New Forms (19): Tanka Prose (aka Tanka-Prose)

'... the best strawberries ...' Tim Gardiner in his piece, 'Between Storms'

We helped to organise an Open Mic evening last night in Ipswich on the theme of 'Treasure'. During the course of the evening, Tim Gardiner introduced me to Tanka-Prose.

I have attempted Haibun (prose with Haiku) in the past, but had not heard of this alternative form. Tim explained a little about Tanka-Prose, which hasTanka rather than Haiku as a key element.

• 'Toward a Theory and Practice of Tanka-Prose' by Charles D. Tarlton, Oakland, California, USA (Haibun Today, Volume 5, Number 4, December 2011)

• Tim Gardiner's Haiku-Prose, 'Between Storms', published in Haibun Today, Volume 10, Number 1, March 2016

• 'The Elements of Tanka Prose' by Jeffrey Woodward 

• Tanka Prose resources from Ray's Web (Ray Rasmussen)

N.B. Two key practitioners, Jeffrey Woodward and Charles D. Tarlton, use different forms of the name. Woodward seems to favour 'Tanka Prose' without a hyphen whereas Tarlton hyphenates the two words. Time alone will probably dictate which becomes the norm. See p.86 and 87 of Skylark, a Tanka Journal, summer 2013, vol. 1, no. 1 to see why Brian Zimmer prefers the hyphenated style.