TANKA TAKE HOME — 25th March 2026 Featuring poet: Kanjini Devi

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

25^th March 2026

poet of the month: Kanjini Devi

calls of ruru 

from dusk to dawn 

punctuating 

rituals and prayers 

this Great Night of Shiva                                 

(haikuKATHA Issue 43, May 2025) 

Eight Precepts 

I've been at the monastery for several weeks. Joining the predawn chant--I soak up Sanskrit prayers like a sponge.  After recitations, the head monk himself is performing the ritual of shaving my head. The nuns have made all the necessary preparations. There's no turning back--bringing my hands in Anjali Mudra, I close my eyes. 

crawling critters  

by a retracted tide 

Guru Purnima 

the ebb and flow 

of my thoughts 

Now bald and in white garb, I am embraced by the eldest nun. Beaming, she hands me a key to one of the huts.  My abode is sparse, perfect for meditation.  Approaching a rust-rimmed mirror, I trace the absence of my tresses with both hands. 

(Issue 12 http://narrowroadjournal.com/narrowroad) 

Golden Years

Reaching across the table, I hold Tom’s hands while we wait to be served.  His fragile frame informs me the end is near, yet his cyan-blue eyes have never been brighter.  We both know we may never come back here again together.  I get the fettucine, and Tom asks for the salad.  When our meals arrive, he takes one glance at my dish and says next time he’ll have the pasta. 

stubbled fields  

I stumble along  

without you 

somehow trusting 

all is as it should be  

(haikuKATHA Issue 40, February 2025) 

We thank Kanjini Devi warmly for sharing her exceptionally good poems with us.

About the poet:

Kanjini Devi is a yoga teacher based in The Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her published poetry can be seen in Cattails, Prune Juice, troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog), Triveni Haikai India, Kōkako, NZPS's a fine line, Echidna Tracks, Eucalypt, Drifting Sands Haibun, Contemporary Haibun Online, Failed Haiku, The Helping Hand Haiku Anthology 2020, Frogpond, Red Moon Anthology, The NZPS Anthology 2020, and A Sensory Journey Haiku Down Under Anthology 2024.  She has received Honourable mentions in THF Monthly Kukai, and the Triveni Haikai India's Tejasvat Award.  She is the current mentor at HAIKUsutradhar and haiku editor at Under the Bashō.

Your Challenge this Week:

We invite you to write tanka or tanka-prose centered around the themes of austerity or renunciation. Or, write about a poignant meeting when you felt that the moments you had spent with someone you knew, or deeply cared for, would not happen again – a goodbye meeting … felt but not expressed overtly.

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.