There I was, driving along the 316, skirting Richmond town centre. And it was raining. Hard. Some wind, too. And

the water meadow
mist, rain and a slanting man
with his umbrella
fills me with nostalgia
for a place I’ve never been

It was like, not-like, sort-of-like a Japanese woodblock print, you know, Hokusai or similar. And I felt it.  All in one drive-by flash, the flood water meadows of Richmond. Too much in the moment for a haiku so it had to be a tanka. This one turned out to be exactly to form: 5-7-5-7-7. The pleasure of tanka being the privilege, indeed necessity of naming emotions (in the last two lines).

Delighted to say that this tanka appeared in this month’s Blithe Spirit. Click here for The British Haiku Society