Preparing to write poetry about the heat

A tanka is a traditional Japanese form of poetry that originated more than 1,300 years ago. Tankas consist of five lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7, totalling 31 syllables. Tankas often explore themes of nature, emotions and the passage of time. We can make specific language choices to describe the intensity of the heat. We can use vocabulary in different ways, depending on its position in a sentence, if it is a verb, adjective or noun.