These three tankas are short tone poems intended to encourage grounding by centering breath work which aids in channeling focus.

As a musician, engaging with these tankas will offer opportunities for developing tone, embouchure control, refining breathing techniques and improvisation within a fixed architecture.  Most importantly, they offer opportunities to exist within a work where if you “mess up” it’s not the notes, it’s in how you breathe with the space in which you are playing.

As a listener, you may find yourself breathing along with the musician as they recite the tone poems. Do not resist, a collective breath allows for deep connection to others. That connection through music is an organic exchange which cannot yet be replicated by inorganic lifeforms.