#Tanka Tuesday

Summer’s End

/ padresramblings / 4 Comments
Classroom, School, Desks, Rows
Pixabay

It is the last day of academic summer, and preparations for school have begun. The care-free days of the long holiday have now, in a single span of 24 hours seen a sea change. Gone is the casual lounging in the garden, and the months of preparation, delivery, and marking are at hand.

School clothes washed – ironed
Schedules checked, papers arranged
Lesson plans reviewed
Final walk in the garden
Academic year begins

Padre

Colleen has challenged us to try our hand at the tanka prose form. She notes, that “We typically write tanka prose in the 5-7-5-7-7 or a s/l/s/l/l five-line syllabic structure. Tanka prose should contain a title. There is one basic requirement in writing tanka prose: one paragraph, and one tanka.”

Octa-octa

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Raven, Common Raven, Bird, Animal World

Colleen’s challenge this week is to take a favourite form and tweak it into something new. I have long loved Edgar Allan Poe’s use of Trochaic octameter with its eight trochaic metrical feet.  In my piece I have replaced the trochaic feet with simple syllables. I have kept some “DUM da DUM da DUM da” stresses, but have let the beat be driven by the words and the eight syllable form. I have also made this an eight line form.

when at times we do not trouble
we complacent tend to stumble
into apathetic bubbles
the world around us we ignore
unaware of what lies in store
till too late like midnight raven
the world we face – leaving haven
to find the old world – “nevermore”

Padre

Tanku

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Blue Flower, Dew, Dewdrops
Pixabay

a soft drizzle falls
earth dampening by morning
flowers drink in life
the sunshine returns
nights dampness away it burns
the cycle goes on
water and sun, night and dawn
nature in its endless turns

In Colleen‘s challenge, she has posted a new form she devised. It is a “haiku (3-5-3) and a tanka (5-7-5-7-7 with an end rhyme of a, a, b, b, a) together and call it a tanku. Rhyme scheme (x, x, x, a, a, b, b, a). No title.” Her challenge was to create our own new forms which I will try too, but I just had to give her form a go as well. Please see it above.

Padre

While Picnics Wait

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Picnic Table, Raining, Wet, Trees, Mud, Dirt, Nature
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay 

When rains
Arrive beating
Winds howl and fences creak
Be thankful for prescious moisture
Cloud born
Water
While at times falling – unwelcome
Still is a life giver
The Spring picnics
Can wait

Padre

After an April with near drought conditions, I was glad to see much needed rain. Yet all across social media people were complaining that the May Bank Holiday was a “wash-out.” This despite the fact that the pandemic is still a very real thing.

Written for Colleen’s Poet’s Choice challenge.

Lavender Moment

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Lavendar, Field, Green, Closeup
Pixabay

Purple
Hazy carpet
Scent enriching the air
Majestic lavender perfume
Found there
To brush
To crush or pick
Brings heavenly release
As the violet field yields bliss
For me
Join me
In my journey
Into the place of bloom
And we will share its sweet treasure
Today

Padre

Colleen’s challenge is to “Pick a Flower” and using one of the syllabic forms we use, tell us why it is special to you.“