Forgetting a Name

6 October 2026

I know your face still —the desk by the window, spring,some year I can't place.Forgive me the missing name.I remember how you laughed.

Tanka Memory

About the tankaA five-line poem that opens on an image and closes on a feeling.

Tanka shares haiku's compressed, image-first opening — three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable shape — then adds two more lines that turn inward, naming the personal or emotional response the image stirred. It's haiku with room left to say what the image meant.

The shape Five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable shape: an image, then a personal turn.

Listen for Where the poem stops just describing and starts feeling — usually right at line four.

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Imre Horvath

@imre

Thirty-one years teaching. Still can't stop noticing what actually stuck.

6 poems · 4 readings received · 5 written · 0 followers

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Alongside this one

Matched by shared theme or form. Where two match equally, the one still waiting for a first reading comes first.

The Word for BothNadia Osei“My mother's one word”Memory · Tanka The Long Way to Forgiving My FatherSoren Vance“He taught me how to check the oil”Memory Small InheritanceNadia Osei“Her keys still turn the lock, though she does not.”Memory