real poets can’t count

is this a haiku
or just another tanka
we’re phoning it in
but no one answers the call
and we’re still unselfaware

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023

18 thoughts on “real poets can’t count”

  7. Technically, for English language snobs, it has the required 5,7,5,7,7. However, despite the fad among English speaking people, it only works well in Japanese. Syllables in English are different and sound different. So it’s like the fad about “Chinese food” in America which is not really like the food the common person in China actually eats, or “Italian” food which is not Italian etc. I made the mistake once of asking a Japanese person to help me with a Haiku and after 50 times of him saying “wrong, wrong, wrong”, I gave up — he was interested in the potential profound meaning. I’m not usually profound. The masters of tanka are not found in a dunking tank at a carnival. First, you have to be Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Plato combined, and then make a poem as an English speaking Western Person riding on a high horse in Montana with a cowboy hat, but practicing first with limericks.

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    Reply

    • Yup, that sounds pretty much right, Doug. It’s a good thing Tati and I are just having our own little bit of dumb fun here then! What you outlined would be a hell of a lot to try and live up to! Thanks so much for visiting with us and reading. 😄🙏

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