Atlas Poetica 21: A Journal of World Tanka

The subject of religion is not much discussed in tanka, but it has been an integral part of tanka for as long as tanka has existed. In its native Japan, Buddhism and its awareness of the transient beauty of the world infused tanka with a sense of spirituality that was, as is usual in tanka, more implied than directly stated. When the world draws a sharp line between things of the spirit and things of the material world, when overt expressions of religion are suspect, when the empty consumerism of Western society rings hollow, tanka’s ability to imply more than it states provides a method to unite the disparate halves of our human existence.