Greetings all and the days outside are reasonably pleasant aren't they? Anyway, before I sally forth let me say thank you to Anna, Marion, Jo, Shilpa and Sarah for stopping by and liking, commenting, sharing and loving my previous content. Kisses and hugs for all of you superstars and keep on rocking up, it lightens the spirit.
Well, no doubt the curious title above may have a few of you scratching your chins in wonder. It comes today from Anna who loves reading my work but does find these formats a little bit confusing and who can blame her. When I first came across the term Haiku for the first time I thought it might sound like some kind of a Japanese seafood delicacy. As for tanka, don't they have fuel delivered in them and Sestina, well that just sounds like some mission from NASA off to Alpha Centurai.
They are all various forms of poetry and let's start with the first one which I know rather well. Haikus originate from Japan and are set in three lines to form a stanza of 5 syllables, 7 syllables and 5 syllables. The original method was to be set around the four seasons and elements of nature although myself and many others have a far more liberal approach. Yet today, I think I'll use the following poem in a traditional way.
Summer's grace shines down (5)
our bumblebees pollinate (7)
so many flowers (5)
As for the Tanka, I will confess I have to look that one up. It is a form of poetry that uses the Haiku format but also adds on two more lines of 7 syllables. It talks of the Waka format and I'm pretty darn sure that Mikao Usui used to recite Waka poetry when teaching his healings. My effort would go something like this :
On this fine spring day(5)
the river picks up its pace (7)
with swirls and edies (5)
where life tumbles ever on (7)
out to the waiting ocean. (7)
The most unusual format is the Sestina. Now there's no doubt about it the format here is somewhat mechanical and can bring forth the most nonsensical form of poetry. I will not give you a great big headache as you try to make sense of this bizarre form but I did have one published about ten years ago. Here is something very left field and rather batty. http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue418/house_six.html I've experimented a couple of more times with that but it's very easy to get confused once the poem gets bigger and bigger.
So there we are, a little bit of a deep dive into a few forms there. I know some of my readers are fine poets in their own right and please do feel free to share your own thoughts or add any points I ought to be aware of. After all, I don't pretend to have all the answers and I'm always willing to learn something new.
It's time to bid you all adieu and indulge in a spot of Qi Gong methinks. And remember everyone, spread the word and keep reading.
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