Tinkering with tanka

I've been reading up on the art of tanka in a book called "the tanka anthology" by Red Moon Press, purchased from the most excellent Snapshot Press, who specialise in all forms of Japanese poetry.

This particular anthology is a collection of English speaking tanka poets, and the introduction gives a wonderful short history of the development of the art form from its Japanese roots right up to the present.

I must admit to liking to write in the very compressed form of haiku and now tanka. I like the concentration or distillation of ideas that it affords. And it seems to suit my current restlessness and lack of patience with all things long-winded.

I've only attempted two tanka so far and I'm still tinkering but here they are:

black nyger seed for the goldfinches
rushes from funnel to feeder -
age brings such
concentrated
pleasures


weep old pear
cut back -
hard pruned
to within an inch
of my life