In this work the author shows that composing modern English tanka is almost like writing the material that one would find in a diary for not only do the author's tanka poems focus on love and nature but they also concentrate on philosophical speculations as well as the expression of intense emotional states like anger sadness and joy. Additionally the author's writings demonstrate that in an English-language tanka as compared to an English haiku there is a greater use of both a strongly symbolic language and the cleverly placed metaphoric phrase. Finally this work shows that the composing of English tanka can very much appeal to an attentive reader's inherent sense of humor.