TANKA TAKE HOME – 12 March, 2025 | poet of the month – Madhuri Pillai

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Madhuri Pillai

ninety

a toast in hand

she asks

how did I get here

the surprise in her voice

(Ripples in the Sand - TSA Member's Anthology 2016)

telemovie...

switching it off

I take in the sun

to shake off

the sadness

(Ripples in the Sand - TSA Members's Anthology 2016)

some memories fade

some hold out...

when your eyes fell

on my ring finger

the question in your eyes

(Dance Into The World - TSA 20th Anniversary Anthology)

Madhuri Pillai bio:

Madhuri Pillai was born in India, but she has lived in Australia for a major portion of her life. 

She is an English (Hons.) graduate and a journalist by profession. 

Reading and writing have always been her passion, and she is also an animal activist. 

Madhuri lives in Melbourne with her family which includes Rosie, her fur baby.

Prompt for this week: Each of these tanka has a story — only partly revealed to the reader. The part that is veiled stokes the interest and imagination of the reader. What is the sadness that overcomes the narrator, one asks? Is it to do with the story of the telemovie or did the movie trigger some sad memory?

In just five lines the first tanka brilliantly creates a pithy portrait of a ninety-year-old woman.

We invite you to attempt one such succinct portrait. Or, write about a memory that refuses to ‘fade’.

Give this idea 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 this theme too.

PLEASE NOTE:

1. Post only one poem at a time.

2. Only two 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We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished tanka and tanka-prose (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly magazine.