Tanka on Life and Death

I thought I would die

When all the shots were sounded

By the firing squad;

Some men gave a crying groan

And fell, while I stayed standing.

October 5th, 2024 for the Friends of Theodore Roethke

The tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song,” and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.