Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Day 12 ~ Let's Write a Tanka Poem

  
Day 12 – Tanka, “The Grandmother of Haiku”

Soon we’ll do a free verse poem using a prompt and move away from all these “form” poems, but I also think the “form” poems are really good practice because you have to work hard to fit your thoughts into the pattern set forth.

Today is another form of Japanese poetry, “Tanka” which has been called, “The Grandmother of Haiku.” This poem is distinguished by the number of lines and syllables instead of rhyme. 

Please take care to COUNT the syllables in the poem you create and only use 5 lines. Tanka poems consist of 31 syllables in the following pattern:

Line 1 = 5 syllables
Line 2 = 7 syllables
Line 3 = 5 syllables
Line 4 = 7 syllables
Line 5 = 7 syllables 


EXAMPLE:
 
Liberty bell rang
in seventeen fifty-three
struck an e-flat note
hairline crack begins to spread
starts split with Mother England.
           © 2008 Sally Clark

Here’s another example, a poem written by Gerard John Conforti, in his book, Now That the Night Ends ©1996: 
 
This cold winter night
the snow clings to the tree boughs
in the pale moonlight
the kisses of your soft lips
warm this aching heart of mine
 
            ©1996 Gerard John Conforti
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

OKAY, so here's my SILLY little offering but sometimes I feel this way - has it ever happened to you?


Timing of Posts is EVERYTHING

Feel invisible
Even when among my friends
I say clever things
But no one responds to it
Darn that Face Book anyway.
                    © 2011 Stephanie Abney
YOUR TURN!! Enjoy!

3 comments:

Stephanie Abney said...

See, this baffles me - I have my settings set to only record the number of views others make to my blog - never when I check it and so far today - just past noon - there have been 37 views of my blog and NOT ONE PERSON made a comment. How weird is that? Just sayin'

Vicki said...

I am the older
my twin sister is taller
she's a mother of seven
two boys and five girls so fair
I too have seven I love

Anonymous said...

TANKA POEMS
For my two loving but impish granddaughters:

Emileigh conspires
With her sister Anai
I will nap right now
When I wake then it’s your turn
No rest for grandma today
Mary L. Walling 4/2011

This is my “Tanka” to someone who helped me out a lot today and didn’t complain once.

What a man he is
He vacuums the living room
Washes the dishes
Fixes dinner for us all
I call this man my sweetheart
Mary L. Walling 4/2011