Three Tan-renga from “Tanka Day”

She keeps trying

to cross the street, mother

with two toddlers—

                Penny Harter

The Age of Innocence

falls from her diaper bag

                Michael Dylan Welch

                ~     ~     ~

there is time

for one more

question

                John Stevenson

do I dare

disturb the universe?

                Michael Dylan Welch

                ~     ~     ~

long business lunch—

I lick the fork again

for a faint taste of blueberries

                Michael Dylan Welch

the deal is sealed

with our handshake

                John Stevenson

Tanka Day Tan-renga

At the TSA Tanka Day, a lunch-time assignment was for all attendees to write tan-renga together. A tan-renga is the same length as a tanka, but collaboratively written by two people, much like the first two verses of a renku (the hokku and the wakiku), where the second verse links with the first, yet shifts away in some manner. After the lunch break, we held a round reading of the many tan-renga that everyone wrote. The following is a selection of these collaborative poems, as submitted by the participants. As a variation on tanka, and in the spirit of collaboration, you might want to try writing tan-renga with other poets.

—Michael Dylan Welch