#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 277, #SpecificForm: tanka prose.

This month Colleen has chosen a Tanka Prose as our form to work with this month. I am not too good with this form I need more practice. I have written about my husband struggling with the aftermath of covid .

******

Another night where sleep eludes us. The cough is so harsh and painful. It racks his being. I cannot sleep , I feel the strain on his body.
Silently I lay still for fear he may of found sleep and I do not want to wake him. Minutes pass I resist the urge to check he’s still breathing and I relax. Suddenly the rasping cough returns and rips the peace asunder.
Finally the dawn creeps through the curtains, he is silent, sleeping. I arise exhausted to face another day.

night shadows enfold
we exist in half life fear
will we ever rest
the covid cough is so cruel
lack of breath day and night tires.

.

This is part of Colleen’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 11, 2022 No picture from Nowhere.

Badge by Shelley Krupa..

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “a picture from wherever.” When you sit down to write your post, find a picture, whether in a magazine, newspaper, or even product packaging. Write whatever thought or emotion the picture provokes. Enjoy!

Well there are no books or newspapers near me and I have spent time thinking where can I find one and in all truth that is not in the spirit of SoCs is it. So today for once I am not even going to attempt to comply with the rules! Yup shock horror! I just can’t be bothered. I wonder if it’s the Covid or just me but I don’t feet right and I feel depressed.. I can usually hide it but not today… No I feel blar blur and I going to drown in it! Let it wash over me and give up for today and just hope tomorrow will be a better day.

Lurking in shadows
Vicious snapping at my heels
Lethargy appears
Sucking me into the black
Too tired to put up a fight

THIS IS PART OF LINDAGHILL’S STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS SATURDAY.

One-Liner Wednesday : Qué Sera, Sera.

I am breaking my habit of sticking to one line today because I feel the need to let it all out.

Qué Sera Sera. Fate has decided we are not to go and see Adam Lambert and Queen at the O2 tonight.
First she threw covid at us both, yuck, and now our beautiful Ruby is on a downhill with pain. Okay fate you win we are staying home and resting with Ruby.

Part of LindaGHill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

Marriage Unarranged my review.

What a morning I am having! I am actually in bed feeling rough and tired because as I said on Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Hubby and I have got the nasty Covid!

But I wanted to republish my review of Ritu Bhathal’s Marriage Unarranged. Well so far I messed with my Goodreads and Amazon account trying to find it and now I feel stressed out! There is no point in worrying is there. So I am going to write another review from memory, after all I loved this book so much that I have read it twice and I have the paperback as well as the book on my Kindle. So before I fall asleep again or mess anything else up here we go!

News first!

Ritu has now signed with Spellbound Books and will be writing at least two more books in what Spellbound Books are calling The Rishtay Series, with book two coming out in June 2023! Rishtay means relationships, which covers both romantic and familial relationships that are at the heart of this whole series.

.

Marriage Unarranged is like diving into another culture and time. Set at the beginning of this Millennium we are totally transported into Aashi’s world. Family, culture, friends, bad reactions from Ravi’s family and travel…not only travel to India but Aashi’s journey to maturity.

As the story unfolds we see what a cad Aashi’s fiance Ravi is…how he is a liar and a cheat. Luckily for Aashi her family and her best friend Kiran are there to catch her as she falls.

Now a trip was planed to India with her mother to buy wedding Sarees and the like, that is changed to a holiday for Aashi, her two lovely brothers and Kiran. A trip of discovery for everyone in the group. This is where the book turned into a film inside my head, a Bollywood film. I was transported by the sights, sounds, history and smells of India. We travel on planes, trains and by foot, visit Markets, temples and even business places with Sunny, Aashi’s eldest brother.

Plus a chance encounter with a handsome stranger on the plane and a friendship made bodes well for all. I am not going to tell you any more because you need to read for yourselves, this is a book definitely do not to miss.

******

© willowdot21 : Rutu at the second Bloggers Bash.

Ritu can be found at :

Twitter: @RituBhathal

Facebook

Author Blog

Blog: But I Smile Anyway.

Ritu’s Amazon page

Lets just throw in a little East meets West music.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 4, 2022.

Badge by Shelley Krupa..

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “iron(y).” Use “iron,” use “irony,” or use both. Use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!

.

No doubt a few people will of picked this song today! I mean it’s part of the derivation, iron, ironic and irony.

Well I find it very ironic that a garden party was organised for our neighbors, well that’s not ironic in itself but the irony is that two days before the party hubby went down with Covid. We had managed to avoid catching it for over two years then the day before a once in a lifetime event not to be repeated we can’t go…… The party still went ahead in our front garden but without us because hubby was sick in bed, and because of my will of iron though still negative yesterday I stayed away ! The Queen determined as she is will not see another 70year anniversary but there is plenty to see on the TV.

neighbours

on the lawn.

Well I am glad I did not go because this morning I took my third daily test and bingo I now am positive too. I would of felt awful had I gone to join them all and some of them had caught the Covid. So that’s ironed out I did not put anyone at risk.

I looked into the ironing room this morning, the ironing board, iron and pile of ironing waved to me and gave me the day off, just as well because I am feeling a tad under par. So we are staying in until we are better 😷😷

One Liner Wednesday. Family!

Middle son on phone: “Hi Mum I have Covid yet again for the third time’

Me: Shopping list please!

part of LindaGHill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

Torment.

google images

It rages in my head
It’s hunger goes unfed.
Crawling like an almighty dread,
Screaming, groaning, clawing at my head.

The need and greed consumes me,
It ripples through my brain
Pushing me beyond the brink of pain.
To lift me high then dash me down again .

They crawl and grab
They lunge and stab.
Body to body soul to soul
They creep through my head to reach their goal.

They grapple they bite and suck.
I cry and curse my luck.
The sword fights the cross
It starts to burn
Thundering through my head I yearn.

To be eased, appeased
Sated and pleased.
Barren dried out and teased.
It is eating me up never letting me rest.
I need it, I demand it this is not a request.
It’s driving me mad
Making me sad.
I anger my friends and strangers think I’m mad.

It is gnawing me, goring me,
Splitting me in two
They all creep inside me what am I to do.
Help me, help me I am going mad
Oh! just forget it, it’s all so freaking sad!

The Warrior Within. Revised.

Today ten years after I originally wrote this poem, the reluctant poet read my poem The warrior within. I originally wrote this poem in 2012 when I was on the road to recovery after breaking my back for the second time! I visited that post and I have rewritten it here. Thanks to the reluctant poet for reminding me of those hard day’s.

THE WARRIOR WITHIN.

I shall not run I shall not hide,

I’ll face the void with eyes open wide.

I shall call up my warrior from within

And hone my sword, the battle to begin.

If I must make sense of what is my worth.

I shall do it now and justify my birth..

Each time the void comes for me

I make the mistake of trying to flee.

Why do this time after time, the path is futile

I end up broken, spent and feeling vile.

I shall not flinch this time. I will win

I will answer for every sin.

I see the void approaching swirling round,

My lies and fears creep towards me on the ground.

I start to shake terror grips my insides,

I call up my inner warrior from whence she hides.

With flaming hair of my youth and body strong and straight 

She takes on the terrors sending them to hell’s gate.

From deep inside I find the strength , that others knew I owned,

Sword in hand my bravery returns , refined and truly honed.

I see you disillusion, I see you hopelessness, I see you despair.

I face you now as a warrier you need to take care.

I stand and look you in the eye

I will not flee I will not fly.

I see you and I know you are me 

Yet given time I can make something more of thee.

The warrior within.

2022, what are you going to throw at us next? (Biopsy Blues)

Well what is happening 😳. I honestly thought that after the last two years, Covid, illness and deaths in the family and dear friends! Me being in and out of hospital and Ruby being ill that this year would be a huge improvement…..well I thought by the laws of fairness we deserved a better year this year. Baaahaaha!

Aparently not the fickle finger of fate has decided we have not had enough to cope with. We got Ruby through cancer and a huge op on her leg which took over a month to heal, then the poor old gal got vestibular disease. Hubby and I being ill too, you can read all about that here.

Well just when I thought things were on the mend, hubby got a call from the hospital to tell after his last set of tests they wanted him to have a liver biopsy. Aparently a simple procedure, a tube is inserted into the liver, this tube has a set of snippers to remove a biopsy sample from the liver (two samples in hubby’s case) and a radiologist guides the tube by X-ray.

We read up on the procedure and it all looked straight forward and recovery quick, 24 to 48 hrs of moderate pain/discomfort. Not for hubby. Long story short, he went in for his biopsy Wednesday morning 8am, I took him home at 3.15pm. by 5pm he was in worse pain that immediately after biopsy. No sleep that night as hubby was in so much pain. Thursday morning hubby rang the hospital, the recommended co codamol ….I went and got some from town but also we rang the surgery for advice. Our G.P. rang and asked for me to take hubby in. By this time hubby was in so much pain he could not get on the drs couch. She then rang the hospital and was told to send him to A & E.

The Dr wrote him a note for A & E. I dropped him there about 3pm. He was seen by a doctor. Who could see how much pain he was in. He has had scan and ultrasound. Two does of Morphine and assorted other tablets later and still the pain was just as bad.
The scans and ultrasound were clear no damage to liver or stomach from biopsy and also no bleeds. The pain though was still excruciating? They believe a muscle was strained during the biopsy. As the position you are put in for the biopsy is odd and uncomfortable? That could be true of the lower pain but not the one in the shoulder.

So picked Hubby up from A & E really no better off than when I left him, in pain and looking awful. Anyway they had given him codine tablets and assured him there was no internal bleeding.

Unfortunately he had another very bad and painful night. Today he has been propped up on the sofa still in lots of pain. Of course it’s a Friday and the surgery will be closed all weekend . If things worsen it will time to call an ambulance or another drive to A&E, hopefully we can get through the next two days, but if there is no improvement it will be back to the surgery Monday ….fingers crossed we can get some help.

So yet again I am behind with posts and comments….I am actually exhausted. Plus we have Storm Eunice bashing around outside, two trees down in our road and lots more around the town. So we are staying in , though I have taken Ruby on two short walks so far today .

© willowdot21

Please bear with me I will get round to you all and I may have to miss prompts…..even though I have just got round to catching up! Oh! and we still have to get the results of the biopsy . 🤞

#TankaTuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 259: #Taste the rainbow-Color Poetry.

This week for Colleen’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge, she urges us to: ‘Choose your own syllabic form and colour to feature in your syllabic poem. If the form is from the #TankaTuesday Cheat sheet, let us know so we know where to look for directions. If it’s a new form, share how to write it and where you found the instructions. Think about the different ways you can use color in a poem.

P.S. 🌈 Taste the Rainbow refers to colors. You do not have to write about a rainbow in your poem. Add a color to your poem. 🌈“

Today I wrote my poem purely as an expression of how I feel . It’s not pretty but it’s honest. It has a Tanka syllable count but not sure if it is a true Tanka. …It’s a woebegone verse

Pixabay image

surrounded by blue
i see only a dark grey
my insides rotting
in my mouth a sickly taste
of green bile, invades my life.