Climate Change: The Burning Issue

Fires ravaged vast areas of land across Australia during the last few months of 2019, and well into the start of 2020. Amanda D'costa, David Terelinck, and I felt that we could create awareness of what is happening around us through tanka. Numerous poets around the world joined in and supported our cause. During the months of February and March 2020, we raised a total amount of $1365 AUD ($880.97 USD). Thank you for your wonderful and wholehearted support. This amount has been donated to Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, in New South Wales, Australia. 

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thank you to all who have supported this contest and fundraiser by way of tanka and donations.

The winners of this contest went above and beyond in terms of quality, extending the metaphor and the inferred emotion. Click the link to find the results. 

Where Tanka Prose Grows 2019 (First Place)

I still can't believe that I won first place! I had two tanka written for the prose and I keep changing my mind. Too bad I can never know if I still would have won if I submitted the other tanka. Thank you so much to Amanda DCosta and Susan Burch for organizing this contest every year. 

Hope you enjoy my first attempt in submitting to this contest!

Eclipsed

     As soon as my eyes are closed, I’m swept into a library of dusty memories. The heaviest book from my crammed bookshelf easily slips between my hands. I’ve no choice because it opens itself and I’m instantly wearing my green and white uniform. Over and over, I stumble on the same sentences. I grasp for more words from a poem which I know I’ve memorized a hundred times. Nothing comes back to me. All I can gather are beads of sweat.

Then I miss the bus. Or did I just ride the wrong bus? Someone is waiting for me at home. He's now pacing back and forth while I’m going around in circles. Should I call and say I’m running late? Why can’t I remember anybody’s phone number?

I scurry in and out of shopping malls. Where’s the red dress I saw the other day? I rummage through a stack of clothes bins and squiggle my way deep into the bottom. Deeper…Deeper… Before I know it, I find myself running to a bus stop. I’m so relieved to see four-wheel vehicles leading to somewhere… But where is home? I try to fly. I know I could fly at one time. Maybe this time I would.

“What’s happening here? Why am I at the wrong side of the freeway? I’m going back to Oroville!!! We are supposed to be on our way to Sacramento?” his voice an octave higher.

I wake up from a haze, wondering which one isn’t real. 

a spiral

winding to the center

of a moon shell . . .

that time when I lived 

in a world of paper dolls

***Comment by contestants: This is an interesting tanka prose that presents a dreamlike state to the reader. The title and tanka work too.   I like the fact that the title has more than one meaning. I am not sure the last line of the prose is needed. One quibble is I was distracted by the several question-mark sentences in the second paragraph.

Click the link here to the website so you can see the other winners and enjoy their tanka prose as well.

Prizes for Winning the Annual Tanka Contest 2017

     I feel so blessed! As the 1st prize winner of the Annual Tanka Contest 2017 at Mandy's Pages, I did not only receive $100 cash but also these wonderful gifts. Thank you so much, Amanda Mittra Dcosta, Debbie Strange, and Pamela A. Babusci!

     Two years ago, I won first place. I received $100, a bag, a certificate, and a bunch of poetry books. Amanda always make sure that there are tons of prizes. Why don't you check out the contest next year and consider submitting? Most probably, I will be judging again since I won this year. :-)

First place, Annual Tanka Contest 2015

     Before I start updating this blog, let me share this advance birthday gift. :-)

 

     Thank you so much to Amanda D'Costa of Mandy's Pages and to the two distinguished judges, Claire Everett and David Terelinck.

 



Judging Report by Claire Everett and David Terelinck

 

Thank you to Amanda D’Costa for asking us to judge the 2015 Annual Tanka Contest for Mandy’s Pages. We are honoured to have been entrusted with this role of reading and selecting winners and short-listed entrants from a field of 108 tanka. 

 

When submitting tanka to competitions it is always important for entrants to have a solid grasp of what a tanka is. Just because a short poem has five lines does not automatically make it a tanka. This genre has a rich background that has defined what tanka is today. Unfortunately many of the submissions to this contest fell short of being tanka in a number of criteria. Equally, some strong tanka with vivid imagery might have been placed in this competition were it not for a misplaced word or poorly thought-out line breaks. 

 

As judges we were always looking for poetry within the poem. This means the cadence and rhythm of the writing, lyrical word usage, appropriate imagery, fresh metaphors and a new way of expressing emotion. A key criteria for these judges has always been show, don’t tell. We looked for tanka that started and finished strongly and did not trail away in the last lines. Too many tanka fell victim of cliché, or started beautifully, only to fall flat with an unimaginative image, emotion or observation as juxtaposition. Tanka that was topical, relevant and contemporary, yet showed respect to centuries of history that have preceded us, also rated highly in our deliberations. 

 

First place went to an outstanding tanka that was lyrical and suggestive. There was a true understanding of the poetic use of language to create an image and understated emotive layer No overt feeling is mentioned and it is left to the reader to define the effect of these words as they journey with this tanka.

 

1st place

 

his stand

on chemotherapy . . .

a bluebird’s cry

nestles in the palm

of sunrise 

 

The tanka employs usual metaphor and imagery in the last three lines. There is much room for interpretation as to whether this belief in cytotoxic therapy is supported or denied. Is this the bluebird of happiness and hope . . . or is this the blueness we associate with sadness and pending loss? The reader has plenty of space to ruminate on the possible interpretations of this tanka. Are we to think that the subject of the poem has changed his mind, or does the voice of the poem wish, or hope, that he will? Subtle allusions to the medical setting add strength to this tanka when one considers the alternative meaning of ‘stand’; the cry of the ‘bird in the hand’ is also reminiscent of the motto and calls to mind the medication that might be sustaining life, and hope. The image “nestling in the palm of sunrise” is striking and it is possible the poet meant that the outcome of this choice literally rests in the hands of god? 

 

     To read more, here's the link.