What is gogyohka? I hear you ask It's a five-line poem developed by Enta Kusakabe in Japan. Gog-yoh-ka translates to "five-line poem."  It's a close relative of tanka and uses natural phrasing to great effect. The gogyohka has very simple rules: The poem comprises, five lines with one phrase per line. That's all there is to it. What does a phrase mean in a gogyohka? Defining a gogyohka phrase is in the eye of the beholder. but the phrases can be as short as one word and others more than five words. So the rules are fairly loose. It's meant to be concise (five lines) but free (variable line length with each phrase). No special themes or topics. No subject matter constraints. Just five lines of poetic fun. I urge my fellow poets to give Gogyohka a go! Here's my attempt at Gogyohka Poems: Storm Water Runoff After the storm run off spills into the bay swimming is not recommended for seven long,  days. Alan j Wright Old Snaps At first glance Those old photograp...