Some of you may be asking, what is a "Tanka"? Unfortunately, Dr Elmer cannot give you the answer off the top of his head, so he decided to ask Wikipedia for help.
Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following mora pattern:
5-7-5-7-7. The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase", and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase". Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku.
Now that you know what this "Tanka" thing is, let's look at the guidelines for the contest. -Must follow the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable scheme. -Must be in English -No foul words that might make Dr Elmer cry -It must fit the theme -It will not win if it does not meet the deadline -No exceptions!
There is currently no prize for this contest, but Dr Elmer and his super Tanka henchmen are out to fix that.
Dr Elmer (you may know him as DrElmer because armorgames does not allow underscores or spaces) will be the judge unless he says otherwise. He will appoint a new judge when there are expections.
Dr Elmer has no ideas for themes, unfortunately, and he needs your help. After a normal round, the winner would pick the next theme, but there haven't been any rounds yet and Dr Elmer is drawing a blank. So if you could please help him decide a theme, that would make him so happy and it would allow you to submit all your wonderful Tankas that you've got bottled up in there.
Trees are very, very green Life has no reflection, right? Green is good. I guess. 5-7-5-7-7, is strange. My tree got broken, it did. Some mean guy cut it down, yep.
Haiku:
Tanka's can't be any fun - 5 Tanka's make my brain hurt, no fun - 7 Tanka's are strange, deranged. - 5
Now comes september Some leaves fall, some change color Just after the summer (whoops a rhyme?) The humans are mezmerize The birds continue their nests
