According to Wikipedia, Tanka (短歌, “short poem”^?) is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.  Below you can read the fifth of my 2017 poems.

I am wondering if I should be using more punctuation at the end of some lines. I am trying not to get to precious about this and hoping that my words allow me some artistic licence.

Having said that, I cant really relax until I know my poems have the approval of those I respect.

Approaching Forty

Searching for independence

Council decisions

Clamp limits on my freedom

Fighting for justice ‘til the…