by the Read Write Poem Staff
Today, Alan Summers wants us to write poems about “humor in love,” and he has a specific form in mind!
Write and capture humorous incidents related to love in a 5-line love poem called a tanka. (You may even decide to create your own tanka journal for love poems!) Here’s how to write one:
- Describe in concrete terms one or two simple images (two or three lines) from your humorous love encounter, not just what you saw but also what you tasted, touched, smelled or heard.
- What were you were thinking at the time this love encounter happened? Write that down, too, as two or three lines, so you have five lines in total for the poem.
- Think about making the third line of your poem into a pivot line, so that it links to both the previous two lines and to the final two lines.
- Test the tanka by dividing it into two parts so the third line acts both as the last line of the first part and as the first line of the second part. Does each section make sense separately, and then together?
- Think about reducing — and even avoiding — capitalization and punctuation because a tanka needn’t be like a sentence or merely a flat statement.
Reminders for everyone
Read the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge Kickoff post for details on how the challenge works — and how you can engage with Read Write Poem this month, no matter what your personal writing challenge is for the month of April.
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Here’s my tanka, plus a bonus spring tanka:
http://meditativemeanderings.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-7-tanka.html
Susanne
I think this comes close. My effort for today: Caution Failed
Well it’s not funny or about love, but it’s a Tanka that’s important to me. I hope you all still enjoy it.
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/encounter-truth/
two grey haired lovers
flushed with feeling, play croquet
sometimes she forgets
hitting a different ball
he smiles and plays regardless
With a twist:
http://pamelavillars.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/april-7-10-forbidden-love/
It took a while to decide on a funny moment, but then it came to me: “A true love story” Thanks Alan!
It was kind of funny when it happened, but I’m not sure whether it comes across that way, nor quite the way I want it to. There aren’t enough monosyllable verbs for playful aggression: back to fence.
Six lines, but whatever.
“Andy Warhol Exhibit”
http://self-intoxication.deviantart.com/art/Andy-Warhol-Exhibit-159974884
I couldn’t do the prompt today, sorry!
http://immortality-in-words.deviantart.com/art/NaPoWriMo-7-Life-159976982
I’m staring down
at the back of the
book, called “My Life
So Far” and on it
a satellite hovers
in the black ink.
There is an emptiness
stretching itself, spreading
its arms and legs
and lying out, getting
comfortable as the
characters I’ve followed for
sixteen years escape
my lips as I exhale, it
swallows me, esophagus
downward, consumes
the satellite and the
words surrounding and the
book becomes as good
as blank.
The bookshelf is
large and librarious
and enigmatic
so as I toss this
empty bound-parched
paper into the dust
where small foot prints
still walk, I cover them
again and search -
I want a book
not to small, too short-
lived, and not too long-
lived into wastefulness, one
that will fit into the
space
as a planet;
perfect,
like the footprints
in the dust,
perfect.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the prompt to work for me today
http://mayaganesan.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-7.html
@Alan Summers: Thanks
Here is another of my late night poems, NaPoWriMo # 7
http://brokeness.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-7-he-comes-quietly.html
firstlast date
april 7, 2010
thirteen years old,
in the bluedarkness
of the multiplex,
feetstucktothefloor
by yesteryear’s sodapop,
hand.frozen.to.the.armrest
by fear of rejection,
i decide to drown
my sorrows
in a box of milk duds.
thirteen years old,
in the operaticlightness
of the climax,
ourfINg(T)ERs(LACE)
like silk thread,
herhairbrushesmyshoulder
like sunshine
and my mouth
fills
with
blood;
my milk dud
made a meal
of my molar.
This was tough but I did it, here goes..
http://zevoice.blogspot.com/2010/04/vogue-exposed.html
Everyone made a fantastic effort, well done!
Other than the occasional misconception about syllables being the “form”, there were good tanka, and also good intuitive ways of using the tanka spirit to create other types of poetry.
Congratulations!
Alan
http://thebooklife.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/4-7/
No love here, tired of that topic!
fireflies beckon
sparklers in the darkest night
twinkling as beacons
lovers lust in the moonlight
shimmering flitting glow worm
I swear, these just get harder. Please, no more love prompts!
http://daily-yawp.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-8.html
Much Wenlock
It’s now Eastertide
catkins are springing in the woods
six weeks since we met
there are so many things to tell
we wear out the day
you help me from stiles
let me clutch your arm’s hard knots
on the steep descents
this is walking on the edge
my joke, your laughter.
Alan Summers replied:
April 10th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Well done everyone! And a nice double tanka from angelatopping just tops and concludes the prompt.
Alan
http://www.withwords.org.uk
http://bitsandpieces.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/napowrimo-7-love-funny-side-up-2/
http://jazzandpoetry.com/2010/04/napowrimo-7-love-funny-side-up/