Okay, that may not be entirely true. That statement is something that the harried commuter who always misses the subway train by seconds feels. You always remember the train you missed.
A classic case of the glass (always) half empty syndrome.
As I matured, I didn't think about things like April showers. When the warmer weather came, April was okay after all.
As a writer? Not so much.
APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
April is allergy month too...or marks the beginning of allergy season for most.
I'm allergic to poems. Maybe afraid of them is more likely.
Recently, through a writing program offered by the Queens Public Library, an assignment (challenge for the poetry challenged) was given.
Write three Haiku styled poems
AND three Tanka styled poems.
Haiku I remember from grade school.
Tanka? Trucks come to mind.
I don't do poems...but tried anyway.
You be the judge.
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with
seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on
images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of
expression.
(While I hit the syllable count, I definitely missed the nature part of this, but then again as a kid, I'm sure I did the same).
Like
Riding A Bike
Not since the third grade
Have I written a Haiku
It still comes easy
Heaviest
Sigh (Ella Serenade)
Looking at the sky
Not a single day goes by
Always asking why
Centenarian
Super-Hero
He’s my grandfather
World’s greatest
storyteller
He is my hero
The Japanese tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem,
traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka,
Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song," and is better
known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.
Haiku
Super-Sized
A longer Haiku
Whatever am I to do?
Counting syllables
The goal to reach,
thirty-one
Here it comes, wait for
it. Bam!
Ella
Serenade (Reprise)
Her smile so warm
A love like theirs never
wrong
The heartache so strong
Every star he wished upon
Wishing every wish were
gone
The
First Kiss
Unexpected Love
Camping trip, seventy-six
He’s only thirteen
Yesterday so far away
Yet still on his mind
today
