2008 TANKA SPLENDOR AWARDS
First Place Winner
last night
Muscovy ducks floated
through my dreams . . .
this morning, I swallow back
an unsung love song
Michael L. Evans
one night
wearing a dark robe
hooded
I will slip silently
into your scarlet dreams
Michael L. Evans
some days
being bored with myself
I wonder
could a saber-dueling scar
be the missing piece?
Michael L. Evans
Winners with Two Poems
just when I think
you have forgotten about me
at the front door
two punnets of strawberries
and a smiley face post-it
Trish Fong
under the bed
my geisha doll’s hand
months later
after the earthquake
I make time to write tanka
Trish Fong
All Souls' Day.
A late butterfly comes down
on your tombstone;
I wonder if loneliness
can be felt in your world too.
Frans Terryn
That May afternoon
when you told me so proudly
that you were pregnant,
all at once a sunbeam pierced
the greyish blanket of clouds.
Frans Terryn
who among us
will not survive today?
a caterpillar
stretches across the abyss
between my fingers
Collin Barber
a candle nearly
drowning its flame —
I blow it out
and watch the wax harden
my loneliness
Collin Barber
knowing my place
in this world
is only temporary . . .
and yet the path taken
by this yellow butterfly
John Barlow
the great blue
hunched over the creek . . .
a chill wind
lifts the corners
of my old regrets
John Barlow
frozen
still green leaves
on the ground
how can I go on
into old age without you
c w hawes
all alone walking
through the woods on a path
little used
the autumn wind comes
to hold my empty hand
c w hawes
sometimes
you can have too much
of a good thing
a plum branch breaks
under its own weight
André Surridge
maybe
there’s no right or wrong
just what is...
a fork in the road
without a signpost
André Surridge
an exit missed
more than a few miles back–
I look down the road
for the right occasion
to tell you how lost I feel
Darrell Lindsey
stacks of chopped wood
in the rearview mirror
I see my father
with an axe in his hands
that last September evening
Darrell Lindsey
not realizing
how much we have aged
I wander the supermarket
looking for someone
wearing your coat
John Soules
rose petals drop
on the patio
in the distance
you raise a glass
with someone else
John Soules
Winners with One Poem
studying Basho
in the poetry workshop
all we bright green frogs
think ours will be the ker-plunk
that stirs the old pond
Gerald George
another night
of being ignored by you . . .
over the lake
the last firefly
winks out
Kathy Lippard Cobb
greeting dawn
with our urgent cries
trumpeter swans
fly low against the sky
your hands warm and fleet
Trish Shields
the leaves browning
and the kids off to school –
these days it takes
a little less shampoo
to wash my hair
Michael Dylan Welch
my finger
traces the edge
of her lips
around the curve
a new adventure
H. Gene Murtha
the ebbing tide
has reached its low
your breath
comes slower and slower
tonight the tide will not turn
Elaine Riddell
once again
I hope without reason
that she will come…
the interweaving
of peacock butterflies
Matthew Paul
what have we done
so that on a winter day
a cherry tree
its bough laden with white blooms
is the only snow we have
Joseph Kleponis
my father's ashes
lie under a summer moon
in stillness
even the crickets
are quiet
Don Baird
young men
so brightly plumed
for battle
and death rattles windows
of our unborn sons
Joe Christensen
after the move
grandpap pulls on the boots
he toiled in each day
soil from the farm
still trapped in creased leather
Linda Jeannette Ward
.
the memory of her
on the bed beside me
snoring softly
I can't bear to love
another dog that much
Jerome Cushman
in frangipani breezes
along the white-walled
Key West street
a cat moves and with it
part of the night
Barry George
feeling alone
going to a restaurant
to find cheer
and introduced as
a party of one
Cheryl Rosenkrans
I just remember
her old wish to have a pond
with water lilies –
in my tea a single star
heavier and heavier
Eduard Tara
garden Buddha
stands knee deep in dead leaves
once again
plans for the year
have gone astray
Joanne Morcom
.
in the end,
it comes down to
the inadequacy of poets . . .
tiny blue flowers
unnoticed in the grass
M. Kei
Sequences
FATHERS & DAUGHTERS
Pamela A. Babusci
my father now 91
and quite frail...
all his failures
as a parent
melting away
remembering
my father was abused
by his father...
i cook pasta and sauce
to bring over to him
before he passes
i must forgive
all he did and didn't do...
these autumn winds
humble me to pray
a heart can break
yet, a heart can heal...
i sort through
my father's
childhood photos
LOCKET
Julie Thorndyke
Beverley George
the glass eye
of the sea turtle
beneath their hall table
these grandparents
had no trouble keeping order
a marcasite brooch
in her oval trinket box
and a short string
of Woolworths pearls . . .
the doors unlocked at night
cat’s eye glasses
with mid-blue frames
to one side
the crochet hook looping
bright colours into blankets
a skein of wool
wound from outstretched wrists
their aching eased
by gran’s whispered tales
of our god-fearing neighbours
helping to dust
beneath each oval doily
putting back
the white swan vase
just so
gathering eggs
from protesting chooks
into a tin basin
I hold the brown ones
longer in my hand
threading
the darning needle
to save her eyes
as we watch the road
for mum to come home
cracking almonds
on the dished stone step –
peacocks
around her best nut bowl
as remote to us as rajahs
ride a cock horse
on the front verandah
too little and too old
we were always waiting
for the sound of pop’s car
the oval teapot
he earned for being kind –
grandfather’s story
polished for my daughter
as we clean family silver
child hands lug
a misshapen bucket
of coal and kindling
to her small fire
burning behind mica
never knowing
until after she had died
the sterling locket
she always wore
held photographs of us
LONELY
miriam chaikin
what was to flow
flowed
what was to stand
stood
life would beget itself
the creation completed
that day was good
it hummed with order
content, Maker
sat back to rest
all life rejoiced
skies hummed
with gladness
the earth clapped
seas roared
a thousand angel voices
filled seven heavens
with sweet
songs of praise
singing
great
is the Maker
and great are his works
the whole world
is full of his glory
the two humans
Maker’s favorite creation
idled in the shade
giggling
and making sport
THE DREAMER
Ann Eustace
The commoner comes
Her wooden thongs a-clatter
Will the Prince see her?
She eyes the Chrysanthemum Throne
In dreams it may become hers.
She eyes her roses
Splendor myriad colors
Perfume delicate
Her garden is so royal
She knows she is a princess
Silky scarlet
Her kimono fits her body
Molded to each inch
It must captivate the Prince
As every bit she wishes
AFTERWORDS
The Tanka Splendor Awards Contest is free and open to every one. Participants may enter up to three single entries or one sequence. This year, the nineteenth, there were 264 single entries and eight sequences – one of which was a collaborative linked tanka poem.
The contest is judged by the participants while viewing all the poems without names at a designated website and then e-mailing in their choices. Each judge could pick up to 31 individual poems and three sequences.
Michael L. Evans was the only person to have all three of his tanka receiving enough votes to be in the top 31. There were eight authors who had two of their tanka among the winners. Because there were several poems with 12 votes, the cut-off point, there are sixteen winners with one poem.
In the sequences there was also a tie for third place. The sequences are placed in the order of the number of votes they received. The individual tanka are placed according to a linkage subject matter or tone.
The Tanka Splendor Awards contest was created with the idea of showcasing what is being written as tanka in this year and what the writers themselves find to be the best work of their contemporaries.
Most years the female writers sweep the awards, but this year, for a reason no one can explain, 26 of the winning individual poems were written by men and only eight were by women. In the section for sequences however, all the winning poems were by women.
Plans are underway to make the twenty-year anniversary contest even more special. The contest will be open for your submissions after June 1, 2009.
Poems and text are Copyright © Designated Authors 2008.
Tanka Splendor Awards Copyright © AHA Books 2008.
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