Pasadena Poet Wins Prestigious Tanka Award

Kathabela Wilson in front of the sculpture “Phantasmagoria of Joy” in Pasadena (Photo – Mary Torregrossa).

fuji fuji
at first sight the sound
of a small bird
for me it is the voice
of this mountain

~ Kath Abela Wilson – USA

And with those five lovely lines, our own Kath Abela Wilson won First Prize in the 2017 Fujisan Taisho contest.

By Briony James

This prestigious competition was created by the Fuji Taisho Committee to celebrate the glory of Japan’s most famous and revered mountain in the singularly Japanese poetic form of tanka, a five line poem that sings an individual’s thoughts and their broader significance.

Mt. Fuji, called Fujisan, Honorable Fuji, has long enchanted, thrilled and spoken to people, inviting artists of all stripes to glorify such natural beauty. Joining tanka, the little song of Japan’s heart with that pristine peak is a recipe to thrill any poet. Kath Abela, whose Poetry Corner has given such pleasure and beauty here, has expressed her first view of the streamlined, symmetrical mountain that looms so large in Japanese art and literature.

Kathabela Wilson looking at Mt. Fuji (Photo – Rick Wilson).

She has long served as Secretary of the Tanka Society of North America, contributes to many other poetry publications, including Skylark, Atlas Poetica, Frogpond, Ribbons. Her salons and intimate poetry groups in Pasadena are centers of art and verse as she is indeed a Muse to so many.

The selection committee of the Fujisan Taisho contest was headed by Mr. Takashi Okai, member of the Japan Art Academy, Goyogakari (general official) of Imperial Household in charge of TANKA. The Awards Ceremony will be February 10, 2018 in Tokyo. We all congratulate Kath Abela and thank her for her unique and beautiful view of Japan’s greatest icon.

Briony James is an Altadena poet, artist and lover of words, lucky enough to consider herself a student of the mountains and Kath Abela who introduced her to tanka.