Tanka Society of America Publication

 

As a member of the Tanka Society of America, submitting poetry to their annual journal, Ribbons, was a must! I love so much about what they do for the Japanese poetry community and was ecstatic when they reached out to let me know that my tanka (above) was going to be published in Ribbons Vol. 19 (which you can purchase here on Amazon!)

A big thanks to them for including me, and to anyone who hasn't read Ribbons yet but loves tanka, I can definitely recommend it.

About the tanka:
I don't write as much tanka as I do haiku and freestyle poetry, but this one was inspired by a photograph I saw of someone purposefully leaving room for a loved one they were grieving the loss of. Looking back on old childhood pictures, I am always reminded of the people who are no longer with me or those I wished had been present in that moment. It's that constant tension of feeling sad in moments of joy too.