Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Tanka Poetry Competition

My latest project has been to write 3 poems for the Tanka poem competition in Septembers writing magazine www.writingmagazine.co.uk/ A tanka is the next stage on from a Haiku.

A Haiku consists if the form 5-7-5 (17 syllables), a Tanka is 5-7-5-7-7 (31 syllables). "At the heart of the tanka is its imagery," says Alison Chisholm.
An example (from writing magazine) would be:

In the space between
waking and kettle filling
sluggish thoughts grow dark.
Listen for the blackbird's trill;
it paints rainbows, welcomes day

The winner of the 2007 Writing Magazine competition as published in the October 2007 magazine was:

Deep in the mind’s soil
a seed of thought is planted,
a poem is born.

Be kind and nurture it well,
That it may grow to be loved


I had a lovely lunch with Liz (my long time writing friend and some time editor) this week and she said which of my 3 Tanka's she thought was the best and I was inclined to agree with her. So, another competition entered this year. Well Done me!!!

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