What is English Tanka Poetry? – a Verse that consists of five units, usually in the following pattern of 5-7-5-7-7 which is syllables.

What is a syllable? a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word; for example, there are two syllables in water and three in inferno.

The first three lines (5/7/5) are the upper phase. This upper stage is where you create an image in your reader’s mind.

The last two lines (7/7) of a Tanka poem are called the lower phase. The final two lines should express the poet’s ideas about the image that was created in the three lines above.

Why I Write Tanka Poetry?  Tanka poems is one type of poetry that I’m drawn to, I have written many in the last two years. Fortunately, I’m not in competition with other types of poetry, as I write many forms of poetry, plenty of sonnets, haiku/senryu or free verse, which I will be sharing in this blog.

Why Do I Write Tanka Poems? Learning how to write them well helped me to more aware of myself, and more aware of all the other styles of writing poetry.

Tanka also was a way for me to express thoughts of the world around me and present beautiful images in a tradition way through poems.

Three Tanka Poems

Primroses Everywhere

pretty small faces

peeping out amongst the noise

wind still blowing strong

still a welcome sight to see

giving me a smile today

The Sound of Water Falling

the water streaming

over cliffs cleaned by the force

the sound tremendous

internal peace took over

my body in a dazed state.

View of Goats

mountain ledge was steep

green bushes grew on the slopes

goats loved to folic

hope the sloops are not slippery

wouldn’t like to see them fall

Tags: Blogtown New Zealand, English Tanka Poetry, What is a syllable