WELCOME TO TANKA TUESDAY!

It’s the fifth Tuesday of the month! This is our chance to work with a specific syllabic poetry form. Take this opportunity to learn more about the particular form.

This week’s form is:

tanka prose

Here’s a quick review of the tanka prose form:

We typically write tanka prose in the 5-7-5-7-7 or a s/l/s/l/l five-line syllabic structure. Tanka prose should contain a title. There is one basic requirement in writing tanka prose: one paragraph, and one tanka.

There are two basic forms in classic tanka prose: Preface (explanation) and the Poem Tale (episodic narration). Tanka prose does not rhyme.

Preface (explanation): Is where the prose explains the basic information in the narrowest sense. It is a factual summary of the experience. Usually you write one prose paragraph and one tanka.

Poem Tale (episodic narration): The poem tale/episodic narration is a more formal structure where you share a more personal experience through your prose. In general, the tanka poem is always the center around which the narrative episode (prose) comes from. Write your tanka first. With this type of tanka prose, the prose often shares a beginning, middle, and an end, as if it were a short story. You can have one or more tanka within the prose.

Read & Download: The PDF by Woodward-The Elements of Tanka Prose

Refer to Word Craft: Prose & Poetry, chapter Eight: Tanka Prose in English: https://amzn.to/2V0awOp

For this #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, write a tanka prose poem, either as a “preface” or a “episodic narration.”

Here are some great sites that will help you write your poetry and count syllables

synonyms.com 

This site even has a link so you can install the extension on Google Chrome.

thesaurus.com

For Synonyms and Antonyms. When your word has too many syllables, find one that works.

sodacoffee.com/syllables

A simple yet very powerful syllable counter for poems and text which will count the total number of syllables and number of syllable per line for poems like haikus, limericks, and more. This site does the hard work for you.

THE RULES

• Write a tanka prose poem.
• Post it on your blog.
• Include a link back to the challenge in your post. (copy the URL: https:// address of this post into your post).
• Copy your link into the Mr. Linky below (underlined with a hyperlink). You might have to delete your previous entry.
• Please click the small checkbox on Mr. Linky about data protection.
• Read and comment on some of your fellow poets’ work.
• Like and leave a comment below if you choose to do so.

The screenshot below shows what Mr. Linky looks like inside. Add your name, and the URL of your post. Click the box about the privacy policy (It’s blue). As everyone adds their links to Mr. Linky, you can view the other submissions by clicking on the Mr. Linky link on the challenge post. All the links will show in the order of posting.

Follow the schedule listed below:

I will visit your blog, comment, and TWEET your POETRY on @SyllabicPoetry

If you add hashtags to the post TITLE on your blog (depending on which poetry form you use) we can find your poetry on social media.

Search #TankaTuesday to find the tweets! Add a # to the name of the form you created in the title of your post.

Now, have fun and write some tanka prose poetry!