Featured Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash
curling photos burn
captured moments carbonized
an offering made
to the gods of erasure
who laugh at human hubris
© Josie Kirkwood 2020
Previously published in ‘House of Haiku’ on Medium 13 February 2020.
Tanka (‘short song’) is a short poem format, containing a haiku, following the traditional Japanese form of 31 syllables, usually in one line. Contemporary Tanka usually follows the form of 5 lines: 5/7/5/7/7, usually with a pivot in the third line—the last two lines answering the embedded haiku in the first three lines.