Tanka challenge 11/2/08

[gurdymonkey]

Is she in mourning
In sleeves of grey upon grey
Tinged with blue and white?
To the east, the sky's sad hems
Drag themselves across the hills.

Comments

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

The only way to find out is to try. ;-D

I've been hooked on this form for a few years now - it's not SO short that it makes it hard to frame a coherent idea (some people have this problem with haiku), but it's short enough that you do have to think about how to distill that idea into 31 syllables.

The classic form is divided into two "breaths," composed of the first three lines as one and the last two as the second. Images from nature were often used to evoke a mood or image. Since much of what I've written over the years has been written as Saionji, I tend to try to write them in persona. However, the form works just fine with modern subjects.

Have fun with it! Write about whatever comes to you. The more of these you write, the better you'll get at it.

BTW, That was the view outside my window this morning. It just worked.

[bronx-baroness.livejournal.com]

This might work for me. I was reminded that my 8th grade teacher had me write haiku for whatever the essay assignment was instead of the traditional essay that everyone else got as homework. Seems I never had a problem finding 100 words or more.

So 31 syllables... hmmm.