Tanka Sunday & Tanka Contest

The officers of the Tanka Society of America are pleased to share the following announcements: 

Save the Date: Tanka Sunday Is Back!

Join us on Sunday, October 18, 2015 (the last day of the Haiku North America conference), at the Desmond Hotel in Albany, New York, for another Tanka Sunday celebration. Tanka Sunday 2015 will have tanka readings, workshops, and presentations all afternoon and evening, plus a bookfair, group photo, and more.  Registration will be free  for everyone, including nonmembers (although donations will be welcome).  So mark the date on your calendar now, and watch for registration details later on our Facebook page and website and in member emails. Whether you attend the HNA conference or not, we hope to see you at Tanka Sunday 2015! Will you join us? 

Also, as a reminder, the submission window for the Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest opens tomorrow, May 1.

  

Cameo

A collaborative 
tanka sequence
         by

Jenny Ward Angyal
         and
  Julie B. Cain

forsythia—

in my old age

will I find again

flared skirts for a faerie host 

among its yellow petals

between hills 

softened in sunset fog 

one peach-stained spire... 

the only way to get there 

a tutu and toe shoes

a toadlet 

tiny as a moonstone

on my hand . . .

Queen Anne’s lace

ruched at my throat

my soul 

comes home late 

trailing muddy twigs 

and skeins of silver web . . . 

following fireflies 

~Bright Stars 6, Fall 2014

shards of light

shards of light
through a tessellation 
of leaves—
pieces of a puzzle 
my hands can’t grasp

~A Hundred Gourds 4:1, Dec. 2014

dreaming
I’ve been born blind . . . 
I poultice 
my third eye
with the meadowlark’s song

~Bright Stars 6, Fall 2014

stars

mirrored
in the pool’s dark eye
a billion stars—
tadpoles wriggle
in a reed-bed universe

~All the Shells: Tanka Society of America 

  Members' Anthology 2014

awakenings

the chorus
beginning at dawn
inside me
a thousand birds
all singing at once

~Ribbons 10:2, spring/summer 2014

daffodils
running wild
in the meadow
I whisper my names
to the wakening earth

~red lights 10:2, June 2014