once smooth as petals
will shrink into a crumpled
autumn leaf, waiting
for annual earth’s melting to
fertilise spring’s kids.
—
the invisible cycle: a tanka*
Tag: tanka
escapees: a tanka*
prisoned in cream-kissed-
walls. outside, wheels re-
tain its daily, restless toil.
pair of wheat feet frozen in
tiled snow, still, free hands’ ink, flows.
—
05.27.2020
©2020 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.
Photo via Unsplash
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
—
For dVerse Poetics: Make some room
Felt like my poem yesterday can be apt for this prompt, too! So here’s a roomful of tanka for you!
*The tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song,” and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.
P e d e s t r i a n ( A Tanka )
Is it to the right,
or is it to the near left?
Should I cross the bridge
or should I retreat before
the inevitable fall?
—
02.16.2018
©2018 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.
Photo via Unsplash
In response to dVerse MTB — Brevity
Game Birds’ Hunters
We are the game birds.
Violence are our hunters.
Guns and armaments,
deliver brute, bloody deaths.
Men love killing each other.
—
©2016 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.
In response to Elsie of Ramblings of a Writer’s Weekly Tanka Prompt Challenge – Week 11 – Game Birds.
If you want to join, here are the simple rules:
-
Take the two words “Game Birds” and write a Tanka Poem.
-
Tanka consists of five units, usually with the following pattern of – 5-7-5-7-7 which is syllables.
Elusive Words
I’ll Be
I’ll Be: A Tanka*
I’ll be the wind that
whispers comfort to your soul
I’ll be the water
that washes, heals your burnt holes
after you’re engulfed in flames.
—
©2016 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.
Photo credit: Unsplash
In response to May Book Prompts – by Sarah Doughty and MahWrites.
Today’s prompt is When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.
–
*Tanka is a classic form of Japanese poetry related to the haiku with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. (5, 7, 5, 7, 7)
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.
—
Photo credit: Cliff Johnson
In response to Blogging from A to Z Challenge: T is for 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.
—
