TANKA TAKE HOME - 12th February, 2025, Adelaide B. Shaw

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Adelaide Shaw

Bio:

Adelaide B. Shaw lives in Somers, NY. She has been creating Japanese poetic forms–haiku, haibun, tanka, tanka prose and haiga–for over 50 years and has been published widely. Her work has been featured in Red lights, Presence, and Haiga Online, as well as being in anthologies. Adelaide’s book of haiku, An Unknown Road, available on Amazon, won third place in the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Award in 2009.  Her other books,  The Distance I’ve Come,Travel Souvenirs, and Ancient History are available on Cyberwit and Amazon. Adelaide also writes fiction and non-fiction and has been published in several journals. Some of her published Japanese short form poetry are posted on her blog: www.adelaide-whitepetals.blogspot.com

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

3.

TTH: How do you develop a tanka? Please guide us through the stages of a poem. 

Usually, my tanka are in two parts—three lines, then two lines. Sometimes, four lines, then one. The first part presents a situation. the second part is an observation about the situation, a comment, an opinion, a musing, a summing up, an ending to the story begun in the first part. Something gets my attention, a present image or situation,  a recent memory or a long- ago memory. If I am searching memory, I try to remember all the emotions present then and write the tanka as if it is happening now. Sometimes, my tanka is one thought with no breaks, just a free flowing of words.

4.

TTH: Who are your favorite tanka poets? In addition to tanka what other genres of poetry do you write or read? Tell us about some of the books you've enjoyed. 

There are many poets who have inspired and helped me over the years with their poems and or editing.  an’ya, Michael McClintock, Marilyn Hazelton, Denis Garrison are just a few.

I also write haiku, haibun and tanka prose, the occasional free verse or silly, rhymed verses I send to family and friends.

the rush of blood

to my fingers and toes

when your lips meet mine

the summer night turns golden

with the risen full moon

             Stylus Poetry journal, Spring 2004

were I to turn back

I would be clever and bold

but keep my one love

you saw what was missing

and replaced it with your heart

          Red Lights, June 2007

Both these tanka speak of passion. The first one, of the heady sensation of that initial kiss, when the world becomes a place of magic. The second tanka is more introspective- what if I had done something different- would life have turned out differently? But what would remain unchanged is that love that still endures. How magical - a mature love that still has the power to move and stir the senses...

Prompt for this week: 

In Adelaide's own words, 'February is a good month for writing tanka: love poems for Valentine’s Day...' So bring them on- write of romantic love, passion, happily or unhappily ever-afters :)

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, please.

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.