#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 323, 6/6/2023

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日.

This week’s challenge for Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka is 🌈 Color poetry. Let’s work with the color of your choice in a syllabic poem. FOLLOW the instructions below:

You don’t have to write about “magic.” I found this magical color chart on Pinterest and thought it would help to inspire us in creating a piece of poetry.

Instructions:

From the chart: choose a color and use the color in your syllabic poem.
Also: Choose ONE word from the descriptions under the color you chose, and add it to your syllabic poem.
Remember, if you write a freestyle poem, please include a syllabic form along with it.

This week I have chosen to write a Butterfly Cinquain . The syllable pattern to this is (2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2)

Purple Intuition

Ever
Seeing eyes shut
Intuition our guide
Purple is the colour of sight
Leading
Us by a mother’s gentle hand
Into the one true light
Where tomorrow
Unfolds.

Dan The Owl Man.

A blogger I much admire, Dan Antion of No Facilities, told me he’d like to take the quiz on Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge. I encouraged him to have a go and said I would write a Tricube or two for him .

It turns out he is an Owl. Which apparently makes him :

A loner, the owl spirit animal represents vision, freedom, and independence. The owl can inspire you to unlock your full potential and discover your unique talents. If the owl resonates with you, it is likely you enjoy working on your own and value your independence

The Owl

Carpenter
Using hands
You create

Stand alone
You inspire
And you teach

Your hands are
Your best tools
No one’s fool

You see life
And beauty
In dead wood

Your inner
Eye sees all
Carving out

So unique
Those hands can
Craft words too.

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 322, 5/30/2023: Spirit Animal Poetry. Hummingbird.

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY.

短歌火曜日

This week’s challenge is to find your Spirit Animal. Take the quiz at Colleen’s blog. HERE

Well I took the Quiz and I am a Humming bird.

Appartently:

“In most cases, the hummingbird spirit animal is a messenger of joy, love, and good luck. This mighty little bird is also a symbol of beauty, playfulness, and resilience. Those with the hummingbird as their spirit animal tend to be happy. They’re joyful people who love life and all of its challenges”

So if I am to write about the humming bird and it’s spirit I will need a delicate for so I have chosen to write to Tricubes.
Here are the rules of Tricubes:

Each line contains three syllables.
Each stanza contains three lines.
Each poem contains three stanzas.

So we’re talking cubes in mathematical terms (to the third power). No rules for rhymes, meter, etc. Just three, three, and three.

Hummingbird

Fluttering
Wings busy
I bring luck

Delicate
Yet so fast
Hovering

Peacefulness
And beauty
Giving strength.

******

So tiny
Mighty yet
So gentle

Always fleet
Catch the eye
Never caught

Happily
Spreading joy
Willow Wisp.

******

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 321, 5/23/23: Acrostic.

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

Colleen, our mentor, said:This week’s challenge is to write a specific form with a twist! And I messed it up, I did not use the words she provided for us. Which are:

MAGICAL CHARM, SPECTER, FANTASY, CONJURE, UNICORN, IMAGINATON, ORACLE , MALEVOLENCE.

Write an acrostic poem with a syllable count of 8, 9, or 10 syllables per line (all the same, or a mixture of syllable counts, is fine).

Now I did not read the challenge properly and used my own word , Space… Well Colleen pointed this out to me. So here is my second and correct entry .

I chose SPECTER and used the syllables in each line of Eight, Nine, Nine, Eight, Eight, Ten, Ten.

Spirit of the dark a ghostly
Phantom swirling through the woods at night
Ethereal and ghostly you fill
Completely my soul and body
Tread carefully for my nerves are
Electric and I am wired to fly
Reveal yourself specter and spare my soul

This is part of Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge.

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 321, 5/23/23. ACROSTIC.

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

Colleen, our mentor, said:This week’s challenge is to write a specific form with a twist!

Write an acrostic poem with a syllable count of 8, 9, or 10 syllables per line (all the same, or a mixture of syllable counts, is fine).

Today I am thinking of Space and my wish to be there. So my acrostic poem is SPACE. The syllablic count are as the lines run , eight, nine, ten, eight, ten in five lines.

2017 Eclipse: Earth, Moon and Sun by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Space

Spanning infinitesimal
Phenomenal beauty far beyond
All imagination bathed in silence
Cosmic holes filled with stars and dust
Eternal drifting, never ending space

THIS IS PART OF COLLEEN CHESEBRO’S TUESDAY TANKA CHALLENGE

TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 320, 5/15/2023

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

This week’s challenge Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge is Synonyms Only. That means we select synonyms for the two words below. Please use the synonyms in your poem. Let’s work with opposites and see what we can create.

💼 Work & Play 💃🏼

I am trying, a new to me style. A Landay, I found this on Kat Mryman’s page Like Mercury Colliding She said this about the style.

“Landay – The Landay is the poetic form of Afghan women. The poem is 22 syllables long and contains 2 lines. 9 syllables in the first and 11 in the second. (While there is no mention of rhyme in the description above, most of the examples I have seen do include rhyme at the end of each line.) Subjects can include, but are not limited to, war, separation, homeland, grief, or love.

Pronunciation/Etymology. In Pashto, “landay (LAND-ee)” means “short, poisonous snake,” likely an allusion to its minimal length and use of sarcasm. Landays (or landai) often criticize traditions and gender roles.”

In life souls will die if all is toil
So dance, sing and love as well as till the soil

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 319, 5/9/2023

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

Colleen has given us a photo prompt here what she said.

“This year, I’ve asked my friend, and photographer, Terri Webster Schrandt, from secondwindleisure.com to share her photos with us for inspiration. Terri runs a weekly photo challenge called Sunday Stills. Check it out HERE.”

Terri says: “As May brightens 2023, I came across this image in my archives from spring 2018. My hubby and I spent 12 summer weekends at our Sacramento River Delta campground, where wind and board sports are a must-do. After a long day on the water, many of us gathered on the levee to watch the sunsets and chat about our water time. Wildflowers like these purple radishes grew profusely on the levees in the spring. This one seems to frame the sunset on the expanse of the river just so.”

Write your poem using the photo as your inspiration.

I have chosen a Tanka this week .

Purple framing gold
peace at the end of the day
Gaia’s warm pallet
together we share sunset
wrapped tight in her loving arms.

THIS IS PART OF COLLEEN CHESEBRO’S TUESDAY TANKA CHALLENGE.

#TankaTuesday #Ekphrastic #Poetry Challenge No. 318

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY

This #TankaTuesday challenge explores Ekphrastic poetry, inspired by works of art. Let’s start May off with an interesting painting.

Like Colleen I thought the woman in this painting was using a mobile phone but as the painting is from 1860 that is not possible …… or is it?

I enjoyed writing Tankas last week so I have used them again this week. I have thought what this painting says to me and also what I see. I have tried to hint at time travel without being too obvious whether or not I succeeded I am not sure.

*******

The Expected One
1860
painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (Museum: Bavarian State Painting Collections) wikidata.org

An enigma she
Spinning time and space truly
Huge changes to come
Her beau waits sweet promises
On his mind, to bind their lives.

*******

Just watch where you tread
Life can change in a moment
Every second counts
A few words can change the course
Time and space irrelevant.

THIS IS PART OF COLLEEN CHESEBRO’S TUESDAY TANKA CHALLENGE.

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 317, 4/25/23

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

This week for Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka prompt , after last week’s well deserved excesses for her Birthday Colleen said: “Let’s go back to our roots and write a tanka poem (or two, or three) this week. I want you to find your own inspiration. Choose a photo, take a photo, share a walk with us… or a moment in time that was important to you. Capture this moment in a tanka or two.”

Tanka are written in a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure, or s-l-s-l-l. Tanka consists of 5 lines written in the first-person point of view from the perspective of the poet. The third line is considered your “pivot,” but let it happen anywhere, or exclude it. It is not mandatory. If you use a pivot, the meaning should apply to the first two lines, as well as the last two lines of your tanka. Tanka is untitled and does not rhyme.

I saw the seasons change
in Spring we walked the woods then
watched the summer bloom
feet and paws plod happily
through Autumn and Winter trails.

They grew up with you
you taught them to be gentle
to love and be kind
grandchildren on life’s journey
nature’s taken you too soon

You were heaven sent
made of the stuff of stars
now you have returned
you are now cosmic stardust
you will live on in our hearts.

Special Birthday Prompt #TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 316, 4/18/2023

This week our prompt for the Tuesday Tanka Challenge is very different Colleen says:

“This week’s challenge is to create a syllabic form with 65 syllables, or a combination of words that amount to 65. Remember we have an entire week to write our poem.

A chōka is 55 syllables, so this is within our realm of knowledge. You could write a haibun or tanka prose that amounts to 65 words. Think about how to arrange your stanzas (or not). YOU GOT THIS!!

Be creative. Surprise me!“

I have have chosen a Haiburn to celebrate Colleen’s birthday week.

Caught up in the moment of joy or sorrow. We walk this earth counting our time in years. The seasons are real, time is but manmade we must embrace every moment. Birthdays come and go. Like a shaft of light they are fleeting, a willowhisp here then gone. Move forward and love life.

Gaia guides our steps

We flourish under her watch

Blessings dear Colleen.