TANKA TAKE HOME - 23rd October 2024 | Marjorie Buettner

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

Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature!

poet of the month: Marjorie Buettner

23rd October

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

Making beds

Like the Pythagoreans who ward off the evil eye by smoothing the body's imprint on the bed, I find myself caught in rituals I do not quite understand. I only know I am compelled: making beds, burning incense, lighting candles where ever I go. I try to keep my family safe from harm, the sign of the cross never far from action.

after the snowfall

my children's angel prints

disappear

as if they were never here

as if I were never here

Haibun Today, May 2008

Cycle of Life

These spring nights are filled with the scent of blossoms opening. I can almost hear them in the dark while waiting for the promise of fireflies. Soon fish will be spawning on the lake and another cycle will have begun. I see the wide, white arc of their splashing bodies glimmer in the morning sun, catching life mid-air.

my granddaughter's skin

as soft as butterfly wings

or rose petals

alive now against all odds

I bow to the gods in her

CHO, 2013, Volume 9, Number 3

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

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.

Marjorie: Favorite Tanka poets:  Michael McClintock, an'ya, Pamela A. Babusci, Maria Steyn, Claire Everett, Margaret Dornaus, Tom  Clausen. I also write haiku, haibun and sijo (a Korean form). My favorite book is Jane Hirshfield's Nine Gates and Ink Dark Moon, Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu.

More about Marjorie:

Marjorie Buettner, American Pushcart Prize–nominated, award-winning haiku, haibun, tanka, and sijo poet. Her work has been published throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. and won prizes in the James W. Hackett International Award for Haiku (2000 and 2003) the Harold G. Henderson Awards (2002, 2004, 2007, and 2011), the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award (2003, 2004, 2005), the Robert Frost Poetry Festival (2008 and 2009), and the Kusamakura Haiku Competition (2006), among others. She has taught haiku and tanka at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and presented poetry workshops throughout Minnesota. She is a former editor for the online journal Contemporary Haibun Online and frequently writes book reviews for haiku and tanka journals. Seeing It Now, a collection of haiku and tanka, appeared in 2008; her collection of haibun, Some Measure of Existence (2014), won first place in the Mildred Kanterman Merit Book Awards and was also nominated for the Minnesota Book Awards. Buettner lives in Chisago City, Minnesota.

Are you inspired?

Challenge for this week:

This week, we have two beautiful tanka-prose that explore the otherworldly—the unexplained. Marjorie’s way with words is truly enchanting. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these poems. Your challenge for the week is TRADITIONS. Interpret it as you like. Mostly, have fun!

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.