TANKA TAKE HOME — 20th May, 2026 Featuring poet: Stacey Dye

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

20th May, 2026

poet of the month: Stacey Dye

mottled

pink and purple

eventide

gives way to starlit skies--

the nightingale rejoices

Ribbons, Spring/Summer 2024

quarter moon—

a cradle for the stars

tilts and spills,

sprinkling them like glitter

across the night sky

Ribbons, Spring/Summer 2022

undone

by crushing loneliness

I feather my bed

with the sweet words

you whispered in my ear

The Helping Hand Haiku Anthology, Edited by Robert Epstein 2020

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

Q.3

TTH: How do you develop a tanka? Please guide us through the stages of a poem.

SD: Typically I find the impetus for a poem in nature, a phrase or idea that pops up or a decision to examine and express emotions and events of the past. Once I’ve established a theme, I begin to build around it. Usually, my tanka include an observation followed by a human based response that reflects a parallel between the upper and lower parts of the poem. I tweak it from there!

Q.4

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

SD: Jenny Angyal is an absolute favorite of mine. Her insightful and compelling nature based poetry always moves me. She is a great mentor of mine as well. 

My late friend Brendan Slater was a huge influence on me. I adored his minimalist take on tanka, also his “shock and awe” technique of expression. We wrote back and forth and critiqued each other and exchanged so many thoughts and ideas. I miss him so.

The other genre I enjoy is free verse. I hope to get back into the head space that allows me to write it again. I admire haiku.I totally stink at it. For the life of me, I cannot get the hang of it. Come to think of it, I suppose tanka is kinda the “momma bear” of poetry for me!

About the poet in her own words:

I’ve loved words forever. I collect them on rocks, jewelry and tokens. I began to write poetry over ten years ago. I started with free verse and ultimately found I loved tanka. It is a wonderful release for my feelings and emotions. I live in South Georgia, USA with my husband Dennis, my cat Frankie and dog Happy.

Your Challenge this Week:

Can Stacey's beautiful tanka inspire love poems? Let's write about love this week. Wherever it takes 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.