TANKA TAKE HOME - 29 January, 2025 | poet of the month – Xenia Tran

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Xenia Tran

The Walled Garden – a Tanka Sequence

can I slow down

what time we’re given

to greet mouse-tail moss

the speckled wood who warms

her wings after the rain

a shaft of light

through long shadows

you trace a line

where ghosts of me

still hug the elder tree

mist curtains

one side of the shed

free from light

redshank sleeps whose gold

only the dead can see

an inner sun rises

where cherry blossom blooms

before the moon gate

roots are lined

with tamarisk moss

we weep

to be reminded

of such beauty

and sing of butterflies

no longer here

Under the Basho, 24 June 2024

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

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?

Xenia Tran: When I was part of a women’s writing group, we emailed our works-in-progress to each other a few days before each meeting. This gave us time to provide constructive feedback during our meet-ups and was very helpful in the early days.

Over time, too many opinions and voices could cloud over what we were trying to say and these days I rarely share my works in progress, except when I am collaborating on a sequence or as part of a poetry meet-up or mentoring group.

Prompt for this week: ‘Slow down’, pause, reflect, enjoy the beauty, the music, the depth of observation and thought in Xenia Tran’s tanka sequence.

We invite you to write tanka on any theme of your choice. Let the reader feel the freshness and music in your poem.

Give this idea 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.

PLEASE NOTE:

1. Post only one poem at a time.

2. Only two tanka and two tanka-prose per poet per prompt.

   Tanka art of course if you want to. No tanka sequences.

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 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly magazine.