Tanka is a Japanese unrhymed poem having about 12 to 31 syllables usually arranged in five lines and read in about two breaths in length when read aloud. The first poets who wrote tanka imitated the Japanese models of a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic structure in five lines. This resulted in poems that were too long in comparison to Japanese tanka. The first tanka were padded or chopped to meet the fixed number of syllables. Additionally, the third line must transition from the descriptive and image-focused beginning lines into a reflective metaphor, simile, or personification for the closing lines. The subject matter varies, but most tanka are emotionally stirring or profound, and many are about love. click here if you want to read modern tanka examples === click here to read Tanka Society of America === click here if you want to read modern tanka rules

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Gypsy
"The poet waits quietly to paint the unsaid." --Atticus

art by Ikenaga Yasunari

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