Tanka Class - Take Two!

 I have signed up for an online tanka poetry class which is now in the beginning session. 

The facilitator/guru teacher is Alan Summers, https://www.callofthepage.org/

This is my second tanka class with him, Take Two! His structure is very appealing to me. I also recall a haiku class with Call of the Page. He is based in England.

We have a week to submit our first tanka with his invaluable prompts and explanations.

Hence, I begin developing a short commentary on "hair." My response is to be no more than 120 words.

From these thoughts I am to write a five-line tanka.

                                   *                    *                  *                  *                  *

Commentary:

This morning as I journaled I created a list of thoughts referring to my decision to not color my hair anymore. This decision was made shortly after the devastating flood July 4th here in The Hill Country of Kerrville, Texas.

• impermanence of everything (referring to losing all in the July 4th flooding of my home, contents of the home, piano and music, looms and weavings, all books, all papers, all, all, all......
• my reality is that my hair is gray
• my non reality is to color my hair
• living in my reality now
• connect my losses with the loss of image, the loss of "false image(s)"
• no longer have I heard "you don't look like 82," even when my hair was blondish or brown, covering all the gray
• accept others' perceptions that yes, my face displays 82 years of life
• when I decided to stop coloring my hair was after the flood
• perhaps I do not feel in control of my life, feel vulnerable, why bother to control my hair color
• has my self- expression changed? 
• how does this flood experience relate to never coloring my hair again?

I have written 190 words!  I shall condense and tighten up the list.

Why do I like tanka? It has an "emotional nuance," Alan says. Unlike haiku one can be emotionally transparent and feelings are not only acceptable, but encouraged.  I have learned that the middle line can be a pivot line. I also learned somewhere that the first three lines should be able to stand alone and the third, fourth and fifth lines likewise. I am not sure if that is a "must" or a mere possibility.

Here is a tanka I found in my google docs that I wrote.

egret white wings

brushing

a sacred space

above the water

yet below the sky

(joanconnor spring 2024)