Students who are part of the creative writing group recently took part in a tanka poetry workshop with professional poet, Paul Conneally. They worked in small groups to prepare poems on the topic of the Bosnian genocide.
Tanka poetry is a Japanese form of poetry, which has five lines with a strict syllable count per line of 5/7/5/7/7. You can read the series of poems below.
Bosnia is home
Islam is his religion
War moves him away
The soldiers keep them safer
Srebrenica is tranquil
The Bosnian Serbs
Think Muslims are different
They think they are bad
They are being killed for it
Women and men, boys and girls
Peacekeeping fails them
Killing and hurting follows
Leaving keeps them safe
This is their only option
The story of survival
Walking together
Searching for a better life
It is dangerous
Hassan, hiding in river
His journey lasts five nights
On the way they part
He is struck by exhaustion
Baggage holds him back
Companions help him along
Asleep while he is walking
Survives his journey
But many others are killed
Returns to his home
Reminding them what happened
So it won’t happen again