Blink of a Duck's Eye: a collection of haiku, senryu, and tanka poetry

Blink of a Duck's Eye is a collection of Tom Bierovic's haiku, senryu, and tanka poetry.

Haiku focus on a specific moment (usually in Nature) that catches the poet's attention and that sparks an imaginative leap of recognition and connection - a haiku moment.

Although most haiku written in English were traditionally composed of 17 syllables, divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, contemporary haiku are presented in one, two, three, or four lines, and most are shorter than 17 syllables.

Here's one of Tom Bierovic's haiku (Runner-up in the British Haiku Society's awards for 2019 and published in Blithe Spirit, 2020):

melting icicle

a sparrow showers

drip by drip

David Lanoue, one of the British Haiku Society's judges for its 2019 awards, wrote this commentary about the poem:

The 'melting icicle' haiku is exquisite in its observation and suggestiveness of feeling. One drip at a time, the sparrow patiently showers: shaking its head (I imagine), ruffling its feathers, and then waiting for more. I imagine that it is also waiting for springtime heat and the resurgence of life that the melting of winter ice betokens. I sense such warmth, compassion, and camaraderie (Issa-like!) for the little bird.

Another form of poetry in Blink of a Duck's Eye is senryu (similar to haiku in structure but focusing more on human nature than Nature itself).

Here's one of Tom's senryu (published in Under the Basho, 2020):

the sign says

narrow road ahead

talk radio

The third type of poem in this collection is tanka (an older form of Japanese poetry, usually written in five lines).

Tom's five-line poems can also be called quintain or tanshi to differentiate them from traditional tanka.

Here's one of Tom's tanka (quintain/tanshi) published in One Sentence Poems, April, 2020:

knowing

what I know

a spider web

in the moonlight

still shimmers

The haiku, senryu, and tanka in Blink of a Duck's Eye have earned their place among the finest contemporary short poems. Readers will discover much to enjoy and reflect upon in this engaging, well-crafted collection.

About the Author

Tom Bierovic (M.Ed., M.Div.) is a widely published, award-winning writer of haiku, senryu, and tanka poetry. He also enjoys reading all sorts of books, playing backgammon, playing Native American flutes and Irish whistles, and drumming on bongos and djembe. Tom and his wife Laurie make their home in DeLand, Florida.