TANKA TAKE HOME — 3rd June, 2026 Featuring poet: Tracy Davidson

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

3rd June, 2026

poet of the month: Tracy Davidson

my fingers 

trace the scar 

along your sternum 

across the heart 

that wasn't yours 

A Hundred Gourds, 2012

I cannot take in 

what the doctor tells me 

in hushed tones... 

something about your organs 

and time running out 

A Hundred Gourds, 2013 

the busker sings it 

better than the Beatles 

I still miss 

all our yesterdays 

your ashes in my backpack 

Honourable Mention, 2023 Sanford Goldstein Contest 

reveille 

the bugler's last note lingers 

in the silence 

as far as eye can see 

rows of white crosses

Third Place, 2025 Sanford Goldstein Contest 

some scars lie deeper 

than can ever be seen... 

the other mourners 

mistake my tears for grief 

instead of joy

Third Place, 2019 San Francisco International Competition 

long drought 

our prayers for rain 

go unanswered 

the one cloud on the horizon 

mushroom-shaped and growing 

(Honourable Mention, 2014 Tanka Society of America Contest) 

We thank Tracy warmly for sharing her poems and for her thoughtful responses to our questions.

Q1.

TTH: Do you come from a literary background?  What writers did you enjoy reading as a child? Did you write as a child? 

TD: I don't come from a literary background. My favourite writer as a child was Enid Blyton. I happily lost myself in her Magic Faraway Tree series, along with The Naughtiest Girl in School (the complete opposite to me!), Malory Towers and The Secret Seven. I loved writing stories as a child, English lessons were always my favourite. A big shout out to my English teacher, Mrs Jones, for her gentle encouragement, knowing how shy I was. 

More about the poet:

Tracy Davidson lives in Warwickshire, England, and writes poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications and anthologies, including: Poet's Market, Mslexia, Modern Haiku, Femku, A Hundred Gourds, The Binnacle, Black Hare Press, Shooter, Journey to Crone, The Great Gatsby Anthology, WAR, and In Protest: 150 Poems for Human Rights. 

Your Challenge this Week:

Each tanka tells a story (a sad one that squeezes the heart) and Tracy so artfully leaves blanks for the reader to step in and fill them with their imagination. When the writer allows the reader to participate, the poem or story reaches deeper and is remembered long after it has been read. So the challenge for this week is to write about "goodbye'. It's not all about death, you can make it whatever you want. Tell the story and let us fill in some blanks.

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.