Short and (Not Always) Sweet: An Introduction to Japanese Tanka

Instructor:  Kyle D. Craig
Date: Sunday, March 12
Time: 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Location: IWC
Cost: $75 Nonmembers, $48 members, $42 student members/teacher members/senior members/military members/librarian members

The Japanese tanka means “poem song.” It is a five line lyrical poem often composed of 31 or fewer syllables, and dates back more than 1,200 years. The best tanka, it has been written, seek to harmonize the writer’s emotional life and the elements of the outer world used to portray it. Take these three tanka, for instance, by modern British writer Claire Everett*:

they say, when dying

our hearing is the last

sense to fade…

love, speak my name and I’ll fall

like frost through yellow leaves
the manicured lawn

and a boot-scrape by the door –

so meticulous

even when you walk

all over me
is this the place?

your breath on my spine

as you lift up my hair…yes

here, where the twining birches

bend to touch the stream

As you can see, tanka is a short form that is able to say a lot in a few words. In this class, we will examine the history, elements, and techniques of writing tanka, as well as related forms such as tanka sequences, response tanka, tan renga, and tanka prose. Participants will also learn where one can publish their own tanka. Come and see why many writers believe tanka to be a very fun and pleasure form to work within.

*Used with permission, these poems first appeared in The Small, Wild Places by Claire Everett, Skylark Publishing, 2015.