TANKA TAKE HOME — 11th March 2026 Featuring poet: Kanjini Devi

hosts: Firdaus Parvez, Kala Ramesh, Priti Aisola & Suraja Menon Roychowdhury

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

11^th March 2026

poet of the month: Kanjini Devi

now you are one 

with water and wind 

ashes to ashes 

I whisper your name 

at first and final light                                        

(haikuKATHA #20 June 2023) 

 lilac clusters  

adorn the jacaranda  

we planted  

if only you could see  

all that you have given                                      

(haikuKATHA#45 July 25) 

 the wails  

and hoots of a loon  

my thoughts  

now take the shape  

and sound of your voice                                   

(haikuKATHA#46 Aug25) 

vintage teapot . . . 

all the gifts not enough

to substitute 

the careless handling 

of my heart                                                     

(haikuKATHA#50 Dec 25) 

We thank Kanjini Devi very warmly for sharing her lovely poems with us. 

About the poet:

Kanjini Devi is a yoga teacher based in The Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her published poetry can be seen in Cattails, Prune Juice, troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog), Triveni Haikai India, Kōkako, NZPS's a fine line, Echidna Tracks, Eucalypt, Drifting Sands Haibun, Contemporary Haibun Online, Failed Haiku, The Helping Hand Haiku Anthology 2020, Frogpond, Red Moon Anthology, The NZPS Anthology 2020, and A Sensory Journey Haiku Down Under Anthology 2024.  She has received Honourable mentions in THF Monthly Kukai, and the Triveni Haikai India's Tejasvat Award.  She is the current mentor at HAIKUsutradhar and haiku editor at Under the Bashō.

Some Reflections on Kanjini's poems:

Experience the poignancy of the first tanka and its recognition of our mortality. And feel its gentle, sad cadence.

In the second tanka a shared experience of a jacaranda sapling that the narrator and her loved one planted (now a full-grown tree ‘adorned’ with lilac clusters) triggers cherished memories and makes the absence of the loved one very deeply felt.

Google tells me that a loon will wail or ‘make this haunting call when it becomes separated from the chick or if its mate fails to return.’ The unique pitch of this cry evokes ‘a sense of loneliness’. The use of this image is brilliantly done to give the reader a feeling of the lingering ache the narrator experiences as she misses someone she dearly loved, so much so that her ‘thoughts / now take the shape / and sound of your voice’.

Your Challenge this Week!

We invite you to write tanka about the strongly-felt presence of a person who is no longer there in your life. Or, write about your pain or distress when you feel that your care or concern for a certain person is not being appreciated. Or, write about someone riding rough shod over your feelings. Let strong images tell the story and add both music and depth to your poem.

Have fun!

And remember – tanka, because of those two extra lines, lends itself most beautifully when revealing a story. And tanka prose is storytelling.

Give these ideas some thought and share your tanka and tanka-prose with us here. Keep your senses open, observe things that happen around you and write. You can post tanka and tanka-prose outside of these themes as well.

PLEASE NOTE

1. Post only one poem at a time, only one per day.

2. Only 2 tanka and two tanka-prose per poet per prompt.

Tanka art, of course, if you want to.

3. Share your best-polished pieces.

4. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written. Let it simmer for a while.

5. Post your final edited version on top of your original verse.

6. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.

We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished tanka and tanka-prose (within 250 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly magazine.