TANKA TAKE HOME - 18th September 2024 | Pamela A. Babusci

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Pamela A. Babusci

18 September 2024

Once again, here are two more beautiful tanka for you this week!

if i survived cancer why not heartache? placing the whitest feather upon my soul

Pamela A. Babusci The Bamboo Hut 2014

never alone stillness surrounds me until i become a prayer Pamela A. Babusci frameless sky 2021

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

4.

TTH: Who are your favourite 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.

My favorite ancient female tanka poets are Ono no Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Yosano Akiko, and Murasaki Shikibu

I sometimes write longer free-verse poetry, when I have the time.

Poetry books I love are Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems: And A Song Of Despair and 100 Love Sonnets, e.e. cummings complete poems. I love to read mostly about love & loss. Love

is the most powerful emotion and can also be the most destructive force on earth. We are all looking for love, seeking love, and healing the love we never received in childhood.

Contemporary tanka poets are Michelle Brock, Christine L.Villa, Kala Ramesh, Claire Everett, David Terelinck, Teji Sethi, Antionette Libro, and many more.

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Pamela is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She loves to Sumi-e paint, write Japanese calligraphy, and abstract paint, makes jewelry, sculpts, and make collages. Her awards include the Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Mainichi Haiku Award (Japan), First Place Tanka Yellow Moon Competition (Aust), First Place Kokako Tanka Competition (NZ), First Place Saigyo Tanka Competition (US), First Place Inaugural Tanka Festival (Japan), First Place (tanka) San Franciso International Contest, First Place Mt. Fuji Tanka Contest (Japan). She has illustrated several books, including Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka Volume 1, The Delicate Dance of Wings, Chasing the Sun: selected haiku from HNA 2007 and A Thousand Reasons. She was the logo artist for Haiku North America in New York City in 2003 and again in Winston-Salem in 2007. Pamela has collaborated in several art galleries in Rochester, NY with oil painters Larry DeKock and Jono Peterson, where she has written tanka to complement their paintings. She is the founder and editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka, the first all-women’s international tanka journal. Her two tanka collections are A Thousand Reasons and A Solitary Woman.

Poetry and art have been an integral part of her existence since her early teenage years. She has a deep desire to be creative daily. It feeds her spirit and soul, gives meaning to her life, and will continue to be a driving force until she meets her creator.

You can also view Pamela’s haigaonline solo haiga exhibit as well as a collaborative haiga exhibit with Diane Dehler

Are you inspired?

Challenge for this week: Pamela writes from her heart. Such honesty and simplicity in her words. Does this quality in her poems inspire you to try some in this style? Try. And remember - tanka because of those two extra lines, lends itself most beautifully when revealing a story.

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 this theme too.

An essay on how to write tanka: Tanka Flights

PLEASE NOTE 1. Post only one poem at a time. 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.