A Local Writer Experiments with Tanaka

Poet Jason Thomas spoke to Writing Education Specialist Sharma Shields at an office hours event at the Central Library (Sharma’s Office Hours take place at various libraries throughout any given month). Sharma was struck by the evocative imagery of Thomas’s poems, and their moving discussion of change and grief. Here are two of Thomas’s tanka. According to the Academy of American Poets website, “The tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line…Tanka translates as ‘short song,’ and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.”

DECEMBER

The bell of winter peals–soil tightens to stone and lakes shut their doors. In hush, you smooth the last ounce of raw summer in my hands.

A BEND IN HATCHER PASS

Regret had a damp heft, a numbing density, as if he swallowed river stones; he submerges to ease the weight of absence.

About the featured author: Jason Thomas is an artist and writer originally from Alaska who now uses brush and pen to capture the lovely edges of Spokane County.