WRITE A TANKA

Tanka is an ancient form of Japanese poetry believed to exist for the last 1300 years which makes it older than haiku. As a form, the tanka poem consists of 31 syllables arranged in a metric pattern of 5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 7.

In Japanese, tanka is written in one straight line with no stresses and no rhyme scheme though the sounds and words are meant to resonate emotionally as in contemporary American free verse.

In English, we usually divide the lines into the five syllabic units:

5
7
5
7
7

TANKAS BY IZUMI SHIKIBU

Lying alone
my black hair tangled
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.

The bamboo’s
old root
hasn’t changed at all –
Is there even one night
he sleeps at home? No.