TANKA TAKE HOME — 17th June, 2026 Featuring poet: Tracy Davidson

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

17 June, 2026

poet of the month: Tracy Davidson

I speak of Leda 

how the swan embraced her 

breast on breast 

my voice falters at your touch 

those feather-like strokes 

Poetry Pea Journal 6:24, 2024

the shrink 

recommends we air 

our differences... 

the bars across the windows 

not all that stands between us 

Notes from the Gean, Feb 2013

soppy love songs 

after a break-up 

the therapeutic 

unspooling 

of the mixed-tape he made me

Take 5ive, Music That Heals, 2023 

she asks me 

if I've ever been in love... 

of all the questions 

parenthood books 

don't prepare you for 

Honourable Mention, 2024 Sanford Goldstein Contest 

We thank Tracy warmly for sharing her poems and for her thoughtful responses to our questions.

Q5.

TTH: Do you show your work in progress to anyone, or is it a solitary art that you keep close to your chest before letting it go for publishing?

TD: All the advice I've ever seen on writing, is to show it to someone before submitting. I never have, and probably never will! But that's just me. I'm a very shy, private person, with a lifetime's lack of self-confidence. Even after having many poems published over the years, I still can't seem to shake it off. Not really a good example to follow! But fellow introverts may well recognise themselves in this too. 

More about the poet:

Tracy Davidson lives in Warwickshire, England, and writes poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications and anthologies, including: Poet's Market, Mslexia, Modern Haiku, Femku, A Hundred Gourds, The Binnacle, Black Hare Press, Shooter, Journey to Crone, The Great Gatsby Anthology, WAR, and In Protest: 150 Poems for Human Rights. 

Your Challenge this Week:

Ah love and it's vices; though the first one mentioning Leda can go any which way. You should google it. Great Greek mythological reference. Let's write about awkward or innocent questions that have stumped you.

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.