TANKA TAKE HOME — 15th October '25 Featuring poet: Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton

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

Introducing a new perspective to our  Wednesday Feature!

October 15th, 2025

poet of the month: Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton

remembering

my photo of Mt. Fuji rising

taken from a high-speed train

strengthens me

in these days of confusion

Honorable Mention

Fifth Fujisan Taisho/ Mt. Fuji Tanka Awards

as year follows year

remembering

how to be

without why ...

without no ...

The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku

Illumination

Heaven, Hell and Eternity were part of the curriculum during my early years in a nearby religious school. I was late to school one morning and the bell was about to ring.  Also, I noticed that the sidewalk had been lifted and broken by roots of a very old tree. And I suddenly thought: If I could understand a moment of time, I could understand eternity!  Then I hurried to school and forgot that tree, those roots & that thought.

if I could be 

a flower next time 

I would be clover 

that work horse of beauty 

blossoming everywhere

Gusts 27, 201

Marilyn, we thank you warmly for sharing your poems and for your thoughtful responses to our questions.

Q4.

TTH: Who are your favourite tanka poets? In addition to tanka what other genres of poetry do you write or read? Tell us about some of the books you've enjoyed.

Marilyn: I have enjoyed reading tanka by Anya, Robert Epstein, Michael McClintock and many others.  I have also enjoyed reading Narrow Road to the Far North by Matsuo Basho, as well as poetry by Mary Oliver.

Q5.

TTH: Can you give any advice to someone wanting to write and publish tanka? As an editor what are you looking for in a tanka that makes it most likely to get published? 

Marilyn: Due to illness and other stresses, I am no longer able to do the work of publication. I would recommend researching  International Tanka, Skylark, Eucalypt, and Ribbons (the Tanka Society of America Journal) for their submission policies. 

Also, my advice is to write tanka for yourself first.  There is nourishment and comfort available in the act of writing with or without publication.

More about the poet:

Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton is a poet and essayist. Living in diverse parts of the United States as well as Thailand, Hong Kong, Spain and France has sharpened her sense of the need for poetry in this world. As a teaching artist, she approaches poetry as a path for empathy, understanding, and awareness. As a veteran of the War in Southeast Asia, survivor of an abusive first marriage, and a bereaved parent, she believes that creative acts can lift us from despair. 

Currently, Marilyn lives and works in Allentown, Pennsylvania with her husband of fifty years and two cats. Until recently, she was the editor and publisher of red lights, an international tanka journal. Her writing has appeared in Haiku, moonbathing, Skylark, Bright Stars, Take Five (volumes 2,3 4), The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku, Beyond the Grave, The Tanka Journal and tinywords. 

Your Challenge this Week:

Marilyn's poems hold a yearning to be something, to heal, to find strength, to live in a moment. In what way do they speak to you? We'd love to know. This week's challenge is to find your wish "to be", whatever that means to you. Write. Read. Enjoy!

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 these themes, too.

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.