[How to Start My New Self] A 31-Character Cheer for You

Hello! I'm Tsukuda, a book editor and writer who delivers "word amulets" to help ease the heart in this difficult society. Here is today's tanka.

A day that felt refreshing and like tomato juice

My new story begins

It ended up being a tanka that sounds a bit like an advertisement copy. Today, I wrote about tomato juice, one of the drinks that colors my mornings. I love tomato juice now, but when I was a child, I couldn't stand that sour, or rather, indescribable taste.

That changed when I became an adult and started drinking alcohol; I began to find tomato juice delicious. My sense of taste must have changed. And just like with tomato juice, I also came to enjoy eggplant and natto, which I used to hate, and my diet became much more varied.

Opening new doors by taking on challenges

Hating something and then coming to love it. Ever since I experienced this change in taste, I've decided to at least try things I'm not good at. Like my encounter with tomato juice, I started to think that a new story might begin there.

If that's the case, I thought it would be a waste to be hesitant about things I'm interested in. That was one of the reasons I decided to try writing tanka.

The good things about trying tanka

I started writing tanka at the end of August, and now I'm in my third month. In September, I joined the tanka social media site "57577," and starting this October, I've also been posting to an online tanka gathering site called "Uta no Hi."

In a tanka gathering, everyone writes a poem on the same theme, and then we vote on each other's poems without knowing who wrote which one. As a result, the person who gets the most votes becomes the top poet. Conversely, it's depressing when you don't get any votes.

Actually, today, the tanka I wrote for the gathering received zero votes. Up until then, I had received at least one vote, so I was truly shocked. By the way, this is that poem. The theme was "Autumn."

Looking back now, the language is stiff because it's written in a classical Chinese style, and it's abstract, so a concrete image that says "this is it in a nutshell" doesn't immediately come to mind. For example, just changing the word "ware" (I) to the hiragana "watashi" would have made it much easier to understand.

And then there's the seasonal word. Since the theme was "Autumn," just including words that evoke autumn, like autumn leaves or autumn breeze, would have made it more relatable. I used two ways to say "maple leaves"—"momiji" and "kouyou"—to distinguish between green and red leaves. If I were to revise it now, it might have looked something like this.

But when I finished the previous poem, I was confident that it might get a few votes. And then, zero votes. Honestly, I even thought about quitting tanka.

Even so, I haven't quit, and I'm writing about tanka like this because by challenging myself with tanka, I was able to start a new story within myself.

Thanks to starting this new story of tanka, I've been able to lighten some of the suffering that comes from my depression. And a wish has also been born to be of help to as many people as possible by creating "word amulets" that make a difficult life a little easier.

A "word amulet" is, for example, something like this.

This is a poem I wrote with the thought that I want to remain 'green' (naive/youthful) even as I age. In this poem, I wanted to create a rhythm with the words 'green' (aokusak) and 'green persimmon' (aogaki). I also used the phrase 'vintage green persimmon' as a metaphor. Normally, a green persimmon changes color as it ripens, but the vintage green persimmon here does not change even as it ages. In other words, it remains 'green.' This phrase is a 'word amulet,' and it serves as a strong self-affirmation that 'we are allowed to live on, still green, even as we age.' That is why I thought it might also be a cheer for my own generation.

Also, for those of you who write on note, perhaps these words might become an amulet for you as well.

This is a poem about the qualities of a poet as I see them. It is not just about writing about flowers, birds, wind, and moon, or happy things, but about turning even one's own suffering into writing. That is what I consider to be the true calling of a poet, and indeed, the true calling of anyone who writes. In this poem, I aimed to convey that true calling by contrasting the words 'flowers, birds, wind, and moon' with 'suffering.'

Tanka as an amulet

Tanka has a comfortable rhythm of 5-7-5-7-7, and beautiful words can melt away the weariness of the heart. Moreover, it achieves this in just 31 characters. Being so compact, you can engrave it in your heart as an amulet, or write it in your planner like a real amulet, or keep it on your smartphone.

Of course, there are many people in this world blessed with wonderful talent who can write poems far better than the ones I spend hours crafting. Unfortunately, I do not have that level of talent at the moment. Like the crane in 'The Crane's Return of a Favor,' I have no choice but to spin my own feathers into words.

But perhaps, precisely because they are such poems, precisely because they are such writings, they might reach people's hearts. That is what I believe.

A tanka is like a short movie, and I believe that if you polish your tanka, you can expand into various fields such as essays, poetry, picture books, and stories. That is why I want to take tanka seriously.

And this is the message I want to deliver.

Life can be started anew at any time, as many times as you like. And I believe that no matter the situation, people can always crawl back up and grasp 'their own version of happiness.'

It's a bit naive, isn't it? Truly a 'vintage green persimmon.' However, to start life anew, you need self-affirmation and the hope that you can do it too. What supports that is tanka as a 'word amulet.' Take confidence in being a 'vintage green persimmon,' and when things are tough, think that 'even singing of suffering is one's true calling' to overcome adversity. If you know many such tanka, won't your heart feel a little lighter?

While I strive for 'beauty as words' within those 31 characters, I also want to incorporate an 'amulet' to support the heart.

I was so absorbed in writing that it reached nearly 3,000 characters. Thank you for reading such a long article to the end. I would be happy if this article encourages more people to try writing tanka.

May happiness spread out before you. I pray for this from the bottom of my heart.

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By the way, my X account is https://x.com/toto_books　　.
I would be happy if you could follow me.
I post about tanka and the books I like.

I am always encouraged by everyone's 'likes' and follows.
Thank you so much!

I will continue to do my best so that this note becomes a place where everyone can heal their weary hearts and gather strength for a fresh start. Thank you for your continued support.