Tanka Poems

Poet and Tanka
by Victor P. Gendrano

Reprinted from Ribbons, Tanka Society of America Journal,
Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 2007


Most of my tanka poems has a pervading sense of pain, loss, and loneliness, no doubt engendered by the loss of my wife of forty-five years. That night, on our way home from the hospital, I noticed the almost full moon and wrote this afterwards.


the August moon
starts to wane
chilling the night
my wife returns
to her Creator


For me, the tanka form is a welcome change from the brevity of the three-lined haiku which I learned to write first, with its restrained, unstated, and reigned-in personal emotions. The additional two lines can further amplify what you are trying to say with the gamut of emotions you can muster.

While the days passed by so slowly, I felt, I wrote poems everyday, in hindsight, as a form of therapy and to preserve my sanity. Also, the very act of writing has a cathartic effect on my psyche, not unlike that of confronting and disdaining your demons.


the rustle
of fallen leaves muffles
the sound of your absence
as long nights sharpen
the barbs of autumn chill


In the over ten years that my wife was in and out of the hospital, I wrote about this seemingly ordinary clinical procedure.


she nonchalantly
offers her arm
for the nurse’s needle
as I look away
she feels my pain


Much much later, I decided to join the land of the living while trying to cope and adjust to a life without a partner.


warmth of her smile
in that winter weekend
fantasy fling
am I ready or a fool
to fall in love again



I started writing poems when I was in high school, but in Tagalog, the major language of the Philippines. I am a poet in exile as I was born and raised in the Philippines. English is my second language.

I get ideas for my poems from personal experiences and reactions from what's happening around me. My poems range from the serious to the mundane, from the philosophical to the humorous.


in search of light
a moth plunges
into the flame
the heat and passion
of love unfolding


football fever
she hugs his pillow
for company
their bed grows colder
each passing game


Editor’s note:

Gendrano published a book titled, Rustle of bamboo leaves: selected haiku and other poems, in November 2005. Earlier, for 13 years, from 1987 to 1999, he published and edited Heritage magazine, an English-language quarterly dealing with Filipino culture, arts and letters, and the Filipino American experience.

The Flowers's Essence Slide Show

I wrote the tanka poem below, then added a picture and transformed it into haiga, a picture poem. The idea is for the reader to concentrate on ONE poem only with its accompanying image while reading line by line. Click the arrow on the lower left corner to play the show. Click on the same spot to stop/pause it momentarily.

More hints: Position your cursor on the images at the very bottom of the slide show box. The fourth one from the left is colored white with a RED slash. That image is for turning the music or or off. On the farthest right next to the music image is a full screen viewer (big white square). The attached small square retracts it back to the original size.

For those who prefer a straightforward poem, here it is.


For Lucy

the flowers' essence
lingers long after
their blooms wilt
remembering the lives
she touched on earth

© 2007

FATHER'S DAY

ODE TO MY FATHER

Gnarled hands reveal
The toil of countless years,
Unceasing care in raising us
From carefree days.
Warm them on mine, let us,
In peace, relive the bygone days
With no regret. Let's not lament
The rare instance when we snatched
From fleeting time a few minutes
Then being one, sharing one's soul
In man-to-man's togetherness.

Oh memories!
Time-warped and distance-dulled
We seem only to dwell on those
We like and dump away the rest
As if in so doing we wash our guilt
Of things undone, unspoken words
Which might haunt us in our sleep.

Your frail body, which now is sapped
Of all strength lay bedridden
Creased brow, etched lines
On aged face my hands
Nor love, cannot erase.

Hearken, I'll sing our song
When as a child you soothed my fears
I need it now to steel myself
Still sorrow, and sad swan song
Inchoate yet escaping
From my burdened breast.

And when the thief of life
Finds us apart, take heed
With you my thoughts, my love
My memories remain always
As with Mother who you precede
Rest peacefully, peacefully rest
We commend you to heaven's grace.


In my book, RUSTLE OF BAMBOO LEAVES, but first published in Heritage magazine, Vol. II, No. 1, March 1988.

IN MEMORIAM

beyond the seas lie verdant palms
nourished by the tropical sun

growing up there, we lived our lives
in carefree days 'til we parted

almost three decades later
I learned of her untimely death


My sister, the oldest child, passed away last Sunday, May 18, 2008. As a younger brother who has not seen her since 1980, I offer her these poems of tribute. Rest in peace Ate Nena! I will always cherish your memory - a second mother, cheerful, fun, and bubbly with your sweet smile, and boy can you sing!


a hummingbird
loses its grip
of the falling leaf
just got the news
of my sister's death


hunting season
the wild bird sings
no more