Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested this prompt today: to write a tanka using our own inspiration.
Since I just traveled to Michigan to visit my mother and other family, I used something from that trip as inspiration. When I was a baby, a friend or coworker created a caricature of my father and me. It always hung in my father’s basement workshop. I spent a lot of time with him in that workshop; therefore, I saw it often. The last few times I have gone to Michigan, I have looked at that caricature and tried to figure out how to get it home to Arizona. Now my mother is moving from her duplex into an apartment in her retirement community, so I shipped it home to myself. I kept the chipped old frame because it is part of the experience.
In this old cartoon
Daddy diapers baby me,
the tweety bird babe,
as if time is paralyzed
by memory’s insistence.
Wonderful, Luanne.
Thank you, John!
Oh, this is a treasure for you, so beautiful! Lovely poem, you should frame it and place by the side of the caricature.
Thank you, Elizabeth! I love that idea!
Just dear.
Aw, thanks, Joy!
How precious!
That’s a fun one!
Thank you!!!
I love the cartoon and the tanka it inspired!
Liz, thank you so much! The cartoon is such a sign of the times from the 50s, isn’t it?!
You’re welcome, Luanne! The cartoon has a ’50s vibe for sure.
Hehe.
Wonderful story surrounding the family treasure. Nice to see your dad changed diapers, not all fathers in those days did.
That is a good point! My dad was good about stuff like that. Thank you so much!
Beautiful, Luanne. 😊
Gwen, thank you so much!
What an amazing memento. I would have kept that frame also. And the idea of putting the tanka with it appeals to me!
I think that’s a great idea to put the tanka with it. It’s actually en route and supposed to arrive today. Fingers crossed it will still be ok!
This is a lovely story well told in prose and poetry. Definitely keep the frame
Thank you, Derrick! I really hope the frame will be ok. The thing is enroute and supposed to arrive today. Fingers crossed!
Nostalgia indeed. Stories wrapped in stories. I’m with Derrick about keeping the frame.
Thank you, Merril. The picture arrives today, and I sure hope the frame will still be intact! I had to ship through UPS.
You’re welcome, Luanne!
This is a treasure!!!! So glad it’s where it belongs…
Hope your mom’s relocation is done with minimal drama…any change is so difficult. Bless your hearts.
Thanks, Sheila. I talked to her about “the grand adventure” ahead of her. Good food prepared for her, people around her, and her first cousin who she was good friends with when they were girls lives there! This is a cousin I only briefly mentioned on TFK but would love to write more at some point. She was a colonel in the Air Force and part of her service was during Vietnam. Since she was a nurse, she saw a lot of horror. She will be a good friend to my mother.
This is great news for everyone, Luanne! So happy for her, and for you, too. Yes the cousin will be a great friend for your mom.
What a lovely treasure to have and be inspired by.
Thank you so much, Mary Ann!
What a cute memory! Your poem is great, Luanne!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Haha, it is cute, isn’t it?! Thank you, Yvette!
So cute! What a precious memory and a lovely caricature! Well-done Luanne.
Balroop, thank you so much! Such a good memory!
What a wonderful keepsake! (K)
Kerfe, thank you! It really is. I’m sort of holding my breath right now because it’s supposed to arrive here today. I sure hope the frame held up!
fingers crossed for you…
Thank you!
A wonderful treasure ❤️
Thank you so much! I feel pretty blessed that it’s still around after all these years!
Oh, this is most precious! Definitely keep the frame and add your tanka poem. What a precious memory.
Thank you, Colleen! The box with the picture has arrived here from Michigan, and I haven’t opened it yet, but the box is intact, and the guy did a good job with packing the other things . . . .
Oh, my goodness. This is absolutely the best. You are so lucky to have it.
I am! Thanks, Ellen!
wonderful
❤️