Seed Spitting Deity [Tanka]

morning offering
 with a melon wedge;
  a bas-relief face
 seems to have bitten a chunk,
  and is prepared to spit seeds.

Surf [Free Verse]

so much power
 in a lazy rolling wave
  as it tips into a tube.

a column of
 weighty water
  piledrives:

pressing one down &
 holding one in a 
  back-shaped divot 
  on the sandy bottom,

a forced pour 
 onto face and chest,

flowing & rolling
 over both sides with 
   such easy skill
    as to negate a 
      frantic, thrashing
       attempt to roll free. 

Frozen Silence [Free Verse]

frozen silence.

but for the rustle of breeze
 against dry grass.

snow will come,
 and a crust of snow 
  will settle in crystalline 
   interlock with the brown stalks.

the snow will absorb sound,
 muffling reality,
  until nothing remains but
    frozen silence.

Spring Hill [Haiku]

in spring,
 a grass path meanders
  up the temple hill.

Dogs of War [Lyric Poem]

The dogs of war are slipping.
  The ropes they are a ripping.

The palms they are a bleeding,
  as citizens are reading

of risks that led to slippage:
  of quips and of equipage,

and how it wasn't expected,
  and courses were corrected,

but still it all goes wrong.  

Overwatch [Haiku]

momma monkey,
 eyes and hands at the ready,
  foresees darting babe.

Strange Geometries [Haiku]

a stone jali
 of strange geometries
  catches viewers.

Submerge! [Free Verse]

a solid, black silhouette
sinks

submerge!
submerge!

it struggles to plunge
&
not be kicked back up --
to not bob like a wine cork
in the dark sea

but it seems to have
no mass to sink

but the right mass
to fly

Silent Wailing [Sonnet]

I saw the lips move, but no sound came out.
 The message could not cross from air to brain.
  With reddened face, next an attempted shout,
   but silence suggests words weren't true but feigned.

You'll think me deaf, but I heard other sounds:
 a ticking clock, a fan, and distant horns.
  Maybe, barrier glass made unseen bounds?
   Perhaps, but what bars only sound that mourns?

I know of nothing that would fit the bill,
 but start to suspect nothing stopped the scream
  from reaching me, but rather force of will
   did stick that voiceless face within my dream.

But am I sure I'm having a nightmare?
 I can't say for sure that I'm even here.

Beyond Sight [Kyōka]

in the mountains,
 beyond every sightline,
  a potential top...
 but - more likely -
  just more to climb.