The Month of Polar Bear-like Appetite: Tanka Record

Hello! I am Toshio Tsukuda, a tanka poet who delivers "heart charms" to make your heart feel light and airy. It has been a while.

We have entered July, haven't we? And it has started to get hot. I composed many tanka in June as well. I wrote a total of 66 poems. This time, I will introduce 10 that I have selected from among them. I hope you enjoy them.

First, here is the first poem.

Giving water to my father who was fine until yesterday,
I live out the transience of life.

Our daily lives are not actually solid; they are built upon a precarious balance that could break at any moment. As a metaphor that most vividly illustrates this truth, I thought of the scene of sudden and irresistible loss: "giving water to a father who was fine until yesterday."

This is both an event that could actually happen and a realization that life inherently contains such impermanence and fragility.

Rather than looking away from that fate, I carved the final line as a quiet declaration of determination to accept that this fragility is the very essence of life and to live powerfully within it.

And here is the second poem.

At two in the morning, my stomach rumbles as I rub it,
losing to an appetite like a polar bear.

When the clock points to two in the morning, even though my reason tells me I shouldn't eat, my stomach rumbles honestly. I composed this by likening the nature of that irresistible desire to the existence of a "polar bear"—large, pure, and somehow charming.

I am rubbing my stomach, yet in the end, I "lose" to that pure desire. I think there is not only self-loathing there, but also a sense of endearment toward myself and a positive gaze toward the nature of being a living creature. I depicted this small, late-night conflict and defeat as a scene from daily life that makes one chuckle.

I have talked about these two poems. In addition, I have introduced 8 recommended poems below. I hope there is a poem among them that serves as a charm to make your heart feel light and airy.

Like a life used, devoured, and still broken, dreams are fleeting.

Images, videos, and texts piled up on my iPhone—is my life worth 200 grams?

The rice ball I eat with my hands, filled with plum—the simple flavor soaks into me, and I find my voice.

I cannot let go of your eyes, your resounding voice, that, this, in short, I love you.

At the old bookstore, a first edition by Ryunosuke acts as a primer, and the paper bag creaks.

Picking the first tea of the season in a Shizuoka tea plantation—a sunrise like the very first brew.

In short, this scream is my life—strumming the guitar, shooting through the soul.

Listening to Flower Companyz's "Shinya Kosoku" (Midnight Expressway), I repeat that I'm glad I'm alive.

Were there any poems that resonated with you or caught your interest? If you'd like, I would be very happy if you could let me know in the comments♪

This time, I introduced my self-selected tanka for June, while also sharing some thoughts on the poems.

Please come back to read again tomorrow if you'd like.

Thank you for reading until the end!

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[I also write articles like this]