Good day! Another attempt to write tanka while participating in Colleen’s #TankaTuesday challenge where the rules are to to write in any of the 24 syllabic forms of Japanese poetry using a kigo or season word as an inspiration. While there are 24 seasons in Japan, we are allowed to use season words as per our region.
I am trying out a tanka and have used ‘Dandiya’ as the kigo word here. Dandiya Raas is a folk dance of western India mostly in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. This popular socio-religious dance is performed during the Navaratri (literally – Nine Nights) festival in honor of Goddess Durga who is believed to visit her home on Earth along with her children and their unique animal companions, (but that’s another story for another day, perhaps). This festival usually occurs in the period of late September to late October with the actual dates varying from year to year. Dandiya is performed in memory of Goddess Durga’s victory over Mahishasura (literally – buffalo demon) and the colorful sticks (called dandia) used in the dance represent her sword.
I took this image from this site just to give you a better idea. I hope the kigo word is acceptable?
And the tanka is
trees
swaying in the breeze
dandiya practice
he joins up unaware
of her fracture
Initially I thought of going for just the haiku (the first 3 lines) then felt it could be a tanka as well. Also the explanation seemed a bit disproportionate to the kigo description. Still is actually 😀
That’s it folks. Do let me know your thoughts, comments and tips. Have a great day and thank you Colleen for the challenge.
Stories and more 