Ryland Shengzhi Li
Former Second Vice President
Arlington, Virginia
Ryland Shengzhi Li (李晟之) is a poet and environmental attorney living in Northern Virginia. He began to write tanka in 2020 after learning about the form from a friend at a haiku meeting. For Ryland, tanka is a way of understanding, healing, and bringing beauty to himself and the world. He believes that reading and writing tanka is a profound gift and, as TSA’s second vice president, he wishes to make tanka accessible to more people. He looks forward to working together with the board and volunteers to facilitate educational programs, foster mentorship and collaborative writing, and reach out to communities traditionally underrepresented in English-language tanka.
the sailboat
fading into a white cloud
slowly, without sound
you disappear
from my world
Cattails, October 2021
lighting up
the long stretch of field
between your house
and mine . . .
fireflies in love
Ribbons, Fall 2021
the giant frog
half hid in the water
cares not
one whit
for Mister Li
Presence 72, 2022
