I think this post is all my daughter’s fault. She has been fascinated with the Japanese culture since she was about seven years old–art, culture, society, etc. What once was an infatuation, has become a life thread for her, because she is engaged to a wonderful Japanese man and has been studying the language for years.
We homeschooled for several years, and because of her love of Japanese art styles (and because of my love of poetry) we did a haiku & tanka segment for English lessons. I loved haiku and tanka because at that time of my life, I was trying to break away from strictly rhymed and metered poetry, but was having a hard time finding my free verse voice. It was a win-win segment of study for us!
I actually found a website that says everything I want to say on the topic of Japanese Poetry Forms, but I noticed that there is a little word (Challenge) near the top of this particular page. Did someone just challenge me? Did they? Huh. DID THEY!?
Perhaps I will have to do another 100 [Poetry Form] challenge of some sort after the 100 Haiku(s). I have haiku in the queue (not intended to rhyme, but I’m a poet & I don’t know it–but my feet show it; they’re longfellows (a ditty my grandpa used to always recite to me since I was the family poet from a very early age! I sure miss that wonderful man (Grandpa)), but just started working on the actual cards themselves. I have homes for about a dozen cards so far…after that is anyone’s guess as to where I will send them!
Cheri Nordstrom 