Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

CONSTRAINING ME ...

So what happened was that I decided I only would write new poems in 2018 if I was solicited to do so (the rare exceptions would be if I was conducting an experiment). An example was when the Dos Madres folks asked me to write a poem after an artist's work (thank you; was I relieved to get that invitation!). But I wanted to hold back because I'm so prolific and so wanted proof folks wanted my poems. Well, the saving grace to this constraint was being asked by Carolyn Gutierrez-Abangan to co-author a book of tanka which required, among other things, contributing 100 tanka. I'd never written tanka before but I welcomed the opportunity to pay attention to this form (and how about that! It generated a TANKA chap from Simulacrum Press when Sacha Archer--thank ye Sacha--solicited a chap!). That tanka invitation allowed me to keep writing new poems (albeit in tanka form) but as I'm due to hand over the hundred tanka at the end of this month, I go back as of July 1 to not writing new poems again unless someone solicits. It's been an interesting private (now public) constraint. 

Meanwhile, here's one of the things that come out of it: the beautifully-designed -- and I hope you check it out to support this indie publisher -- TANKA, Vol. I!




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