Spellbound: Tanka Spells & Blessings

by Jenny Ward Angyal

Tanka is a five-line form of Japanese poetry more ancient than haiku. This small book of English-language tanka holds spells and blessings, dreams and flights of fancy, all penned to help keep a broken world from being drained of magic.

39 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2024

Reviews

[Jacob D. Salzer]

Fantasy meets Nature in this modest chapbook of tanka poems by Jenny Ward Angyal. Angyal is an experienced tanka poet whose work is published widely. This book reads like passages in a diary from a beloved crone who lives in the dark woods. Angyal shows how fantasy can be expressed effectively in tanka poetry. However, some of her tanka in this chapbook are purely Nature poems. Still, the magic in this book takes precedence, and most of the poems are mysterious small portals into other worlds, where our imagination wanders deeper into the woods. An enjoyable read. I recommend this book.

Reviewed by Jacob D. Salzer, author of Sea Wind: Haiku (Lulu, 2025), My First Trip to Japan (Lulu, 2025), A Lost Prophet: Haiku & Tanka (Brooks Books, and Unplugged- Haiku & Tanka (Lulu, 2022)