Results
of the First International Erotic Tanka Contest 2008
Pamela A. Babusci, Judge
It was an honor and a pleasure to
read the 216 erotic tanka that were submitted from the USA,
Canada, Great Britain, Romania, Singapore, Australia and New
Zealand, for The First International Erotic Tanka Contest. I
was amazed by all the entries that poured in.
I thoroughly read all the entries four times and then put
aside the top twenty-five tanka. Then I began the difficult
task of narrowing down the entries to the top three winners
and three honorable mentions.
Here are the First, Second and Third Place Winners:
FIRST PLACE: $100 Natalia L. Rudychev
i wish
my kisses
were the cherry petals
that stream all over you
in April wind
Natalia L Rudychev
This tanka was so perfectly
composed, that it could be read as a one-breath tanka. Every
word was so carefully written, that it flowed naturally into
the next word, seamlessly. It conveyed a deep sensual love,
with gentle undertones of erotica. The fluidity of fleeting
kisses, the color and perfume of falling cherry petals,
lightly caressing every inch of her lover's body, caught in
the warmth of April wind. Who wouldn't want to be loved like
that?
SECOND PLACE: $50 Marjorie
Buettner, United States
I wake
to feel your touch
entering my dreams
there you untie the canoe
and we drift under wild stars
This tanka was both sensual and
evocative. A woman wakes to her lover's touch entering, like a
silent thief, in the night, into her hiding place of reveries.
A secret place that few can enter or will ever enter. Once
into the other lover's dream world, she unties a canoe, that
has been waiting to be released, where they drift effortlessly
perhaps for years or for just a brief night. They float and
sail beneath ambrosial stars. Stars that are savage, wild with
passion, and who knows where those constellations
will take them.
THIRD PLACE: $25 Claudia Coutu
Radmore, Canada
night blooming cereus
its soundless blossoming
lost in ours
this morning's serenity
of spent grace
Claudia Coutu Radmore
This tanka was strong in its
subtle erotic beauty of two people making love. The tanka poet
equates it to the silent blossoming of a night blooming
cereus, a desert plant that blooms once a year in mid-summer
for only one night. These two lovers openly surrender, not
just their bodies, but, the essence of their inner being, the
depth of their souls, petal by petal. There is a stillness
after making love; after the fusion of two souls, two hearts,
in perfect communion. Now, among the morning dew, the morning
star, there is a tranquility, beyond words. A serenity that
penetrates every fiber, the spent grace, of sacred love
making.
Here are the three Honorable
Mentions arranged in alphabetical order
wild sea oats
cling closely to the dunes
on a dark shore...
I abandon my taboos
for forbidden waters
an'ya, United States
just the two of us
in a reckless night
shapes stretch
and touch the dark part
of each other
Stanley Pelter, United Kingdom
star-dusted skin
in mellow moonlight
her velvet touches
spinning me off the planet
fulfilling wildest desires
Barbara A. Taylor, Australia
I wish to thank all the tanka
poets who entered this First International Erotic Tanka
Contest and for the privilege of reading their works. Thank
you for making it a success.
Respectfully submitted,
Pamela A. Babusci, Judge
