TANKA TAKE HOME — 27th May, 2026 Featuring poet: Stacey Dye

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

27th May, 2026

poet of the month: Stacey Dye

false spring

tricks the larkspur to bloom…

you tease me

with the warmth

of your words

Moonbathing, Spring/Summer 2021

never again

will your name

cross these lips—

some bridges once burned

forever remain ashes

the art of tanka, fall/winter 2023

to you

I am invisible

but surely

you feel me—

I am the wind

Eye to Eye, Tanka Society of America Anthology 2023

loneliness…

it gnaws at my gut

riddling me

with hole after hole

until I am hollow

tanka origins, republished Ribbons, Winter 2021

It's been a wonderful month of beautiful tanka. We thank Stacey warmly for sharing her poems and for her thoughtful responses to our questions.

Q.5

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? 

SD: My thoughts on this will probably not be the norm. To anyone wanting to write tanka and to have it published, I’d say, be imaginative. Color outside the lines. Editors are more and more accepting of poetry that is not strictly written in the traditional format. A casual adherence to the original format is what I most often see. It looks like original formatting on the page but the syllable count on each line in not restrictive. I’d suggest minimizing lines to seven syllables though. Occasionally I run into a situation where nothing will do but eight syllables. I just hold my breath and go for it! It’s important to stay true to yourself and your work. The tanka should have some sort of impact. I think it should make the reader “feel” something. An emotional component is always nice. Just be creative. Be you.

As far as functioning as an editor, I’ve never served in that capacity. If I were to, the suggestions above would catch my eye.

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?

SD: I like to workshop some of my poetry on Inkstone. There are many exceptional poets there and it’s always good to have other eyes on my work. I’m always open to the opinions of others on my tanka.

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:

Each tanka takes you through a different emotion: there's love, then anger, a dare, then despair. Where will your muse lead you this week?

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.