Dead Sea Scrolls
My first ever tanka, inspired by a group writing exercise.
Ancient scripts hiding in sand—covering decayed, beige gaps in the old papyrus holding missing words between tears of black ink imprinting fibers in time.
Genesis_1_Dead_Sea_Scroll_(Cropped).jpg, Wikimedia Commons
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Inspiration
The inspiration for this poem came from a writing exercise with a small group of college students, and from the themes in the resulting poems.
The writing prompt was to choose a picture out of a National Geographic magazine that featured and focused on The Dead Sea Scrolls. I chose the fragment image on the cover.
Since this was the second time to use this prompt, several members of the group already had poems written, including one the mentioning gaps and one focused on time.
Writing the poem as a tanka came from a group member asking about a form of Japanese poetry similar to haiku. I realized I had never written a tanka, and wanted to try it myself.
Without the group and their work, this poem could not exist.
A tanka is a Japanese poetic form consisting of 31 syllables over 7 lines, following 5/7/5/7/7 syllables per line.
Self-Critiquing Teaching Example
The group includes several “novice” writers (including one who wrote his first ever poem in response to this prompt).
Before writing this poem, I had given feedback on their works. I then used the first draft of this poem as a teaching example.
I read them the initial draft, and pointed out several places that needed work:
Redundant/repeated words (gap and cover).
Wasted syllables (the is a wasted word in the first draft).
Where I needed a better picture to convey a deeper meaning.
Use of the word stained which isn’t the feel or idea I want to give, considering The Dead Sea Scrolls contain Scripture.
Here is the initial draft, followed by the published version again.
You can see the transformation from the initial draft of getting my thoughts down in 20-minutes, to letting it rest and redrafting for the published version.
Notice that the first line of the original draft doesn’t have the correct number of syllables….yet.
First Draft: “Dead Sea Tanka”
The Dead Sea Scrolls covered in sand covering decay and gaps in the old papyrus holding missing words between the gaps of ink staining the fibers in time.
Published Draft: “Dead Sea Scrolls”
Ancient scripts hiding in sand—covering decayed, beige gaps in the old papyrus holding missing words between tears of black ink imprinting fibers in time.
Proverbs 15:31, NIV
Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise.