what is this?
uguisu 鶯 is a collection of tanka-styled poems. The tanka (
As you may be aware, none of these poems are composed in the Japanese language, and tanka technically work on morae and not syllables. Sadly, English is the only language I feel confident enough to compose poetry in, and English is not a moraic language. So these works are not true tanka, merely tanka-styled -- I would never presume to outright call these tanka, because they cannot be. I merely find the form absolutely beautiful, with enough challenge to truly give me pause while I write. It is my favourite form of poetry to write in, and the one I am most comfortable with. (Who knows? Maybe Tawara Machi-sensei would approve...)
Perhaps one day I will find a more elegant term for these works than "tanka-styled", but until then, that will be sufficient.
Uguisu (

香子お姉さまと諾子お姉さまに捧げる。