TANKA TAKE HOME — 31st December '25 Featuring poet: Michele L. Harvey

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

Introducing a new perspective to our  Wednesday Feature!

31st December, 2025

poet of the month: Michele L. Harvey

it’s said an apple 

doesn’t fall far from the tree 

but then 

I was born on a hill 

with a sharp incline

Gusts, Fall/Winter 2017 

all I need 

in the conversation of clouds 

they too 

talk of comings and goings  

and moments in the sun

Ribbons, Tanka Café, Winter 2010

Simple Gifts

I keep revisiting the local radar as if I can will it to change, while outside my husband is drawing ever tighter circles in the grass with his lawn tractor. Hoping he finishes before the heavy weather sets in, I take out a steak for him and some eggs for me for supper. It’ll be early tonight. 

He has some friends coming over.

the one who went blind

and one with a broken smile

it matters little

when they’re all in tune

they make heavenly music

Ribbons, Fall/Winter 2024

Michele, we thank you warmly for sharing your poems and for your thoughtful responses to our questions.

More about the poet:

Michele's career has been as a professional landscape artist, painting in both oil & watercolor since 1976, in New York, USA. 

Your Challenge this Week!

Michele talks about simple gifts; the everyday things we tend to miss in all the noise of the world. As the year turns into a new one, what simple things can you think of, which ones do you want to write about?

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

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We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished tanka and tanka-prose (within 250 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly magazine.