Shichifukujin / 七福神:
The Seven Lucky Gods

First published in Ribbons, the journal of the Tanka Society of America, in issue 9:1, Spring/Summer 2013. It also appears in my Solitary tanka trifold. I first wrote this tanka sequence in January of 2007. + +

Daikokuten: God of Wealth and Trade


the door to the 7-Eleven

opens and closes several times

while I ponder—

will this dollar bill I’ve found

buy me the winning lottery ticket?



Ebisu: God of Fishermen and Workmen


fishing flies

work best, he tells me,

when tied in winter

through its long nights,

long and slow



Benzaiten: God of the Arts and Beauty


blossoms are starting—

today, someone has tied

a love poem

to my favourite tree,

that car-damaged plum



Bishamonten: God of Warriors


you raise your fist,

the entrance to hell;

lower it,

the entrance to heaven—

and pass me crushed sage



Jurōjin: God of Longevity


the rice balls

this first morning

assured me a long life

—now, in the evening,

we fret already over taxes



Fukurokuju: God of Wisdom, Luck, and Longevity Also


hands tucked in his sleeves

he asks for directions,

then promises

many birthdays—

the sun setting



Hotei: God of Happiness


trading morning grins again

me and the office guy

in the corner cubicle—

somehow he knows

the same secrets