This month Sue Brown lead a Haiku workshop in which she also included Tankas and Cinquains.
About half of the eighteen of us present had never written in any of the forms so she began by explaining that in Japanese, Haikus are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while in English they often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese Haiku, and consists of seventeen syllables. 5 on the first line, 7 on the second and 5 on the third. She also explained that while they were originally about nature, these days they have been used for other subjects.We all had a go at writing a Haiku, some of us more successfully than others. I have to confess that had it not been for the fact that we all had to read out what we’d written afterwards, I would have given up. But Sue, in her gentle, coaxing way encouraged us to persevere and share.
She later encouraged us to try our hands at either a Tanka, five lines with the following syllables on each line: 5,7,5,8,7, and Cinquain. Again five lines with the following syllables 2,4,6,8,2.
Two of us have braved showing what we did. They are far from being the best, but until we receive some other contributions have a look at what Jude Ashworth – Haiku (Member of the Month – January) and Predencia Dixon – Tanka (Member of the Month – April) wrote.
Haiku
life is a shambles
shambles brings an excitement
lifts dullness of life
Tanka:
Shadows disappear
in sunshine’s rainbow spotlight
waterfalls sparkle
through lagoons of crystal water
children play in happy bliss
Apologies,From Elaine Yap (miss Kitty) for This Saturday’s meeting. Will be in Hastings. Hope everything goes well. Hopefully I will be there in May. Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:07:36 +0000 To: kittyja@hotmail.co.uk
It was a really enjoyable workshop. Thanks Sue…especially for teasing me out of my comfort zone. Good to have a reminder of the principles here. I am intending to start a Tanka diary. Began it today. Let’s see how long that enthusiasm lasts 😉