Tanka-you!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my Geisha poem. You may not have realised but the poem was constructed using three Tanka.

About Tanka

Tanka (or Waka) is an ancient Japanese form of poetry following a strict format of both syllable and line count, similar to the more well known form of haiku, though it might surprise you to hear that tanka were around long before the haiku.

The tanka form consists of 5 lines of unrhymed poetry, with a syllabic count as follows 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. This is a famous example of Tanka poetry by Empress Iwa no Hime. Note the syllable count differs due to translation from Japanese:

My Lord has departed
And the days have passed.
Shall I search the mountains,
Going forth to meet him,
Or wait and wait for him?

or this one from Okura

What are they to me,
Silver, or gold, or jewels?
How could they ever
Equal the greater treasure
that is a child?

The tanka, along with other Japanese forms of poetry, are a great way of exercising your creative juices, they're good for poets and non-poets, and they're pretty fun to write too. Why not have a go at writing one today? Here's mine:

Sunday morning

Echoes of bacon,
coffee still warm in the pot.
Sleepy: beds unmade.
Grass overgrown, pray for rain
and sweet silence: peaceful day.