at last, the summit so much salt from my sweat and my tears … parts of me now one with this mountain i’ve climbed #tankathursday (climb) #tanka #5lines

swallow song just above the canopy an apple blossom sky #WalesHaikuJournal (apple blossom)

loosened by the wind untwisted from my hair a pink silk ribbon taken by a sparrow she sings of expectation #TankaThursday

I’m going your way whatever and however steep the climb … with every twist and turn the scent of wildflowers #TankaThursday (twist) #tanka #5lines

music in the meadow she plays the softer palette diminuendo … the colours of dusk sing their own sweet song #TankaThursday (sing) #NaTankaMo #tanka

I used to hear skylarks across the fields and cuckoos in the distant woods. Swift would scream around the bell tower. Sparrows would chatter in the eaves and starlings fizz from the rooftops. This summer a single swallow ... #habitatdestruction #pollution #climatechange

and at the same rate that the reckless boldness of youth is tempered, bravery closes its mouth and in wisdom drops its fists #NaTankaMo #MayTanka #TankaThursday

a lion appears in my dream, a reminder to be brave sometimes? maybe today I’ll begin with a few elephant steps #TankaThursday (brave) #tanka #NaTankaMo #5lines

a breath of winter snowflakes blossom on the blackthorn #WalesHaikuJournal blackberry winter (in UK blackthorn winter) #haiku

a hand print on a cave wall I was here a footprint in the grass #TankaThursday #footprint

strawberry moon … your footprints still visible in the dust close enough to reach out and bring you home #TankaThursday (footprints) #tanka

TankaThursday Prompts For #EmilyDickinson clad in lily-white she sweeps into each room and out again . . . . the woman in my vision remains a winter dream tinyurl.com/2urwv3bf #tankathursday #tanka #poetry #micropoetry #poem

dusk at the beach my tanka appears in a vision words formed in sea glass on a canvas of sand #TankaThursday (vision) #tanka

so much beauty in your short life rainbow butterfly a flutter of hope on colourful wings #TankaThursday (rainbow) #tanka #5lines

in harmony I listen to a springtime symphony in a leafy thicket willow warblers are singing marvelous melodies #vss365 #TankaThursday (listen) #tanka #poem Image: Getty

spring surprise a quarter peal at Adlestrop we stop and listen amongst the willow-herb #tankathursday (listen)

ice crystals frozen from within winter rose when will you open to dawn’s soft light #tankathursday #tanka #frozen

letters form in the middle of a page ink still damp white space waiting for words spoken, never written #tankathursday #middle #tanka #poetry