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TANKA TAKE HOME – 25th January 2023 | poet of the month – Debbie Strange

Updated: Jan 25, 2023

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Debbie Strange


25th January


Debbie Strange/Tanka


tracks of birds

meander through snow . . .

the surgeon

marks her left breast

with a cross

(1st Place, 2016 British Haiku Society Awards)


the ocean

was in a rage last night

but today,

these peace offerings

of blue mussels and kelp

(1st Place, 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest)


We are deeply grateful to you, Debbie, for taking time off to answer our questions.


Q 6 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?


DS: My husband is a sensitive reader who sees all my work prior to publication. I am especially grateful to have a second pair of eyes on the fruits of my labour, because my vision is unreliable.


Biography:

Debbie Strange (Manitoba, Canada) is a chronically ill poet/artist whose creative passions connect her more closely to others, to the world, and to herself. Thousands of her poems and artworks can be accessed via her publication archive at: https://debbiemstrange.blogspot.com/


Challenge for this week:

The second tanka, which lends itself beautifully to recitation, starts with moments of turbulence and ends on a note of serenity. With each quiet reading, it offers a deeper and richer experience, not just of the natural world, but of the world of people too: their tendency to disrupt relationships and then re-forge them. Sadly, not all ‘rages’ transition to ‘peace offerings’.


We invite you to write tanka where you look at a trying or challenging situation with empathy, but composed distance.


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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 this theme too.

An essay on how to write tanka: Tanka Flights


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.

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

Let it simmer for a while.

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.

392 則留言


Kenneth Slaughter
2023年2月02日

Revised

surprised by the light

a creature scampers

into the dark...

we fear each other

and so it goes


Original

surprised by the light

a cockroach scampers

into the dark

we fear each other

and so it goes


*feedback welcome

按讚

Nani  Mariani
Nani Mariani
2023年1月31日

learn colors

looking at the rainbow

with Mother …

unlimited happiness

now sweet memories


Original :


learn colors

childhood

cool balcony

saw a red kite

shady mango tree


please correct🙏


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Kenneth Slaughter
2023年2月05日
回覆

learn colors

looking at the rainbow

with Mother …

unlimited happiness

now sweet memories


Hi, Nani. I think line 4 is kind of 'over the top'. I would suggest:


I learned colors

looking at the rainbow

with Mother …

such happiness

now sweet memories


I think it's ok to put lines 1 - 3 in past tense. The ellipse after line 3 indicates a change.

Line 4 needs to be a bit more subtle.

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Nani  Mariani
Nani Mariani
2023年1月30日

1.


learn colors

childhood

cool balcony

saw a red kite

shady mango tree


please correct🙏

按讚
Nani  Mariani
Nani Mariani
2023年1月31日
回覆

Dear Nd. Kala, thank you very much.., i will ❤️

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lakshmi iyer
lakshmi iyer
2023年1月29日

#2

.

(Please correct:

.

in a blink of an eye

the way the milk spills

strange than ever

death knocks

as uninvited guests)


.

How about this?

.


milk spills over

in a blink of our eyes

the silence

as death

knocks at our place


.


Feedback please. Doubtful??


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lakshmi iyer
lakshmi iyer
2023年1月31日
回覆

Ok.

按讚

Suraja Roychowdhury
Suraja Roychowdhury
2023年1月29日

this slow forgetting of who I used to be and then there's grandma all she remembers are yesteryears


feedback please 🙏

按讚
Suraja Roychowdhury
Suraja Roychowdhury
2023年1月31日
回覆

Thank you Reid :)

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