Ribbons, Volume 20, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2024

prairie nights

and fields upon fields

of stars . . .

they say my sister

is up there somewhere

Note: this issue also contains the judges' commentary for the following awarded poem in the 2024 TSA Tanka Contest, accessed under the tag "Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest":

an arbutus

sheds its outer bark . . .

my skin

is the only thing

holding me together

Honourable Mention

 

Tanka Society of America - Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contst, 2024

My thanks to the judges, Vandana Parashar and Reid Hepworth, for selecting the following tanka for this year's contest:

an arbutus

sheds its outer bark . . .

my skin

is the only thing

holding me together

Honourable Mention

2024 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

Judges' Comments:

This tanka poignantly captures the fragility and resilience of human existence. The shedding of the arbutus tree's bark mirrors the poet's own vulnerability and a sense of raw survival, hence suggesting a deep connection with nature.

Ribbons, Volume 19, Number 3, Fall 2023

Windswept

spear grass

pins this hillock

to the prairie . . .

these family graves

tended my magpies

sorrow

flourishes inside

my chest,

taking root as if to say

it means to stay awhile

Note: an'ya and I judged the 2023 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Competition, and the results and our commentaries are included in this issue.

Tinywords, Issue 19.1, May 2019

Note: this tanka received 1st Place in the 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

Ribbons, Volume 14, Number 3, Fall 2018

the ocean
was in a rage last night
but today,
these peace offerings
of blue mussels and kelp

1st Place, 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest


on this night
of our awareness,
the aurora
brushes an ensō
across lake and sky

Honourable Mention, 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest


wheat fields
tousled by fingers
of wind
I tuck a strand of hair
behind your ear

Honourable Mention, 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest


Note: The judges' commentaries for the above winning tanka appear under the label
"Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest".

a tulip

overwhelmed with rain . . .

tomorrow,

I will straighten my stem

and turn toward the sun

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, July 2018

Theme: Oceans of Our Lives


Listen to the ocean's roar in our Poetry Corner today. Now in Europe, we come to the Atlantic, the ocean of my childhood, from the Pacific, where home is in California. In traveling, our view is expanded. In the small shells of each of our lives, all the oceans are contained; the past and future of all living things in concert with these waves. On July 6, 2018 I was able to present to an appreciative musical audience at our beachside Atlantic Sunset poetry program in Portugal (at the ANIMUSIC conference), the first place tanka in the Sanford Goldstein International Contest of the Tanka Society of America:


the ocean
was in a rage last night
but today,
these peace offerings
of blue mussels and kelp

Debbie Strange, Canada


We are alone and together with our gifts. Poets receiving and giving the gifts of nature, their muse.

—Kathabela Wilson

Tanka Society of America - 19th Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest, 2018

the ocean
was in a rage last night
but today,
these peace offerings
of blue mussels and kelp

1st Place

Judges' Comments:

The word, rage, has a long, storied history in literature ... it is a universal emotion and, for sure, people have long experienced the rage of the ocean. How excellent we thought was its use in line 2, rather than using a word such as storm. We admired the use of a simple comma at the end of line 3 to give the reader a short pause to allow a moment to ponder, "What's next?" Ah, there is a resolution to the last night. Today? A peace offering to which we felt an "aah" moment. How welcome is the bounty. There is an infinity of treasures found in the ocean. We found the blue mussels and kelp a delightful choice made by this poet. In our judges' report, we touched upon reciting tanka to take in its sound. You might not choose to read out loud all nine of the awarded tanka, but this one, in particular, lends itself to deeper appreciation with its pivot at the end of line 3. You might experience tranquility with lines 4 and 5. We did.


on this night
of our awareness,
the aurora
brushes an ensō
across lake and sky

Honourable Mention

Judges' Comments:

This tanka offered a wonderful visual image of sky artistry in the shape of the Zen form of the brush-stroked circle known as ensō. The circle, of course, has been a time-immemorial symbol of Life with no beginning and no end. Reading this tanka did, in fact, provide both judges a moment of awareness. The poet asks us to imagine a transition from night to the first light of dawn when anything is possible. There is magic in the transcendence gifted by this tanka.


wheat fields
tousled by fingers
of wind
I tuck a strand of hair
behind your ear

Honourable Mention

Judges' Comments:

This tanka brought out the romance of life expressed in gentle moments, and oh how gently we are brought into this scene. In this poem, love is in wind and wheat, love is expressed by tucking hair with hands. While we sat in the presence of this poem, it allowed each of us to feel this sacred moment of love, and to reflect on our symbols of affection and tenderness. For us, we ultimately fell into a moment of appreciation and quietude.


Note: There were 476 entries to the contest. I am grateful to Jessica Malone Latham and Neal Whitman for their generous commentaries.

Ribbons, Volume 14, Number 1, Winter 2018

I await
the rain's clemency . . .
there is a time
for all withered things
to bloom again


light spills
through a fallstreak hole
onto water . . .
if nothing else,
this will be enough


Honourable Mention
2017 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

Tanka Society of America - 18th Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest, 2017

Honorable Mention


light spills
through a fallstreak hole
onto water . . .
if nothing else,
this will be enough


Judges' Comments:

Finally, we chose "light spills" for its classical beauty and sense of the ethereal in terms of style and theme. A fallstreak hole is a large gap in certain cumulus clouds that occurs when supercooled water droplets meet up with ice crystals; what a sight that relatively rare phenomenon must be for the narrator. She literally sees the light pouring onto a body of water below (water being symbolic in its own right). She also figuratively "sees the light," the hole representing "a break in the clouds" for her (possibly in the form of a much-needed answer or relief from a pressing matter). Perhaps, even more spectacularly, the narrator experiences a breakthrough in terms of a spiritual quest—a glimpse of heaven that, if need be, "will be enough."

—Janet Lynn Davis and James Chessing

(note: there were 650 entries to the contest)