Tick Tock: A Tanka

Tick Tock: A Tanka
©2016 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer

long when you’re waiting
short when you’re doing something
slow when earth’s freezing
fast when summer sun’s rising
time’s bending, warping.

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Photo credit: Cliff Johnson

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In response to Blogging from A to Z Challenge: T is for Tanka.

Tanka

Tanka, 短歌 “short song” is meant to be filled with personal and emotional expression. The tanka expresses feelings and thoughts regardless of the direction they take. Originally there was also an attempt to connect these thoughts and feelings to nature. The tanka, unlike the haiku, may use figurative expressions such as metaphor or simile. The form is less rigid, more casual than the haiku. It allows the imagination to help the poet express feelings.

The tanka is:

• syllabic, 31 or less syllables, most commonly 5-7-5-7-7, in variation the lines are best kept with odd numbered syllables.
• normally but not always a 5 line poem, the 5 line pattern however does seem to prevail.
• defined by content and style more than the syllabic prescription. But there is still a pattern of short and long lines rather than a metered equal length.
• written as a personal or emotional expression of themes such as natural beauty, love, the impermanence of live, the activities of the common people
• composed with the priority of “to be touched by things” “mono no aware” and use of concrete images.

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Missed a letter/poem? Read all Poetry from A-Z here.