A TANKA
Unbalance, swinging moods
left and right, so frighteningly
caused by surgery.
Mental hospital defeat,
living is so challenging.
***
Poem by Darren White
October 9, 2016
***
Definition of TANKA:
"A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the others seven. In Japanese, tanka is often written in one straight line, but in English and other languages, we usually divide the lines into the five syllabic units: 5-7-5-7-7.
Each tanka is divided into two segments. The first three lines are the upper phrase, and the last two lines are the lower phrase. The upper phrase typically contains an image, and the lower phrase exposes the poet's ideas about that image.
Tanka poems are similar to a haiku but have two additional lines and usually feature as its subject very strong emotion or love. Conversely, Haikus are typically about nature."
This is the first time I've encountered the term Tanka, which just goes to show you really are never too old to learn something new. Powerful poem, thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Helena :)
DeleteI like the challenge of having restrictions while at the same time the requirement of expressing deep emotions :)