Day 4 ~ Tanka, “Grandmother of Haiku” for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

Pretty much everyone has heard of Haiku poems. Have you met Tanka, “the Grandmother of Haiku”?

"Tanka" is a form of Japanese poetry and 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

As always, create something wonderful about any subject that strikes your fancy. For a little inspiration, it might interest you that today is “National Fun at Work Day” as well as “National Burrito Day.” So I decided to write a poem about how fun my day is at work. Cheers!!

REMEMBER – COUNT YOUR SYLLABLES ~ I’ve already noticed that some might not catch a word that really has 3 syllables and use it for a word that was supposed to only have 2 so the easiest way to get that right is to literally clap out each syllable with your hands or tap each one on the table and if you want to double check – you can use this handy dandy “Haiku Syllable Counter” online. In fact, USE it! I bet you will be surprised! 

I entered my entire poem (see table just below my poem) and then clicked the little “Count Haiku Syllables” bar above the counter and it told me how many syllables per line so I could see that I exactly complied. Kind of fun! It’s free so give it a shot.
Have fun!!  

EXAMPLE:

I have fun at work

that’s because I work from home

in my pajamas

eating my favorite snack

creating at my keyboard 

               ©2019 Stephanie Abney

Haiku Syllable Counter Results
Syllables Per Line:	5 7 5 7 7
Total # Syllables:	31
Total # Lines:	5  (Including empty lines)
Words with (syllables) counted programmatically:	N/A
Total # Words:	22

Here’s another example, a poem written by Gerard John Conforti, in his book, Now That the Night Ends:

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

PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments of this blog or elsewhere online as a result of this challenge. They are the creative property of the person who writes them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them without their permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to them as soon as they post them. Thanks so much!

Also, if you choose to post your poems on your own blog ~ that’s awesome. But PLEASE don’t just copy and paste my daily instructions, but rather post your poem on your blog or your FB wall or wherever AND LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to come here to read the instructions. I’ve spent considerable time researching the poetry forms and writing them up to share with you. Thanks for respecting my work and the creative work of others.

Photo credit: Pixabay image by Mohamed Hassan