Character tanka, also known as persona tanka, are a genre where the poets take on the roles of other people. They are written in first-person or third-person accounts of a character's behaviour towards/response to a certain life situation or of thoughts/reflections. A successful character tanka depends on selecting an interesting or a unique persona (mask in Greek) whose view of life or perception of reality is conveyed through an effective juxtaposition of his/her thought and action.
The following is a set of character tanka for your reading pleasure:
My heart:
black linen
hung at night
in the shadow
of a crow.
Modern English Tanka, 1:1, Autumn 2006
M. Kei
locked windows
and a dead bolt
used to comfort her;
tonight on the 9th floor
she plays some Bill Evans
A Hundred Gourds, 1:1, December 2011
Marian Olson
fresh leaves
of a large elm tree
crumpled by wind
I am detested because
I wish to live passionately
Breasts of Snow, 2004
Fumiko Nakajo
in my closet
clothes for all occasions
yet the years
it took to be comfortable
in my own skin
The Tang of Nasturtiums, 2012
Carole MacRury
To conclude today's post, share with you three of my character tanka with different personalities: one timid, another arrogantly dreamy, and the last racist.
I've the right
to swing my fist, but this freedom
stops at the tip
of my love rival's nose ...
I shout before the mirror
alone
by the penthouse window
my friend repeats
this is America
why settle for pretty good?
a policeman
throws a black woman
into the mud
shouting, she held a knife!
(found only in his mind)
Chen-ou
Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXVII
God, my country
just hard work, no handouts ...
in the spotlight
the mayor punctuates his words
with a gavel-on-the-desk gesture
Added:
this photo of me
with arms and legs wide open
and a face
turned into a Munchian scream ...
now a gray-haired man of few words
Added:
beer foam
spilling over his hand
in soft light
he sweet-talks
at his blind date
Added:
alone, browsing
row upon row of strollers ...
which type
is the right one even if
I don't have Mr. Perfect
Added:
screams mixed with the sound
of a blood-stained bottle of wine
swept across asphalt ...
a man stabbed to death in swarming
by eight teenage girls
FYI:Swarming/swarm attack is a military-style assault in which a group of people all attack a single individual at once. And for more details about this senseless tragic death, see CBC News, Dec. 21: Teen girls charged with murder in Toronto 'swarming' death were after liquor bottle: witness
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