Careful Not to Startle the Yaks

It's impossible not to acknowledge Denis Garrison and Michael McClintock of Modern English Tanka, editors who had a profound influence on me as a writer, not least because they seemed to like my tanka. Of course, Sanford Goldstein's work with tanka sequences and strings was an inspiration, as was translator Carl Sesar's Takuboku: Poems to Eat, which was, fittingly, a gift from food writer John Thorne. Later, though I had written a few sequences, Marilyn Hazelton of Red Lights was an influence, spotting sequences in my submissions of individual tanka that I hadn't seen. And, of course, where would tanka prose in general be without Jeffrey Woodward's championing of the form in The Tanka Prose Anthology and the journal Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose? As soon as one starts thanking people, there is the risk of leaving someone out, which I don't want to do. M Kei of Atlas Poetica, Beverley George of Eucalypt, Claire Everett of Skylark were also encouraging editors. There were others. I would like to thank them and everyone who's encouraged the appreciation of tanka. And I would be remiss not to bow to the many wonderful writers of the form. The list of journals in the acknowledgements should indicate the scope of my gratitude.