Gina is Hungarian born in South Africa now living in Tasmania with a cat, an outdoor fish pond, a peacock that visits and a garden where roses support tomatoes and various peppers grow among perennials. She is an award winning artist with works in collections around the world and since discovering poetry in 2005 has over 60 poems published in 21 journals (online and in print) such as Lynx, The Herons Nest, Modern English Tanka, moonset, 3lights gallery, Ribbons, Simply Haiku, Haibun Today, Tasmanian Times, Burst and Haigaonline, amongst others.1) Why do you write tanka?
I love the form. I found it while in the midst of discovering, learning and struggling with haiku. After 3 years and many haiku published i still find it a difficult form for me, but i like its discipline. With tanka I begin with that haiku discipline forcing myself to be observant and steeped in everyday language until the pivot line and then i bring in the poetic, the emotion. I love the pivot line and use pivot words often too ... i love the use of line breaks and sometimes poetic devices aiming for the emotion.
2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
i write free verse which takes me much longer - sometimes months but i recognise my short form experience in them and spend time hunting down the right phrase, word, observed image or emotion. The challenge is not to become a diary entry. I write senryu, haiku, tanka, cinquain and I LOVE haibun and most recently i have come to love and be published in haiga - a perfect culmination of my art pursuits and words ...
3) Of the many wonderful tanka you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide publication credits.)
hmmm let me see ...
distant thunder
tall gum trees perfectly still
before the storm
i waited, as promised
and watched the tide ebb away
Ribbons - March 2006
~
our dreams grow
grey among the flotsam
and dead fish
lying on the rocks
with clouds in their eyes
3lightsgallery jan-march 2008
~
under leafless boughs
forget-me-nots self seed
with vigour
after all this time
do i still cross your mind ?
Modern English Tanka January 2007
If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Gina answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.
Desiree McMurry will be our guest next week.
4 comments:
Hi Gina,
Enjoyed your tanka!
I particularly liked "with clouds in their eyes" despite the sombre subject.
Alan
With Words
.
as an editor I hate the use of "and" and I love "and"
And I have followed you work sine
you have joined the Haiku commity.
hey you two ... thanks for leaving the comments ... I appreciate your letting me know you enjoyed them Alan, thank you ! I have a few photos of a very very large fish (type unknown to me) with gaping mouth and that cloudy eye look that i hauled up onto some rocks to photograph against a cloudy sky ... so the phrase seemed to be everywhere at the time (although it did take an eon to filterate from my 'pen')
Dear Gene ... :) ... thank you ... i write as i speak and i love lots of things ... happy for you, as editor, to edit as you see fit to tidy up ...
lovely as always to have you commenting ... and yes yes i know you have been following my poetic pathway which i appreciate muchly (now there is a highly editable word - but i love it !) ...
:) >>> Gina
and my thank you to one or two who have contacted me in email ... so much appreciated ...
also, a special thanks to Curtis for running this most interesting exercise ... (dare i say i love it?) :) >>> Gina
Post a Comment