The Japanese form SOMONKA is composed of two tankas, five line poems with syllable counts 5-7-5-7-7. The first tanka is a statement of love. The second, by another author, is a response.


Example by Gaer Llwyd:

Second Heartbeat

sweet swan piccolo
rise to sweep high crescendos
your breaths fill the room
tomorrow I'll be dying
as, leaving, you pin your hair

burly bear of night
bass strings of second heartbeat
fill my cosmic nebulae
you drive my shrill melody
dying is in the moment