2024 “(Not) In Love” Tanka Challenge Third Place Winner: “Seeds of Sorrow” By Rina Malagayo Alluri
Join us in congratulating the Third Place Winner of Frontier Poetry‘s 2024 “(Not) In Love” Tanka Challenge, Rina Malagayo Alluri. Read their imagistic tanka, “Seeds of Sorrow,” below.
This tanka was chosen for its ability to evoke a vivid image in such a short space, forcing the reader to visualize the nuanced pain of love, or the lack thereof.
Seeds of Sorrow
breaking a pomegranate
open, full of blood
seeds ripened with tenderness
mouth parched dry, honeysuckle
Rina Malagayo Alluri
Rina Malagayo Alluri (she/her) has been rooted, uprooted and replanted in various soils. She is a peace scholar, yoga practitioner and mother to two headstrong children. Her poetry weaves together experiences of (de)coloniality, diasporic identities and relationships that form/unform. You can find her work in publications such as: Arlington Literary Journal (ArLiJo), Breadfruit mag, Beyond Words Magazine, Carnation Zine, Sunday Mornings at the River, The Hemlock Journal, and Yellow Arrow Publishing.
