My mother died when I was ten years old. We were very close. The first week I slept day and night dreaming about her. I smelled her clothes because somehow, her scent was part of her and I so badly wanted to hold on to her....any piece of her. Eventually, memories fade. Things like scents and music help remember.

I was inspired by Karenina's poem, Grave Thoughts.

TANKA is a Japanese poetic form that originated in the Japanese Imperial Court, where nobles competed in tanka contests and for men and women engaged in courtship. Created 1,200 years ago, it can embrace all of the human experience in its brief space with emotions of love, pity, suffering, loneliness, or death.

Tanka is succinct and may not exceed 31 syllables (5/7/5/7/7) BUT IT CAN BE LESS THAN 31 in a short/long/short/long/long format because Japanese and English syllables are not the same. Personification, metaphor, simile are permitted in Tanka. Capitalization and punctuation should only be used when necessary. No end rhymes. Alliteration should be avoided or used sparingly. A pivot line, usually line 3, can be read sensibly with lines 1 and 2, and also sensibly with lines 4 and 5, a property which can be used to introduce ambiguity and resonance into the poem.
for rules click here

Thank you for reading my tanka.

Gypsy

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