TANKA TAKE HOME — 23 April 2025 Poet of the Month — Susan Weaver

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Susan Weaver

October sun

garter snakes pretzeled

on our lattice fence

among the vines . . .

where do you end and I begin?

the art of tanka, Fall/Winter, 2023

young runner

in late afternoon

the creek’s shimmer

reflecting how I ran here

forty years ago

red lights, January 2018

a grass spider

backs into the funnel

of her web . . .

the mysteries within

our hidden selves

Laurels #1, February 2024

no longer

the homeless cat

in our neighborhood

every night, all night

his warmth next to me

Laurels #3, February 2025

 Our warmest thanks, Susan, for sharing your tanka and your thoughts with us.

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TTH: Can you give any advice to someone wanting to write and publish tanka? As an editor what are you looking for in a tanka that makes it most likely to get published?

Susan Weaver: As editor of Ribbons (journal of the Tanka Society of America), I encourage reviewing our journal before submitting, but admittedly it's not online. However, TSA now has an online journal called Laurels, with a different guest editor for each issue. Although only members may submit to it, its three issues (published to date) are available free for all to read at https://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/laurels, I suggest reading that to see what we look for. Also, it's possible to locate the archives of our annual tanka contest on our website and read the winning and honorable mention tanka and the judges' commentary. We have different judges each year, so one can explore a range of tastes. https://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/tsa-contest. 

Ribbons submission guidelines are on the website. It's possible to buy a single issue of Ribbons at Amazon.com. Also, we offer a relatively new option of pdf memberships at lower cost than print memberships. Reading, and more reading, is key in learning to write tanka.

A key thing I look for in tanka is a sense/suggestion of the poet's feelings (showing preferred over telling), linked to some observation, either external or internal. What we call linking and shifting. Often an image from nature is juxtaposed to an observation of the human condition. Thus an effective tanka does more than simply describe. I also tend to prefer tanka that have authenticity and seem to come from the writer's experience.

How does the poem sound? Do words and phrases flow naturally, making good use of line breaks? Does the tanka leave room for the reader to draw on imagination and experience to help complete the story? Are there clues in the poem's imagery to help the reader intuit what's not been told?

We typically write tanka as five unrhymed lines of uneven lengths, often in a traditional pattern of short/long/short/long/long, but that is not required. We publish very few tanka in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern. I prefer fewer syllables, as sound units in English are longer than sound units in Japanese.

Finally, since I use a “rolling submissions” process, there’s an advantage in not waiting until close to the deadline to submit. The next deadline is June 30. See our website for deadlines for our tanka contest, and our special tanka prose contest celebrating TSA’s 25th anniversary. Both are free to enter.

Our warmest thanks to Susan for sharing her lovely tanka, tanka-prose, and for her thoughtful responses to our questions.

Biography: Susan Weaver became editor of Ribbons (journal of the Tanka Society of America) in 2021, after serving three years as tanka prose editor. She is a former feature writer and editor with special interests in cycling and active travel. Her eight years of staff experience at Bicycling magazine, where she became managing editor, were bookended with periods of freelancing. Between assignments, she taught as a poet in the schools, worked weekends at a shelter for victims of domestic violence, and explored local back roads on her bicycle. She also enjoyed bike travel in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. and wrote about it for Adventure Cyclist and other magazines. Much later, she discovered tanka and tanka prose. She lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with her artist/writer husband and two cats.

Challenge for this week:

The images in Susan’s tanka are striking, based on personal observation and experience. Hence, the unmistakable feeling of authenticity. Nothing is contrived or alluringly fabricated for the sake of effect.

After a sensitive and calm observation of something in nature comes a reflection on a certain relationship, on the intertwining of lives, on moments from her youth, on ‘the mysteries hidden within our hidden selves’, on the cherished warmth of a new-found pet, and so on.

Inspired by Susan Weaver’s lovely tanka, please write your own on any theme of your choice. Focus on the subtle transition from observation of something in nature or something ‘internal’ to ‘an observation of the human condition’.

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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 these themes too.

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.