Spring Tanka Challenge

[Saionji Shonagon]

Last November we had a lot of people participate in my little tanka challenge. I also had several suggest doing it again.

Well, spring is here, birds are flirting behind veils of sakura blossoms. What better time than to revive this exercise?

Here's the concept:

Write one tanka (waka)* each day in the month of April.
*Resources on tanka:
www.ahapoetry.com/TANKA.HTM
www.americantanka.com/
www.wodefordhall.com/heianpoetryjam.htm

The spirit of this poetic form being the impermanence of this dewdrop life, no make-ups are permitted. If you miss a day, you miss a day and as in real life, you can never get it back. (You're on the honor system here....)

No limits on subject matter other than any you chose to impose upon yourself. Hopefully, some moment in your day will inspire you to write about it.

If you write more than one tanka a day, fine. However, you may not carry over tanka to other days. The point is to write at least one poem each day.

(If you are inspired to "answer" someone else's poem, go for it. Personally, if I do so, I am not going to count it toward my daily assignment. The idea is to come up with something myself each day. What you do is up to you.)

Adherence to the 5-7-5-7-7 line/syllable count is required, otherwise it's not a tanka.

It's poetry, not stereo instructions. It should say something and it should make sense.

No rewrites. As the cherry blossom falls, so must your verse.

Challenge begins April 1, ends April 30.

Have fun.

[Ki no Kotori]

Looking forward to the fun!

[Saionji Shonagon]

The weeping cherry
Flaunts a curtain of blossoms
To shield flirting birds.
Too soon for fuji, still bare vines
Twist and cling like new lovers.

[Ishikawa Ayame]

Horizontal snow
Clinging to budding branches
A cold, damp wind blows
Under a charcoal gray sky
Who of us can call this spring?

(It is apparently different weather here)

[Please Delete]

I sit, exhausted
amidst lingering odors
of sweat and oil;
Oh, how a night of practice
paves the way for righteous rest.

[kurokamakiri]

Yesterday:

I am so rusty
At tanka syllabation.
"Five, seven, five and two sevens"
Will count the meter and beat,
No more and no less! I obey!

Today:

Quite weary am I,
Sore back, sore neck; stupid chair.
Yet not once was there
A desire to be sat
Anywhere but where I was.

[Ishikawa Ayame]

Reply to kurokamakiri, doesn't count:

Rusty is the word
Counting it on my fingers
Counting on my toes
Trying to make a sentence
That’s not just gobblety gook

[Please Delete]

Oh, these Glory Days--
Sliders with cheese sans mushrooms--
satiate the soul.
What do the wild geese know
About friendly company?

[Saionji Shonagon]

Apr 2, 2009 21:14:01 GMT -5 Please Delete said:

What do the wild geese know
About friendly company?

Or sliders?

[Ishikawa Ayame]

Weary eyes straining
Just focus a little more
Then I can go home
But here I am writing this
Instead of doing my work

[kurokamakiri]

Morning sunlight pains
My eyes, and slices my soul.
Why must you leave me
When the rooster crows, my love?
Will you wait for the dried dew?

And since I'm away this weekend, here's Sat and Sun

There comes a soft sound
Meditative in rhythm.
Inkstone is grinding
Like a mandala in black
Ink, impermanent, erased.

Click clack click clack click
Is the rattling keyboard.
Fingers dance and press
To send out these words of joy,
Of love, and of bemusement

[Saionji Shonagon]

Mar 30, 2009 17:34:13 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

If you write more than one tanka a day, fine. However, you may not carry over tanka to other days. The point is to write at least one poem each day.

So you better pack a notebook, just like I did.

Writing three tanka
Today does not fulfill
The terms of the challenge.
Though scolding you does fulfill
MY requirement for the day.

(I think?)

[kurokamakiri]

Will you force my hand
Making me kneel in this room
With brush and inkstone
Until "I shall not repeat!"
I will write thirty-one times?

*grins*

[Please Delete]

Looking down the road,
I perceive a bamboo grove
filled with mirthful sounds
yet beyond the bamboo stalks
Mt. Mikasa looms once more.

-Ii Katsumori (3 Apr 2009)

[Ki no Kotori]

Sorry, I've been sick so haven't been online much in the past couple of days. But I did scribble these down each day in my diary :

4/1

Did it rain today?
I thought I heard a patter
On the windowsill.
But from inside my bedroom
One day seems just like the next.

4/2

Half-full, half-empty,
A glass sits on the counter
Just where I left it.
In the next room, I stir
And wonder why I'm thirsty.

4/3

This historic day
The rainbow banner raised high
Stirring in the wind
And yet, in the distance
The cathedral bell tolling