Saturday, March 16, 2024

Poetic Musings: Prize Quilt Tanka by Carmen Sterba

an Amish woman
dressed in grey
her heartsong
in the vivid colours
of her prize quilt

Eucalypt, 8, 2010

Carmen Sterba

Commentary by Jan Foster: On the surface, a simple tanka, traditional in shape and expression but, like all the topnotch tanka, a layering of thoughts which provide a wealth of concepts for the reader to come back to many times over. In the true tanka tradition, it begins simply, each line adding to the thought, growing to a crescendo in the final line, where the whole theme is laid before the delighted reader... 

-- excerpted from Tanka Appraisal Reports by Bowerbird Members

1 comment:

  1. The following tanka could be read as a sequel:

    my aunt, now gone
    made this quilt
    once flowers
    of blue cloth
    bloomed in her hands

    Gusts, 6, Fall/Winter 2007

    Munira Judith Avinger

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