Haiku & Tanka

I have to admit that I’ve never been one for writing poetry as rhyming verse; everything I come up with sounds like a cheesy greeting card.

However, I’ve always enjoyed writing Haiku and its less-common-in-the-west cousin Tanka. Haiku, of course, uses a 5-7-5 syllable pattern; a Tanka is essentially a Haiku with an additional 7-7, in other words: 5-7-5-7-7. Tanka is much more common in Japan—read the Wikipedia Entry here to learn more.

There’s just something I like about the rhythm they take on. “Writing Small” like this is very rewarding when you can use a minimum of words to convey feeling and meaning.

Here are links to some of my past work:

All writing is © Douglas P. Kendrick, all rights reserved.