Poetry

I've been ultra-busy these last few weeks, what with the day job being full-on due to the rollout of a new project as well as myriad writing projects to juggle. Oh, and family life to be a part of as well! Where do we get the time? I've been working on numerous short stories, including one for an anthology of selected works by a group of indie authors (more on that very soon), as well as having two novels on the go. It's a fine line to balance it all, I can tell you.
Anyway, my bi-monthly writer's group is a great way of letting off steam and connecting with other writers for a couple of hours. During the last meeting, we were discussing Japanese poetry and its various forms. I'd heard of Haiku, even knew a little bit about it; Tanka, on the other hand, was completely new to me. It's a poem composed of 31 syllables, arranged in 5 lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables, 7 syllables and 7 syllables. It sounds really easy until you try it.
We were set an exercise and given one word to use - as a theme, title, inspiration or within the poem - and asked to produce a Tanka. Oh, and the time limit was ten minutes!
So, off I went, cogitating. To my surprise, I produced 2 poems within the ten minutes - I don't claim that they're masterpieces, but they were well received. I found that having such a tight, proscriptive set of rules focussed my mind and allowed the words to flow. I was also writing I've always enjoyed and found to give me a more immediate sense of connection to the words.
So, here they are. The word I was given was 'Journeys':

Wave

 

Water leaks from shore

Cold and lonely deeps

Shoreline out of reach

Salted spray and white-tipped foam

Endlessly journey onward

and

Wind

 

Cold wind stirs the leaf

Without pause, a breath of life

Flutter in the trees

Light and soft, caressing breeze

Never still, a restless touch