Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested this beautiful photo byTerri Webster Schrandt as a prompt for this week’s #TankaTuesday.
I wrote another tanka as I first tried a different form (tetractys), but couldn’t make it work for this image. Though the actual setting was the Sacramento river delta, I saw a lake. That also worked better syllable-wise.
That is so beautiful, Luanne!
Thank you, Anneli.
This hit me as melancholy. (I’m taking “blurred lights of humanity” metaphorically.)
Definitely melancholy. The way the photo focuses on the flower makes it seem very alone.
Thanks for affirming my interpretation.
You’re wecome hah!
😀
Just read an email with this sentence from Robinson’s Housekeeping and it reminds me of how I feel about this photo and hence writing the tanka: ““It was the kind of loneliness that made clocks seem slow and loud and made voices sound like voices across water.” What an amazing quote, huh?
Yes, it is!
So beautiful! A poem to ponder! I could read this one over and over again.
Linda, thank you so much! I did my job ;).
It does work. Nicely done, Luanne.
Thanks, John!!!
😁
That’s amazing, Luanne. I don’t know how you come up with these wondrousTankas.
I am getting experienced at the tankas. Now I need to focus on some other form!
I didn’t see any loneliness or sadness in the image! Strange how our minds works to create a poem! Thanks for showing another aspect of this picture Luanne.
Thanks, Balroop! I keep trying to figure out how we see it so differently, but it is true!
Oh! This is lovely so to the point, it’s amazing how differently we see the same photo 💜
Thank you! Yes, it is incredible!
I picked up on a sadness in the picture as well. I loved your poem, Luanne!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Thank you, Yvette! So glad it wasn’t just me!
Well done there. I see the sadness in the photo and poem that everyone else is pointing out. The lighting in the photo suggests the day is ending. Sometimes that is a sad time of day, as well as the flower seeming to be alone.
Good point about end of day!!! Yes, it just surprises me when some others don’t see the sadness, but maybe they are the lucky ones! Thanks, Marie.
Very nice, Luanne. I feel the melancholy in the photo too. Well done. 💜
Thank you, Colleen. So interesting how some of us feel it and others do not. The more I hear from others and keep looking at the photo I do not think I imagined it or projected (too much). That whole blurring aspect with the light so far off . . . .
I need to finish my poem. I hope I can express it as well as you did.
Gotta go see if you finished!
The wildflowers do look isolated and lonely there by the water.
So glad you can see it, too!
Beautiful, ethereal.
Thank you!
Utterly lovely, Luanne <3
Much love,
David
Thank you, David. Much appreciated!
Very powerful imagery!
Thank you so much!