Winter Whispers

This challenge was a poetry challenge to: Write a Japanese Tanka, 5-7-5-7-7 syllable form, to include these three words: edge, restless and soul:

whispering winter
the edge of heaven I see
iridescent white
wraps me in tranquility
now my restless soul is free

~*~

~ Brenda Barnhart ~

Tanka are 31-syllable poems that have been the most popular form of poetry in Japan for at least 1300 years. As a form of poetry, tanka is older than haiku, and tanka poems evoke a moment or mark an occasion with concision and musicality. In Japanese, tanka is often written in one straight line, but in English and other languages, we usually divide the lines into the five syllabic units: 5-7-5-7-7. Usually, each line consists of one image or idea; unlike English poetry, one does not seek to “wrap” lines in tanka, though in the best tanka the five lines often flow seamlessly into one thought.