TANKA

new moon,      a dark time

searching firefly can't find

an answering flash

a single frog by the stream 

haunts my night with his croaking

     I thought I'd try another tanka for today's poem.  A tanka is a syllabic poem like a haiku.

It starts with the 5-7-5 pattern and adds two more 7 syllable lines.  So it is 5-7-5-7-7.  Unlike haiku that is a nature poem, tankas are poems about love.  They were called pillow poems because in early Japan women would write the poems and leave them on their lover's pillow.Would you like to try writing a tanka today? Have a great Saturday. 

Children's Poetry Can Help You See.

HAPPY POEM ON YOUR PILLOW DAY

May 5th is a busy day for celebrating.

In Hawaii and Japan, Boys' Day is celebrated on May 5th. Families fly kites, colorful painted carps, from their houses to show a boy lives there to be honored. I've written a poem for this holiday and previously posted it HERE.     http://poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com/2013/05/happy-may-5th-boys-day.html

In the Southwest, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated with fiestas and great food today. I've posted an acrostic HERE and a free verse poem HERE ,
and another poem HERE all about Cinco de Mayo.

But, Poem on Your Pillow Day is a new holiday for me.  I can not think of having a pillow poem without thinking of TANKA.  Japanese women would write tanka to put on the pillows of their lovers.  Later women convinced their sponsors to pay to have the poems collected into booklets.  These early booklets were some of the first poetry books published by women poets.  So, here is a tanka for today.

Twenty baby quail
scurry and scatter, running
under their mothers
breasts offering protection
soothing comfort, feathered love

   A tanka is a syllabric poem made up of 5 lines.
Line 1 = 5 syllables
Line 2 = 7 syllables
Line 3 = 5 syllables
Line 4 = 7 syllables
Line 5 = 7 syllables

  It is like a haiku with two extra 7 syllable lines.

  Can you try writing a poem to leave on someone's pillow today?  Have fun writing.

Desert Ocotillo

Ocotillos bloom
in spires of red, hot pokers
your birthday candles
everywhere the flames burning
too quickly they are blown out


      This poem is a tanka.  I haven't written many tankas so I did have to go back to one of my form books to check that I had done the syllables correctly.  Tankas were made popular by Chinese courtesans who published books of tanka written to their sponsor.  Those books are some of the first poetry books published of poetry by women.  The tanka has 31 syllables, five lines long in a 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 pattern.  It is like a haiku 5-7-5, with two extra 7 syllable lines.  Also, these poems encouraged the use of reference to the lover or sponsor.

    Your challenge for today is to try writing your own tanka.  Have fun.

     And here is a thought, if you get stumped in writing.

"The poet doesn't invent.  He listens."    Jean Cocteau

Tanka

walking in the creek
when I step on a sand bar
yellow swallowtails
tickle the backs of my knees
fly off into the pine trees


     This poem is a tanka, a Japanese form from the 7 century.  It is like a haiku, written in the present tense with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern.  Tanka were love poems written by women of the Japanese  court and were some of the earliest poems published by women who wrote the poems in beautiful calligraphy and left them on the pillows of their loved ones.