Monday, April 11, 2016

Monday Poetry Stretch - Gogyohka

Gogyohka is a Japanese verse form that was developed in 1957 by the poet Enta Kusakabe. It is a five line poem that is NOT syllabic. Each line represents a stand along phrase. The idea behind this form was to take the traditional Tanka (also a five line poem written in a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count) and free its structure.

Here is an example written by Kusakabe.

What kind of
stained glass
have your
rose-coloured cheeks
passed through
                                       
You can read more about this form at Gogyohka (5-Line Poetry).

So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a gogyohka. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. When our wounds
    become our eyes
    all the world
    becomes
    our threat.

    © 2016 Judith Robinson all rights reserved.

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  2. Nice, Judith! I missed this. Well, till today! I wrote 2.

    Long ago
    I had a crush on you
    but not anymore—
    so why are we
    Facebook friends?


    Sometimes I want
    something
    but I don’t know what
    just
    that I want it so bad.


    —Kate Coombs, 2016
    all rights reserved

    ReplyDelete