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.
I agreed with Parsat on the syllable thing. I believe that a widely famous (among the poetry community) haiku, made by a master, has 6-7-5. 'Nuff said.
Look, I'm not going to complicate this contest. If the rules are that loose, it's like having no rules at all.
The only legitimate language that a syllable-following tanka can be written in is Japanese
It isn't hard to write a poem in English using the 5-7-5-7-7 scheme.
but I have used the syllable rule to write this poem in Chinese.
Thank you for that, but I'm afraid this contest states that every entry must be in English. I don't understand why you feel obligated to write a poem in Chinese, which isn't even a real language, when the rules clearly state that English is the only language allowed in the contest.
If I would freely write it in a poem that captures the essence in a more conventional style (in relation to original styles of composition):
This contest is not about "capturing the essence," so if you want to "capture the essence," go ahead, but that isn't what I created the contest for. I created it so people could be creative and write poetry in a certain theme. Unless you can "capture the essence" in a 5-7-5-7-7 scheme, don't bother entering.
When is judging?
I will judge tomorrow. The entries are now closed.
