THE BRITISH HAIKU SOCIETY AWARDS 2018 FOR TANKA
First Place Winner
without...
each evening seems even
longer
then it takes the river
to smooth a thousand stones
an'ya
an'ya's winning tanka immediately arouses our curiosity with its one-word mystery for Line One: "without..." The first thought for the reader may be to add the word "you" to this line, but upon reflection, there are many possibilities: the loss of one's self through illness or the loss of meaningful work, a family home, or beloved pet. So, a story all in one word, and a juxtaposition with the next four lines that not only describes how endless the grief of loss can be, but manages to tell us that it can wear one down to almost nothing. An outstanding tanka that harmonizes human emotion with not only a meaningful description of nature, but also includes the traditional Japanese tanka use of the word "thousand" for emphasis.--Linda Jeanette Ward, Judge
Honourable Mention - Linda Jeanette Ward, Judge
gibbous moon
the cosmos reposing
in its round
your body spoons a chair
that holds me to the bone
an'ya
Honourable Mention - Debbie Strange, Judge
spring raindrops
spreading into circles
on our lake
a pair of ember-geese
glide through eternity
an'ya
Honourable Mention - Debbie Strange, Judge
at boot camp
we were taught the art
of marching
I tap that cadence now
with a three-prong cane
an'ya
THE BRITISH HAIKU SOCIETY AWARDS 2020 FOR TANKA
Runner-up tanka:
one more time
on our favorite beach
together
you in your urn and me
in a lone state of mind
an'ya
My runner-up shocked me and made me grieve, its first haiku lines full of the warmth of a long relationship. And then the loss and loneliness on this familiar beach. It haunted me and stays with me. Only after choosing my shorter shortlist (27) did I analyze beyond the feeling impact – why, what made these good? I’m of the school that tanka are five lines balancing shorter and longer, but the 5- 7-5-7-7 syllabic count is a bygone. Meaningful economy is what matters – the poetic phrase. Each line, whether it is a single word or a full 7 syllables, must have importance, weight. Furthermore, I saw that the best tanka have a pivot, a key line somewhere that both anchors and opens the poem to further meaning. In the winner: ‘how rough it is’. In the runner-up, ‘together’. Among honourable mentions, the tanka ‘on the lip’ pivots in its penultimate line ‘begging to be freed’. I then considered words and sounds. Although my first call to a poem was its hit to my gut or heart, I found how words/sounds vastly contribute. Meaning is essential of course, but look at my winner. The hard ‘k’s’ – bark, black oak -- among the open ‘o’s’: oak, rough, foraging, forest, without. These sounds bind the poem, reinforce it. Similarly, in my runner-up, the ‘o’ and ‘u’ sounds of one, more, on, our, favorite, your, urn, lone.-Susan Lee Kerr, Judge