Tanka Variations.

Having worked with the Haiku form, the group moved on to look at the Tanka, another of the traditional ancient Japanese forms of poetry. This form is actually older than the Haiku and goes back over 13 centuries. It contains 31 syllables and is broken into 5 lines. The lines contain the following syllable arrangement : 5 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 7.  Traditional Tanka poems contain 5 images and focus on associations within nature or humanity, presenting the poets response (reflection) to these. Tanka poetry was often thought of as love poetry. In more recent times, Tanka poems have been written with two separate but connected parts. The first part is contained within the first three lines, the second part coming in the final two lines. Together, the two parts often present a personal or emotional viewpoint. Literary devices such as similies and metaphors are often used.

As beginning Tanka writers, we approached the task of attempting to write a Tanka in a simplified manner. We made our Tanka be a response to, or extension of, our earlier group efforts at Haiku writing. We took our group Haiku efforts and added two 7 syllable lines to extend and complete our Tanka poems. Included are several efforts, many using the same chosen Haiku beginning and simply numbered to differentiate them.


Tanka Variations:

Calling 1

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
Stars come out in the darkest night
As friends with deep compassion.

Calling 2

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
Your words refresh my spirit,
Rekindle passion within.

Calling 3

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
Stars come out in darkest night
As friends with understanding.

Calling 5

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
Beauty deep within the soul,
Overcome with awe I stand.

Calling 6

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
All that was and is remains
Repeated through the ages.

Calling 7

Shadows follow me,
Daylight slowly drifts away:
Loneliness beckons.
The gentle waves speak to you,
The sea grape leaves in passing.

Arisings

Twilight descending

Moon calling from far away

Bright stars from up high;

My face and heart are aglow

I see new hope in your eyes.

Unravelling

You have gone crackers;

It shows as you walk by me

Trailing tiny bits.

Soon no one will even know

Who you were or what you dreamt.