44779 Street - Ohio Poetry Day poem from Mike Hammer

Mike Hammer's entry for the Small Worlds contest in Ohio Poetry Day 2024

 

44779 Street

 

House. Show. Tonight.

A grand piano

in a tiny living room.

Eye Vree Tickla is on tour.

I am the one humming along.

i was recognized as an Honorable Mention for this poem

i do not usually do form poetry

but this contest was sponsored by my friend, writer Rhonda Baughman

so i chose to enter to support her

the contest guidelines were to enter a 5 line poem that is in the tanka or limerick or cinqain form

i chose the tanka form, and wrote a modified tanka, which is a traditional 5 line Japanese poem, a 'short song'

according to poets.org

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.