Welcome to Inkstone Poetry Forum

Inkstone Poetry was created in honor of Jane Reichhold (1937-2016), writer, poet, translator, publisher, teacher, mentor, and friend. Our primary purpose is to continue Jane’s legacy by fostering the writing of Japanese short-form poetry in English. To this end, we have created the Inkstone Poetry Forum, an international community that welcomes anyone with a sincere interest in writing haiku, tanka, or their related forms.

For an excellent discussion of the value of peer feedback in developing your skills as a writer, click here.

We hope our guidelines (below) will help you decide if this forum is what you're looking for in a workshop experience. Please take a moment to read a selection of poems by some of our Inkstone members, then continue to the bottom of the page for instructions on how to become a member. We look forward to meeting you!

Posting Your Work

Inkstone is primarily a workshopping forum, so the posting of poems and constructive critiques are an essential part of membership. It might be helpful to think of this site as a potluck dinner. Please attend with your generous contributions, read and comment in the spirit of reciprocity, and interact considerately with other members. If you’d prefer to simply drop in, grab a bite, leave your calling card and move on, then Inkstone probably isn’t your best bet. However, if your application is accepted, you’re welcome to join us and see if this forum fits your needs.

This is a definitely a place for poets to share their haiku, tanka, senryu, kyoka, sequences, and poetry + prose works. While all these forms are welcome, we ask that you refrain from using labels (particularly 'senryu' and 'kyoka') in a disparaging way when commenting on other members' poems.

Please restrict your own poems for workshopping to no more than one in any 24-hour period in any one forum, up to a maximum of three per week per forum. This insures that every poem gets the time and attention it deserves.

We encourage new members to jump right in and post comments and poems. Inkstone is primarily a workshopping forum, so the posting of poems and constructive critiques is an essential part of membership.

For all members: your active participation is essential to Inkstone. Members are strongly encouraged to post at least a few of their own poems in addition to substantive comments. If you don't participate in at least one workshopping forum for a period of six months, your Inkstone account will be deactivated.

Unfortunately, the Inkstone Moderators do not have the resources to send reminders. If you find your account has been closed and you wish to return, just email us as soon as you feel able to participate consistently, and your account will be reactivated.

Please note that frequently logging on without posting anything is regarded as 'lurking' and may result in deactivation.

Responding to Others

Comments are the lifeblood of the forum, so we ask that for every piece you post, you write substantive, informative comments on the work of at least two other poets in the same forum. A thread established by another poet is not the place to post your own work even if citing it as an example.

Please keep your comments focused on the poem or topic under discussion, without expressing your opinion about the poet. Constructive criticism is welcome, but remember to acknowledge the strengths of the piece under discussion, and keep all comments courteous, respectful, and kind.

One successful way of critiquing involves sandwiching your suggestions, criticisms, and questions in between opening and closing comments that are positive and encouraging. Some people respond well to praise, others to minor suggestions, and some to a healthy dose of constructive criticism.

You will find the forum a friendly place where members enjoy getting to know each other; however, we discourage long private conversations not directly relevant to the poem under discussion. If you wish to chat about non-poetry matters, please use the Private Message system, maintaining the same standard of courtesy expected in the forums. Each forum has one or more moderators who are dedicated to fostering poetry in a safe and educational atmosphere. If you have problems or suggestions regarding Inkstone, please contact one of the Forum Moderators or the Global Moderators, whose names appears at the bottom of this page.

The above guidelines Posting Your Work and Responding to Others are requests and, as a courtesy to others, members are expected to follow them. If a member repeatedly and / or flagrantly disregards these guidelines a moderator will send a PM asking the poet to abide by them in future. Moderators may also post reminders about the guidelines in a particular forum.

Code of Conduct

Poems or discussion threads that treat controversial topics are acceptable, but condoning violence, racism, homophobia, sexism, or hatred against any group or individual will not be tolerated. Comments must focus on the merits of the poem as a work of literature—or on the topic under discussion—without diverging into irrelevant political opinion or other potentially divisive commentary. Inkstone will not tolerate sexual harassment, flaming, or displays of ego or anger.

We expect members to be aware that poems and ideas are intellectual property protected by copyright law. To ‘borrow’ phrases, images, or ideas from poems posted on this forum without giving proper credit fits the definition of plagiarism. We rely on the goodwill and courtesy of all members to respect the ownership of the poems submitted for workshopping and to not share them with anyone else without the poet’s permission.


Haiku and Tanka by Inkstone Poets

Thanks to Haiku & Tanka Forum Moderator Elliott Simons
for selecting the poems for this Poetry Feature.

January 2024

even on this mountain
sorrow never leaves
how it drifts
through the tawny tundra
sowing its hard, shiny seeds

~Dru Philippou
Honorable Mention, Fujisan Contest 2023


willow branches
rippling across the lake
light laughter
of the girl I was
at sixteen

~Theresa A. Cancro
Ribbons 19:3, Fall 2023


his shirt sleeves
rolled to my wrist
autumn solitude

~Lynn Edge
The Heron’s Nest XXV:4, December 2023


i admire
black indian ink
so why
am i so uneasy
in my dark skin

your eyes glint
with a distant look
i turn away
for i no longer share
that dream with you

~Kala Ramesh
haikuKATHA, Issue 25, November 2023


never again
will your name
cross these lips—
some bridges once burned
forever remain ashes

~stacey dye
Art of the Tanka, Issue 1, December 2023


silent night
the choirmaster's baton
poised to break it

~Lorin Ford
Presence #77, November 2023


alpine meadow
the clanging of cow bells
in the clear air

a horse-drawn cart
hauling logs—
the road to Olteniţa

~Leanne Mumford
Seashores Volume 11, November 2023


a bite
out of the Amanita’s cap
bone-white moon

~Jenny Ward Angyal
tsuri-dōrō 19, Jan.-Feb. 2024


a cup of tea—
leaves decay
in a forest pool

~Nicholas Rossler
Shadow Pond Journal, Issue 2, 12/08/2023


Trail Dust

Good-bye old paint
I am leaving Cheyenne
~Old Cowboy Song

As a college student, I read Larry McMurtry’s early novel, Leaving Cheyenne, for the first time. The major characters were two Texas cowboys, who shared a genuine camaraderie and loved the same woman. Even then, I knew I had read something special; something different from the pulp westerns popular in those days. The writing spoke to me as a rancher’s daughter and a Texan.

Fifty-six year later, after McMurtry’s death, I reread the book and recognized the theme of life-long friendships that was more fully developed in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Gus and Call
my husband’s partners
in his last days

~Lynn Edge
Drifting Sands Haibun, Issue 24, December 2023




Ready to Join?

We welcome new members with a serious interest in writing haiku or tanka. If you would like to join the Inkstone Poetry Forum, please send an email to inkstonepoetryforum@gmail.com and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you heard about Inkstone. If possible, provide a reference. After reviewing your information, we will send you an email with instructions for activating your account. If you don’t hear from us within 48 hours, please check your junk mail or spam folder before reporting a problem.




Global Moderators: Leanne Mumford and Jenny Angyal
Revised 9/18/23