TANKA TAKE HOME - 25th September 2024 | Pamela A. Babusci

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Pamela A. Babusci

25th September

Once again, here are two more beautiful tanka for you this week!

not a single star

out of place

in the Milky Way . . .

the garden gate

left ajar all night

—Pamela A. Babusci

A Thousand Reasons 2009

black dahlias

moon-drenched

in the bedroom

we lie love-soaked

in flower nectar

—Pamela A. Babusci

Ribbons 2015

We had the pleasure of asking Pamela A. Babusci a few questions, and she graciously took the time to answer them.

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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?

I would highly recommend to first read every tanka book that you can, one can find a lot of books at their public library. Read a lot first before writing. Then write, rewrite and rewrite their tanka until they feel they have written a good one. Rewriting and editing your tanka poems is vital before submitting for possible publication. Read them out loud to yourself, to see how they sound. Change words or line arrangements, to make your tanka as good as possible. Sometimes one word can alter your entire tanka poem.

Pamela is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She loves to Sumi-e paint, write Japanese calligraphy, and abstract paint, makes jewelry, sculpts, and make collages. Her awards include the Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Mainichi Haiku Award (Japan), First Place Tanka Yellow Moon Competition (Aust), First Place Kokako Tanka Competition (NZ), First Place Saigyo Tanka Competition (US), First Place Inaugural Tanka Festival (Japan), First Place (tanka) San Franciso International Contest, First Place Mt. Fuji Tanka Contest (Japan). She has illustrated several books, including Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka Volume 1, The Delicate Dance of Wings, Chasing the Sun: selected haiku from HNA 2007 and A Thousand Reasons. She was the logo artist for Haiku North America in New York City in 2003 and again in Winston-Salem in 2007. Pamela has collaborated in several art galleries in Rochester, NY with oil painters Larry DeKock and Jono Peterson, where she has written tanka to complement their paintings. She is the founder and editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka, the first all-women’s international tanka journal. Her two tanka collections are A Thousand Reasons and A Solitary Woman.

Poetry and art have been an integral part of her existence since her early teenage years. She has a deep desire to be creative daily. It feeds her spirit and soul, gives meaning to her life, and will continue to be a driving force until she meets her creator.

You can also view Pamela’s haigaonline solo haiga exhibit as well as a collaborative haiga exhibit with Diane Dehler

Are you inspired?

Challenge for this week:

Pamela writes from her heart. Such honesty and simplicity in her words. This week let's dabble with all the facets of love: the inspiring, the fulfilling, or the unrequited. And remember - tanka, because of those two extra lines, lends itself most beautifully when revealing a story.

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.

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.