Tanka Poetry
David H Reinarz
Poets.org
The tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song,” and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.
History of the Tanka Form
One of the oldest Japanese forms, tanka originated in the seventh century, and quickly became the preferred verse form not only in the Japanese Imperial Court, where nobles competed in tanka contests, but for women and men engaged in courtship. The tanka’s economy and suitability for emotional expression made it ideal for intimate communication; lovers would often, after an evening spent together (often clandestinely), dash off a tanka to give to the other the next morning as a gift of gratitude.
In many ways, the tanka resembles the sonnet, certainly in terms of treatment of subject. Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response. This turn is located within the third line, connecting the kami-no-ku, or upper poem, with the shimo-no-ku, or lower poem.
Tanka for near darkness
Leaden clouds loom low
Over choppy lake surface
Loons call in the dark
Even though you are near me
I reach out to find your hand
It is almost night
No moon no stars dying sun
Stick figures of trees
Along the shore of the lake
Almost hide a deer watching
A chilling rain falls
Mating pairs of waterfowl
Build a nest unfazed
When we first met as strangers
Undaunted you did not flee
David H Reinarz
May 2022
Tanka for the varieties of leaving
Morning you leave me
Promising to return yet
I am not mourning
You think I want you back
But now I rest peacefully
I am broken up
How is my heart still beating
Your arms a corset
My shattered soul strains against
Your consolation too late
A bridge fallen down
A bridge underwater is
No longer a bridge
Your leaving makes my desire
A wide uncrossable lake
David H Reinarz
May 2022
Tanka for long love
Love need not age and
Fade into a forgotten
Memory dusty
Neglected and regretted
If it is refreshed daily
There is at least one
Woman who is happy to
Wake up and find the same man
Next to her who loved
Her years ago and still does
When there is no fear
Of bad outcomes one can let
Go of caution and dive
Deeply into a lake of
Bottomless pure ecstasy
David H Reinarz
May 2022
Tanka for new love
Bird song Spring morning
Reminds me of words whispered
In the dark of night
Now that you’ve found me stay
Awhile ruffling my feathers
You think we are a
Secret coming and going
With stealthy footsteps
But others see our embrace
Held in your unguarded eyes
Maple seeds twist and
Flutter in the wind falling
To earth my eyes see
You and my heart twists falls wonders
Will my love find fertile ground
David H Reinarz
May 2022
Lovely writing! Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful