#Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Stars #SynonymsOnly

Welcome to our weekly poetry stars celebration. This week’s challenge was to choose synonyms for the words, “dawn & twilight,” using one of these forms: haiku, senryu, haiga, tanka, gogyohka, haibun, tanka prose, renga, solo renga, choka, cinquain, and its variations, Etheree, nonet, shadorma, Badger hexastich, Abhanga, & diatelle poetry.

Remember, in Japanese syllabic poetry, there is no capitalization on the first word in each line of your poem. Most of the American forms do not use capitalization either. Why? Syllabic poetry is written in breathy phrases, not sentences.

Many thanks to everyone who joined in below:

1.	Cheryl	8.	Jules	15.	Kerfe Roig
2.	Padre	9.	s. s.	16.	Colleen Chesebro
3.	Trent McDonald	10.	anita dawes	17.	Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr
4.	Annette Rochelle Aben	11.	Gwen Plano	18.	kittysverses
5.	TJS Sherman	12.	Heather	19.	Marsha
6.	Elizabeth	13.	Ruth Klein aka Ruth Scribbles	20.	Sally Cronin
7.	Susan Joy Clark	14.	Goutam Dutta	21.	You’re next!

What an amazing bunch of poems this week. Thanks so much for joining in and having fun with Gwen’s synonyms.

This week, I chose to feature TJS Sherman‘s poem, “Painters Duel–Dawn versus Twilight.” This reverse Etheree is written in breathy phrases that bring the reader back to the title. The imagery is rich: “purple and orange complementary colors illuminating the sky at opposite ends of the day…” I also like the idea of dawn and twilight competing to be the most beautiful. Notice the shape of the poem—it could be a metaphor for the passage of a day (dawn into twilight, the most light ending in the least light, the day coming—the day going). I like the hopeful and positive message this poem leaves behind.

purple and orange complimentary
colors illuminating the sky
at opposite ends of the day
dawn and twilight are artists
painting skies competing
for most inspiring
the day coming
day going
yet to
be

© TJS Sherman

I also want to share, Ken Gierke’s poem: Anticipation ~ chōka & haiku. I’ve wanted to add this form to our Japanese poetry for some time, so today I did. You will find the choka form on the cheat sheet with instructions on how to write this form. Thank you, Ken!

The chōka (long poem) was the storytelling form of Japanese poetry from the 1st to the 13th century. It is unrhymed and written in alternating five and seven-syllable lines that end with an extra seven-syllable line.

The early form consisted of a series of katuata joined together. (A katuata is 5-7-7 (19) onji, or 5-7-5 (17) onji) and is required for your poem. It is composed of any number of couplets made up of alternating 5-7 onji (sound syllables) per line. In English, we can only treat the onji as a syllable.

A nine-line chōka is 5-7-5-7-5-7-5-7-7 or 5-7-7-5-7-5-7-7-7. Chōka often were followed by one or more short poems called hanka, or “envoys,” summarizing, supplementing, or elaborating on, the contents of the main poem. A tanka would serve as an envoy.

Don’t forget to connect with the Word Craft Journal of Syllabic Verse at wordweavingpoetryjournal.com to learn the theme of this first journal. Submissions are open until July 15, 2021. Follow Word Weaving on Twitter @word_weaving.

See you tomorrow for the new challenge!