altoft is a teacher in Bristol UK, who has links to Kyoto and draws inspiration from the Japanese tanka form. The following were written on the Bristol harbourside, as pictured below. (For more see his homepage here.)

I

Tower peaks;
quartet sleeps;
the gull’s braced, as am I –  
the lock-gate, leading southward,
bridges o’er.

II

Rice-husk holds
my coffee. Folding up:
the inkless page.
I perch like Giovanni
‘pon his lumber.

III

With nary a wake
it works its way
on through the floating harbour –
a manned-kayak.
Gulls disperse.

IV

In shelt’ring porchway-
entrance to the Arnolfini,
I
re-place myself.
The gull gives up its bracing.

V

Windbreaker は
むらさきです upon
the one half of the pair a-walking.
Shaggy dog:
your fringe ‘n beard match mine.

VI

Elegance…
It strolled on by.
Colour…
It just walked past.
People-watching; people, watching me.

VII

Tanka by the banks-a,
with my notebook near its end –  
a sunsome Sunday ‘neath the harbour sky.
I probably look homeless
to these fam’lies…


VIII

As I adore alliteration,
I must muster up
(Assonance, too!)
three tanka more.
Well, now two.



IX

watched the leaves
go sailing by,
as the noon killed off
the morning.
(It just turned 12pm.)

X

The water level stays
e’er as it is, e’en as the rest
of us do rise ‘n fall
while floating
on the Avon…