The Fault in Our …. (Tanka)

April 11, 2015 by Usha Pisharody 13 Comments

If you hadn’t cared

I’d never have it so bad.

You cared, to a fault

A fault I’m still paying for-

Drenched, in memories of you!

11 April, 2015

Day#11 of #NaPoWriMo – revisiting the Haiku and Tanka forms, which I loved doing, when I had more time 🙂 Nowadays, these appear more forced and less easy to come by 😀 The title is as cliched as it gets, but then there it is 😀 

Tanka and Haiku gyaan available at links below, or a bit of info. in case you can’t access those links 🙂

Tanka, like Haiku, is again a form of Japanese Lyric Poetry.

[As you know by now, 🙂 ] A Haiku works with 17 syllables arranged in 3 lines of 5/7/5 syllables to each line, and evokes an aspect of nature and the seasons, with the last line holding the punch so to speak.

Tanka on the other hand gives the writer more space to work with – 31 syllables, arranged in 5 lines of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables each. Tanka is an older form of the lyric in Japanese… dating to 13 centuries ago, while Haiku is just about 3 centuries ago..Tanka was mainly written between lovers, as society had accepted the fact that a man’s dallying with another woman, other than his wife was normal!! After the man departed early in the morning, he would send a Tanka to his lady love with his message of love..