Fortnightly across the period since our fifth issue, we have released recorded readings of tanka, as selected from work in this revered Japanese-based sub-genre found in previous editions.

Posted as Tanka Tones, this extends on previous sets of readings of longer poetry, accessible on the homepage of our journal too, under Voices: thanks to Paul Strickland from 3BBR-FM, poetry from Catchment is being broadcast on radio in a program called West Gippsland Week.

Another strong vote of appreciation goes out (as ever) to members of our IT Team – Marlene & Mike Ogden – with regular postings of new Streams of recorded readings being only one dimension to the immense support they each continue to give to this journal on a digital level.

While both of them help with online promotions, Mike lends a masterful hand to website design/ formatting/ programming/ problem-solving, so as to present a new issue in the best of ways.

Under the banner of Catchment News & Views, we have pushed our boundaries further, with our last two monthly essays about noteworthy poetry of place giving – firstly – an in-depth appraisal of a key poem by one of Australia’s most respected poets in longer forms, Kevin Hart.

Today, our latest essay extends to appreciating ground-breaking work by a South Asian poet – Kala Ramesh – who is an innovative leader internationally in tanka & haiku & associated forms.

In Catchment 6 itself, we have crossed into a new frontier also: our total number of contributors published has extended past 80 – strong writing from younger poets is especially valued here.

While free verse operates within fewer restraints, giving freedom to find one or more ways in which to achieve impact, tanka must not only work per se – it must do so inside set parameters.

In selecting work for publication, a key dimension to the collaboration I share with Jo McInerney – as our tanka co-editor – hinges upon our commitment to offering feedback in a spirit of support.

Fundamental to our editorial policy with regard to this Japanese-derived verse-form is a wish to promote the crafting of high-quality pieces, using approaches true to accepted understandings about what constitutes good tanka, yet also recognising international developments in this form.

Rather than revisit them all here, please just let me say that our submission guidelines seek to spell out a clear sense of what we look for in the short-form poetry we receive for consideration.

We commend anyone who has a mind to try their hand at writing in this style (beautiful yet challenging) to take time reading tanka as published, whether herein or through other outlets, either online or in hard-copy, e.g. via the revered Australian tanka-specialist journal Eucalypt.

Earlier along my own path as a writer in this elusive, exacting form, the late great American tanka poet Sanford Goldstein highlighted for me the importance of pursuing the tanka way.

This brings with it the sense of a calling in life that may verge on devotion to a form of religious faith, with some Japanese master poets having had a deep sense of connection to Buddhism.

In plainer, everyday terms, what I can regularly see in the work of contributors relatively new to experimenting with tanka is how they tend to offer poems which are in essence Western verse.

Explicit metaphors – as well as similes & rhyming – are not endorsed world-wide in writing tanka: nor is a sense of heightened pitch or distinctive/ individualised voice coming through too loudly.

Readers of this edition of Catchment who are not conversant with international understandings about writing tanka or haiku may feel we have made a sad mistake by publishing a whole set of short poems which do not have individual titles, much less capital letters, commas & full stops.

I hope the reading experience of our wider audience can be enhanced by learning that a sense of structure is often integral to appreciating the purpose & impact of these minimalist poems.

Jo McInerney & I feel it is valuable to discourage choppy lists of separate images, not linked in syntax: we value seeing two parts of a tanka working together cohesively, with each still distinct.

Maybe marked by a dash, having only one break in mid-piece allows for a shift, giving contrasts between two halves in such a poem: juxtapositions (maybe between images of nature & human nature) can leave room for readers to fill in gaps; to gather what is left unsaid between the lines.

Most of all, my aim here & now is to improve the reading experience for audience members not conversant with the tanka way, by helping non-poets to value minimal, spare, inferential writing.

In contrast, contributors to the other half of this journal offer work – generally called free verse – which we categorise as ‘longer poetry’ (yet one poem here, set on the Ganges, is brief indeed!)

Modern Western poets are free to write in their own way, regardless of rhythm, length of lines, a number of syllables, or rhyming patterns, unless working in a set Western form, e.g. the sonnet.

Naturally, readers – including our co-editors in longer forms, Jenn Fell & Peter Roberts – are just as free to decide whether or not to engage with such European-based poetry: yet we still regret causing anguish by not feeling able to put a roof over all writing submitted – strong poetry built on an experimental framework can prove to be too challenging in layout for our digital construct.

In either broader category of verse-form published in Catchment, we shall continue to endorse poetry of place which offers a compelling sense of a geographical location, built upon evocative imagery that may appeal to the senses in connecting with readers: in places as revered as the Great Barrier Reef or Stone Henge; in spots as modest yet magical as a childhood playground.

Yet our view on place in poetry has evolved over three years & six editions within this journal.

We are feeling less intent now about a need for our poetry to show an outward sense of locality.

Even if we draw the line at including footnotes which seek to explain the meaning of a poem, or to add a personal layer which we believe the poetry should convey in itself, we remain pleased to append additional information, if it provides sources or builds interest with extra background.

Yet now, more than before, references made to physical elements in a scenario might just be left sketchy, suggested only in passing, with a sense of locale given merely as – say – a city.

As editors at times these days we may train a lens on a sense of place as a person: looking at how speaking voices self-identify; at how she/ he/ they place themselves, in heart/ mind/ spirit.

Of course we will always value poetry which gives readers a chance to celebrate environments loved deeply, especially if verse (deftly constructed) can cast a new light on a familiar setting.

As we move on with Catchment, we will honour connection/ contemplation/ extension, linking humanity to place: we all feel devastated for the loved ones of a homeless man from Nepal, left dead in a sleeping bag, in a walkway in Sydney, with countless people passing across six days.

There is a poetry of place too which interrogates disempowerment, showing empathy for those imprisoned by family bloodlines; folk poorly placed emotionally in their relationships with others.

In this sixth edition we hope readers will find striking explorations of feeling & reflection; framed by diverse styles of versification that aim to give voice in accessible/ innovative poetry; winning itself a spot here with impact; in a field of endeavour we see as deserving a place central to life.

Yet as a throw-away in closing, detectives in various police procedurals on TV agree on one point: there is no such thing as a coincidence, when investigating a murder… Au contraire when editing a poetry journal: while all writing addressing both subjects could not be included here, we have found it coincidental to receive multiple poems on corellas; a few others on mermaids…

Rodney Williams
Editor
Catchment – Poetry of Place
Baw Baw Arts Alliance
Gunaikurnai Country
West Gippsland, Victoria

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