TANKA TAKE HOME — 4th March 2026 Featuring poet: Kanjini Devi

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

4^th March 2026

poet of the month: Kanjini Devi

1

seagulls screeching 

over a street guitarist 

from the gallery 

I pluck up courage 

to sing you Songbird                                        

(haikuKATHA Issue 11, September 2022)                                                                                                    

7 

reaped field . . . 

the long awaited for rain 

leaves puddles 

where mallards beckon me 

to waddle dance                                                

(haikuKATHA Issue 40, February 2025) 

8 

our eyes waltz  

across the dance hall  

this anticipation  

like the long-distance flight  

of a bar-tailed godwit                                        

(haikuKATHA Issue 41, March 2025) 

We thank Kanjini Devi very warmly for sharing her wonderful poems with us.

About the poet:

Kanjini Devi is a yoga teacher based in The Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her published poetry can be seen in Cattails, Prune Juice, troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog), Triveni Haikai India, Kōkako, NZPS's a fine line, Echidna Tracks, Eucalypt, Drifting Sands Haibun, Contemporary Haibun Online, Failed Haiku, The Helping Hand Haiku Anthology 2020, Frogpond, Red Moon Anthology, The NZPS Anthology 2020, and A Sensory Journey Haiku Down Under Anthology 2024.  She has received Honourable mentions in THF Monthly Kukai, and the Tejasvat Award.  She is the current mentor at haikuSutradhar and haiku editor at Under the Bashō.

Reflections on Kanjini’s tanka:

The high-pitched long call of the seagulls, slightly annoying and loud, drowning out a street guitarist’s recital is offered as a contrast to the song, ‘Songbird’, with its mood of impassioned longing and unconditional love. The seagulls’ unabashed call is in contrast to the hesitation and under-confidence of the narrator who has ‘to pluck up courage / to sing … Songbird’. There is something endearing about this image as the reader empathises with the narrator’s shy diffidence.

Enjoy the keen observation of nature in the second tanka and the delightful image of the mallards as they ‘waddle dance’ in the newly-formed puddles of ‘the reaped field’. That the mallards appear to invite the narrator to ‘waddle dance’ is equally charming.

Google tells me that bar-tailed godwit ‘can fly non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand’, covering a distance of over 11,000 kms. The fluid beauty of the image in the upper verse and the hope of a dance with the person the narrator fancies, perhaps leading to a long-enduring relationship, suggested by the striking image of ‘the long-distance flight / of a bar-tailed godwit’ appealed to me in the third tanka.

Your Challenge this Week:

We invite you to write tanka centered around the themes of song and dance, or the anticipation of a long-enduring relationship.

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.