President’s Message: Constant Change

Change is in the air, just as surely as the falling leaves and the first falls of snow. As 2001 draws to a close, we are all changed in various ways. The September 11 terrorist attacks have obviously changed us deeply, and the tragedy’s unsubtle ripples will continue to affect us all our lives—and may, on occasion, find voice in our poetry. For better or worse, perhaps we now all write out of a sharpened angst, a greater urgency, or at least a clearer perspective that does not take loved ones and life so much for granted.

Change is afoot in the Tanka Society of America as well, though of a different kind. Most of the society’s officers have agreed to continue in their present positions, for which I’m grateful, but we do have two changes. First, I wish to extend my gratitude, on behalf of all TSA members, to Paul O. Williams and Job Conger for their work for the society since its inception—they have helped build a solid nest for our fledgling organization. I’m pleased to welcome Michael McClintock as vice president and Linda Jeannette Ward as secretary for 2002. I now look forward to the involvement of Michael and Linda with other officers as TSA learns to fly in 2002. And special thanks to Pamela Babusci for being willing to coordinate the TSA tanka contest for 2002, too!

Another change is an increase in TSA membership dues. As you have hopefully noticed, our quarterly newsletter is growing in size (as well as substance). The cost of extra pages, inserts, increased mailing costs, and other incidental expenses necessitates a judicious raise in dues. Here’s the TSA dues structure for 2002 (in U.S. funds):

United States: 1 year: $12 2 years: $22

Canada: 1 year: $14 2 years: $26

Elsewhere: 1 year: $17 2 years: $32

We have now shifted to a calendar-year renewal system, so TSA membership renewal payments are now due for every member (unless you’ve already paid for 2002). Hereafter, all memberships will expire in December and need to be renewed then or early in the new year. You’ll find a renewal form elsewhere in this issue. This issue also includes a current TSA membership list (something we’ll be publishing annually), and you can see that our numbers look to have decreased, but much of this is because about sixty members currently need to renew and are thus not listed in the current membership list. So please renew so our membership numbers can be beefed up again!

Some of the changes in TSA you’ve already seen in these pages. In recent months, your officers have been discussing ways to improve the newsletter, and we trust you’ve already enjoyed one addition in the new “Tanka Café” feature that debuted in the previous issue, spearheaded by Michael McClintock. This column is designed to involve all members and to encourage improved tanka writing with commentary about some of the poems. This is deliberately an unedited feature (unless a poem is not written on the assigned topic or unless we receive too many entries to print), and is deliberately unranked (no prizes or voting for favorites). Rather, we want to encourage both our new and experienced tanka writers to participate equally. You can read and decide for yourself which poems you like best, although limited commentary is provided on a few of the poems. The next theme, with an in-hand deadline of February 1, 2002, is “sons and daughters.” In the wake of September 11, and after the holiday season, I believe this is a particularly ripe topic.

You’ve already seen, too, the poems that editor Pamela Miller Ness quotes from other sources in her “This Tanka World: Editor’s Choice” selection. This feature helps us connect with other publications, contests, and poets by sharing tanka from various sources. We also have more articles and other commentary and are even open to letters to the editor—chime in if you’d like! And do check out some of the articles in this issue, especially the Personal Choice tanka selection by Naomi Brown and Cathy Drinkwater Better’s personal story with a delightful tanka connection.

We have more book reviews, too, which are an important way to mark the unfolding history of tanka in English. It is good, I believe, for book reviews to be honest and fair, to celebrate successes, yet also to assert high standards for the art and craft of tanka. Indeed, I believe tanka poetry in English could atrophy badly without some measure of rigorous and balanced criticism and self-assessment. For the larger poetry scene to better respect and appreciate tanka, we must assess and improve ourselves with kind and fair appraisal from within. I do not believe we can improve if we fail to discuss our art, set high standards and flexible goals for our poetry, and assess our progress in reaching those goals and in improving our art.

Another new feature in the newsletter is a small one, but one that I hope some of you might take turns contributing to—writing about favorite tanka. I’ll be looking after this feature, and seek brief discussions of published tanka that you propose are exemplary tanka in English. Many tanka may have personal meaning for some people, but I’d like contributions to this column to move beyond just personal reactions to address issues of art and craft and to briefly make a case for why a poem is exemplary—what does the tanka achieve, how does it do it, and what are the varieties of methods one can use to write effective tanka? If you have a favorite tanka write-up, please send it to me at WelchM@aol.com or to P.O. Box 4014, Foster City, California 94404-0014 USA.

News and contest announcements (and contest results) continue to strengthen our newsletter. If you have news items, a book to recommend, or learn of a tanka contest that TSA members should know about, please send information to the editor. Since TSA does not have national meetings, membership involvement takes place primarily in the pages of this newsletter, so please do participate in all the ways you can. Every three months there’s always something new happening—a new book or anthology published, a new tanka contest (don’t forget the TSA contest coming up in April!), new ideas about tanka, and always news poems and new poets. TSA is here to celebrate all of these changes.

In addition to national and international political news that can change us profoundly, I believe poetry changes us, too. It changes us in the way we see the details of life, the nuances of feeling and sensitivity and awareness, the perspectives and attitudes that make life worth celebrating. We can all be changed by writing tanka, and I hope we might all change each other for the better. Change is constant, so we might as well do our best to change for the better.

—Michael Dylan Welch