These are an assortment of my favorite Tanka poems that I did throughout a few months. I did this because a few years beforehand I had done a Haiku a day for 365 days. I will not be sharing those as they are much older and very cringy. If you don't know the form of a Tanka it's basically a longer version of a Haiku, for a Haiku the syllable count for the lines is 5-7-5 but a Tanka adds two lines so it becomes 5-7-5-7-7. However, I might not have followed that perfectly. I didn't go through to check the syllable count for all of these.
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My words seem so small
When propped against your cruel thoughts
You rearranged them
Belittled my true meaning
Then stuffed your lies in my mouth
10/29/2017
The ghosts of Samhain
They torture my worn spirit
Begging forgiveness
How I wish I could give it
But the pain still shakes my bones
10/30/2017
Weaving in past ghosts
Lacing my heart with their pain
Stitching on their fear
I brace myself for impact
The waves of emotions come
10/31/2017
Thoughts are drowning me
I dig through my past, searching
Looking for my heart
The crushed pieces you dismissed
Deciding that money meant more
11/1/2017
Give me a free heart
Free from these painful burdens
Light as a feather
Full of hope, kindness, and love
Better than these shards of mine
11/2/2017
You can't see your face
Except through a reflection
Nor the galaxies
Harbored within your bright eyes
You are more than your likeness
11/3/2017
Breathe in the silence
Sit alone with your own mind
No technology
Let the quiet drown your thoughts
Until you can sit in peace
11/4/2017
I wait patiently
For the day when you leave me
You've torn down my sky
Give me space, let me breathe, please
You left me wounded and scared
11/5/2017
Get out of my head
You don't pay the rent to stay
And you destroy me
I am finished playing games
I've never been good enough
11/6/2017
Get out of my head
I am tired of your poison
Your words carry hate
They are prepared for battle
Inevitably, it comes
11/9/2017
You tore me apart
For your own entertainment
You dissected me
And you stole what you could get
All that you left was hatred
11/10/2017
I learned to hate you
Everything I did was wrong
You destroyed my dreams
I was never good enough
Well, I am done so, goodbye
11/11/2017
Sometimes I miss it
When I was naïve enough
That I believed you
I trusted your every word
Now, my heart has other plans
11/12/2017
My heart and faith rise
I am not who I once was
You mourn my distance
When you should mourn a past self
I am not the one you knew
11/13/2017
I keep my distance
To protect what you've stolen
One too many times
Hope was all I had before
But now I have much, much more
11/14/2017
Father and daughter
Those words should have more meaning
But over the years
They have dwindled to demons
I fight them in my nightmares
11/16/2017
Stress is my comrade
Insomnia is my ghost
They run together
The other is never far
When one catches me off guard
11/19/2017
My brain tears me down
I can't breathe, I can't breathe, help
Don't leave me alone
I can't handle the silence
When the darkness consumes me
11/23/2017
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I wanted to say that now, I am in a much better mental place than I was when I was writing all of these. I have actually gone a year without being depressed and I'm not on medicine for it either. So, I'm really proud of myself. I know I may not be completely cured of it, but I honestly don't remember a time where I wasn't depressed. It's been a long time. I may decide to start doing a Tanka a day because I remember Haiku's being almost too short for me, Tanka's were more my style. If so, I'll add them on to this. Or I might just do some free style poems again. It'll be a mystery for us all.
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PoesiHere is a selection of poems from a different time in my life. When things were much more of a struggle than they are now and when I was completely destroyed by the death of my best friend. These are the emotions I went through, the fights I had wit...
