A few years back, I began dabbling in an ancient Japanese form of poetry known as HAIKU. Then I discovered its great-grandaddy. TANK speaks in present tense and contains five lines. The number of syllables on each line is 5-7-5-7-7. Below is an example:

Five lines it contains

Syllables are important

It challenges you.

More flexible than HAIKU

Because it’s HAIKU’s elder

“Tanka Toyin’ – 2020.10.02

Beginning on 2022.10.23, a new Tanka Toyin’ (a play on words from my childhood; Tonka Toy) will be posted on most Sunday mornings. Not only will you get the TANKA, it will have a title and the source of it’s inspiration which may help you understand it: a scripture citation, personal experience, memory, etc.

I hope you Enjoy!