Today, I’m writing a poetry review of Chris Hall‘s tankas in the poetry anthology Sunflower Tanka.
If you’re unfamiliar with the tanka form of poetry, here’s a quick summary:
Terminology for tanka and tanka related poems
A tanka is a poem of five lines and all the words make up 31 syllables. This tanka is a basic building block, which can be built into a rensaku, tanka Puente or tanka prose.
A rensaku is a collection of tanka which are written about a same event or same experience.
A tanka Puente is two tankas. The first tanka is about the best moment of an event/ experience. The second tanka is about the worst moment of that same event.
A tanka prose is composed of a short paragraph setting the scene, followed by a tanka giving more details about this same setting.
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Now for the review.
Chris is online at lunas-online.com . For this anthology, she has contributed five tanka prose pieces. They are about Spring, Early Summer, Late Summer, Autumn and Winter. Her poetry of nature talks of how relationships between flora, fauna and insects are closely intertwined with seasons. I saw vivid imagery through the poet’s eyes in South Africa. I enjoyed reading Chris’ five tankas.
Reference
Sunflower Tanka. Into The Light – 1st Edition 2024. Compiled by Robbie Cheadle & Colleen M. Chesebro.
