Contest finalised 2 August 2026. Congratulations to the winners. Thank you all who participated.
My Succinct Summery of Tanka
The 1st phrase being the imagery your senses feast on, expressed in emotive language in the 2nd phrase—the zeugma of the 3rd line is the liminal threshold between these two spheres. A pivot between the observed (the 1st phrase) and the emotional response (the 2nd phrase) may be realised in the final couplet. The continuity of imagery into the final phrase is one of the subtleties that separate a flat tanka from one that breathes.
Quoted from the current contest page: The PIVOT is also the defining feature you will be judged by in the current challenge.
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The Growth Arc of Tanka
Tanka is not similar to haiku, which is objective in content. Many poets equate the haiku juxtaposition (two images placed side by side, often with a kireji cutting word) with the tanka pivot, but they are fundamentally different devices. Tanka may be written in a far more compressed format than the often prescribed 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.
It was once known as the ‘tanka spirit’, emulating the classics. Tanka of the late 20th century and early 21st century was not a universal definition, but merely a powerful vogue. The two major attempts of the early 20th century were the tanka of Sadakichi Hartmann (1867–1944) and Jun Fujita (1888–1963).*
Like mist on the leas,
Fall gently, oh rain of Spring
On the orange trees
That to Ume’s casement cling—
Perchance, she’ll hear the love-bird sing.
In Hartmann’s tanka (above), the final couplet functions as the pivot. The first four lines set up the external image (mist, spring rain, orange trees at Ume’s window), and then the last line—Perchance, she’ll hear the love‑bird sing—shifts the emotional register inward, toward longing and desire. That sudden turn in the closing couplet is what gives the poem its movement. Hartmann layered metre and rhyme into his English tanka, which today’s practitioners often see as a distortion of the form.
My very first attempt at tanka, written as an example for the 2012 contest, updated 2026.
spiky sea urchins
sparkling in jewelled rock pools
shadows splinter —
children fishing for treasure
in fierce selective sunlight
We’ve come full circle: Hartmann’s couplet pivot shows early Western adaptation. The pivot has become the defining feature of the tanka, often at the third line—per my example poem. The distinct phrases might make the poem sound fragmented and far fewer syllables per line is desirable. I’m not alone in this as there is also the minimalistic Sanford-style tanka. It is about content, and the form defining pivot, more than counting syllables like beads on an abacus!
Tanka can be on any topic, not only nature. My line‑3 pivot in the tanka below demonstrates the classical balance—imagistic and emotionally layered. Many modern practitioners go for fewer syllables to preserve contemplative tone rather than force padding. Indentation works just as well as any punctuation would, if not better. Tanka don’t have titles, but occasionally use a headnote,†
Sharing
he hunched over
weeping scribbled slogan
a sandwich shared
KFC tucked under my coat
but I don’t feel the warmth
© Suzette Richards (1/8/2026)
CURRENT CONTEST
The contests have reportedly become more difficult over the past few years, but it might be that the sponsors have upped their game to dissuade AI usage. Tanka is definitely one of the poetic forms one needs to sit with as AI still regurgitates the archaic 5-7-5-7-7 syllables format. There is something for everyone—the diversity is the secret ingredient that makes Contests enduring. Not like the menu at our home when I was growing up: Take it or leave it.
Those were the good old days …
Take Wing!
†Headnotes to Tanka, Haiku, Etc. | PoetrySoup.com