an'ya - Three Questions (Tanka)

an'ya has been published numerous times, placed in and judged many contests. She is currently the HSA Regional Coordinator for the state of Oregon. She also practices the art of suiseki and exhibits stones with haiku and tanka. The photo is of an'ya and her friend Cynthia Timar taken at the Bend Haiku Weekend this past June.

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1) Why do you write tanka?

I write tanka because on occasion there is a need to express more emotion than will go into a haiku. I enjoy the fact that tanka is a very old form and I like its rhythmic feeling.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haiku of course comes first for me, but I'm also a published mainstream poet. I have written everything from epic poems to pattern poems, and probably everything in-between before I settled on the Japanese forms.

3) Of the many wonderful tanka you’ve written, what do you consider to be your top three?

Well there are 2 familiar ones that everyone else seemed to like (which I never want to hear again ):


cold cemetery
the long sleeves of your old coat
warm my fingertips
even from beyond this grave
you manage to comfot me



old memories
like tangled fish hooks
impossible
to pick up only one
without all the others



but my personal favorite is this one:


midsummer's eve
underneath a rose moon
I'll wait for you
until my hands are bloodied
from holding back the dawn

an'ya

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haiku or tanka - to the three questions that an'ya answered. You must be a published poet to participate.