President’s Message: Promoting Tanka

In the TSA Newsletter two years ago (II:2, Summer 2001), just before the Haiku North America conference in Boston, I wrote about the possibility of one day having a TSA tanka conference. Well, that day is now upon us. The Tanka Society of America’s first “Tanka Day” will take place on Monday, June 30, 2003, at the Collegiate School at 260 West 78th Street in New York City, immediately after the 2003 HNA conference. At this event, which is separate from HNA, we anticipate an enjoyable time of readings, presentations, discussion, and socialization with fellow tanka poets, and hope that this might become an annual get-together.

How quickly eight issues of this newsletter pass. Two years ago, when a TSA tanka conference was just a twinkle in our eyes, I wrote about the possibility of discussing the difference between tanka and haiku, tanka aesthetics, experiments with and around tanka, tanka sequences, tanka equivalents to senryu (kyoka), education issues, tanka on the Internet, tanka translations, tanka developments in Japan, and world tanka. We’ll be discussing several of these issues at our Tanka Day. William J. Higginson will start with “A Brief Tour Through 1,000 Years of Tanka and How It Got This Way (With Some Reference to Haiku Along the Way),” and this will help put us all on the same page regarding the history of this genre of poetry. Brian Tasker has prepared a paper entitled “Ripening Peach: Tanka as Theatre, Tanka as Ritual,” and will give us a British perspective on tanka. Pamela Miller Ness will take us on a practical journey, leading a workshop on punctuation in tanka. And I’ll be leading a discussion on defining tanka that I expect will generate much enthusiastic deliberation. (And for those of you who aren’t able to attend, see the brief essay I’ve written to stimulate discussion on this topic, “From Chord to Melody: Defining Tanka in English,” elsewhere in this newsletter.)

In addition to these subjects, many of the topics I proposed two years ago have been addressed in this newsletter, including tanka sequences and strings, variations on tanka, and some of the developments in Japan. It seems we could still give more attention to tanka aesthetics, education issues, tanka on the Internet, and world tanka. Anyone want to write an essay for our newsletter on one of these subjects?

By the time you read this, our Tanka Day will probably already be over, but look for a full report in the next newsletter. The event will also have readings of tanka (Laura Maffei, editor of American Tanka, will be one of the readers) and much more to hear about. I’m sorry more of you won’t be able to be there in person!

Promoting Tanka

One benefit of the TSA Tanka Day is that surely it will energize us, and perhaps attract a few new people to tanka. It seems to me we could all do more to promote tanka where we live. Perhaps you could propose having a special tanka meeting in your area. If there are no tanka poets in your town or city, how about proposing a tanka class or workshop, perhaps at local schools or colleges? If you’re a member of a local haiku group, how about suggesting that you have a tanka focus at one meeting? If you’re a member of some other kind of poetry group, try proposing a discussion and exploration of tanka, or perhaps hold a local tanka contest. Ask yourself what you can do to promote tanka. And if having copies of the new 2003 TSA brochure would help, please contact Marian Smith Sharpe (cat8853@webtv.net) or Michael Dylan Welch (welchm@aol.com) for a copy, or write to either of us, enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope. Or ask us for an original so you can make copies yourself. Better yet, point people to the TSA website at http://hometown.aol.com/tsapoetry/TankaSocietyofAmerica-index.html [find this content on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20050324024952/http://hometown.aol.com/TSAPoetry/TankaSocietyofAmerica-index.html], now improved and expanded to include 2003 TSA tanka contest results (and earlier results) and other information. Thanks once again to Jeanne Emrich for this work. In addition to contacts made by individual members, our website may now do more to attract new members and promote tanka than anything else. But why not give it some competition? Take a moment to ask yourself what you can do to promote tanka more in your area, not just to gain new members for TSA, but to help attract more people to writing and enjoying this poetry. Your enthusiasm for this poetry will help improve tanka appreciation where you live.

What’s in this Issue

I have been consistently delighted with the quantity, variety, and quality of material in each issue of the TSA Newsletter. This issue is no exception. Results from the 2003 TSA tanka contest are in. Congratulations to Sanford Goldstein who is not only a pioneer of tanka in English, but also first-place winner of this year’s TSA contest! Thanks to Marianne Bluger and Tom Clausen for serving as this year’s contest judges, and to Paul O. Williams for managing everything as contest coordinator. The number of submissions was down for this year’s contest—about half of last year’s—but perhaps that was because of the war in Iraq and the unimproved economy. I hope in 2004 we’ll have more submissions again. Start writing!

Regarding the war in Iraq, I am pleased to say that Nation Books has just published Poets Against the War, edited by Sam Hamill (I was also one of the editors of the larger body of poetry that appears on the website at www.poetsagainstthewar.org [this site now redirects to https://www.voicesinwartime.org/, or find the original site on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070626013526/http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/]). Congratulations to Karma Tenzing Wangchuk (also known as Dennis Dutton) for the following tanka that appears in the book:

After the rain,

she finds puddles

to jump in—

my child, knowing nothing

of the storms to come.

Elsewhere in the TSA Newsletter, in addition to the TSA contest results, is the second installment of Ce Rosenow’s focus on tanka written by Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest. And once again we have tanka selected from other publications by Pamela Miller Ness (I particularly enjoy the surprises Pamela always manages to find), “Favorite Tanka” columns by both Brian Tasker and Sanford Goldstein, and a new batch of your poems in Michael McClintock’s “Tanka Café” column.

Speaking of the Tanka Café, congratulations to the other Tanka Café, the Grand Central Station Tanka Café, the group that meets regularly in New York City, for the publication of its first group chapbook, Unrolling the Awning. Ordering information is listed later in this newsletter, and it’s a bargain. And speaking of books, don’t miss Sanford Goldstein’s review of William R. LaFleur’s important new book, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo.

Also look for the invitation to submit poems for the 2003 TSA members’ anthology, this year to be edited and produced by Karina Young from Salinas, California. The deadline is August 30, 2003, which will be upon us quickly, so get your ink flowing!

And while your pen is moving, how about writing a letter to the editor about poems or other newsletter material you like, about tanka news in your area (make some news!), or about something else you have an opinion on. Or send in a “Favorite Tanka” write-up or an article or book review—or share your thoughts on the matter of defining tanka (see my separate article).

There are many ways you can promote tanka. One of those ways is right here at home in the TSA Newsletter with your support of sending in news items, poems, and other material. But you can also promote tanka to others, and this is perhaps where tanka needs the most help. Tell others about TSA by sharing a newsletter or brochure or the TSA website address. With each of us making even just small efforts, the cumulative result will be real growth in appreciation for tanka poetry.

My best wishes to each of you for the summer season now upon us—or the winter, if you’re south of the equator.

—Michael Dylan Welch