Tanka

walking in the creek
when I step on a sand bar
yellow swallowtails
tickle the backs of my knees
fly off into the pine trees


     This poem is a tanka, a Japanese form from the 7 century.  It is like a haiku, written in the present tense with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern.  Tanka were love poems written by women of the Japanese  court and were some of the earliest poems published by women who wrote the poems in beautiful calligraphy and left them on the pillows of their loved ones.