Tag Archives: Colleen Chesebro

by Luanne | August 8, 2023 · 5:15 am

This Week’s #TankaTuesday

While reading poetry books is the heart of The Sealey Challenge, I do like to write reviews when I can.

Here is my review of Christine Butterworth McDermott’s new poetry collection that Harbor Review published. https://www.harbor-review.com/the-spellbook-of-fruit-and-flowers

Here are some reviews of poetry books I recently posted on Goodreads:

Margaret Duda’s I Come From Immigrants (note: book is similar in content to Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Grief Songs, since it is memoir-ish poetry paired with personal photographs)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180625112-i-come-from-immigrants

Laurie Kuntz has two recent books out, and both of them are wonderfully personal about her relationships with husband and adult son.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59748231-the-moon-over-my-mother-s-house

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80351487-talking-me-off-the-roof

#TANKATUESDAY

Colleen Chesebro’s #TankaTuesday poetry prompt for this week is to write a syllabic poem using collective animal nouns.

Topic: Collective animal nouns

A murder of crows

brings me stones and an earring

for feeding their young.

My dearest clowder of cats

whines all day long for their food.

I had to look up whether to use singular or plural for the verbs. It was hard for me to determine the correct usage, but it seems that this tanka called for a singular verb.

Cute kitties below are my daughter’s kittens, but this photo is already months old! They are playing Mouse for Cats on my iPad.

REVIEW OF ROOTED AND WINGED

Richard Allen Taylor published a review of my collection Rooted and Winged in the new issue of Main Street Rag. I think it’s a pretty funny review. Posting images of the journal pages.

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by Luanne | August 1, 2023 · 5:15 am

August is the month of The Sealey Challenge. Started by poet Nicole Sealey in 2017, the challenge is to read a book of poetry every day for the month of August. In the past, I have used this time to read poetry books that were sitting unread on my bookshelf. While I know I can’t read a book a day as I have other things going on, I am still going to try to read more than usual this month. Want to join me?

If you join the challenge and need an idea, I would love it if you wanted to add one of my books to your list. Here is a link to all four books. https://www.luannecastle.com/bookstore/ Additionally, if you are interested in a copy of my first collection Doll God, for this month I am offering you a copy for $5 that includes shipping if you have it delivered in the United States. If you are not in the U.S. contact me and let’s see if we can figure it out. Think of it in honor of the Barbie movie. Email me at luanne.castle which is at gmail.com.

Two of my Doll God poems have been republished this month in Verse-Virtual. You can find them here: https://www.verse-virtual.org/2023/August/castle-luanne-2023-august.html

Colleen Chesebro’s #TankaTuesday poetry prompt for this week is to use synonyms for the words flow and wave. I used runs and beckons and wrote an American cinquain.

Follow Me

The doe

in the pasture

sees me and runs away,

slips between trees, white tail, a sail,

beckons.

The turn is found in line five because while the deer runs from me, it seems as though she also beckons me to follow her with her communicative tail.

Not sure if this is a male that shed its antlers or a female

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by Luanne | July 25, 2023 · 5:15 am

Ekphrastic Tanka and Ekphrastic Microfiction:#TankaTuesday

We’re here at #TankaTuesday again! Colleen Chesebro’s prompt this week is to write an ekphrastic poem about this painting.

I am rushed for time, so I wrote a tanka since I feel familiar with the form.

This summer Sunday

lie upon the riverbank

and observe movements

of waterfowl and fishers,

neighbor’s herd and young lovers.

I have a creepy ekphrastic timed (one hour max) microfiction piece up at Visual Verse. If you like creepy in small doses, here is the link and the image that inspired the story:

The Kindness of Strangers

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by Luanne | July 18, 2023 · 5:15 am

Bird in Imayo: #TankaTuesday

Since Colleen Chesebro’s weekly #TankaTuesday poetry prompts are so inspiring to me, I bought her book that describes the various types of syllabic poetry so that I could use that as a guide instead of the wonderful links she has on the Wordcraft website. This way, the book is right at my side when I need it.

Ironically, this week’s #TankaTuesday is to write in a form not in the book. We are to write a poem about a bird in the Japanese form Imayo.

The imayo is comprised of four 12-syllable lines. Each line is divided into a 7-syllable and a 5-syllable section, with a hard pause (or caesura) in between. The pause will generally be represented by a comma, semi-colon, or similar punctuation.

4 lines (8 lines permissible)
12 syllables per line divided as 7-5
make a pause space between the 7 and 5 syllables
use comma, caesura or kireji (cutting word) as the pause
no rhymes
no meter
no end of line pauses – the whole should flow together as though one long sentence
The Imayo is a literal poem so do not use symbolism, allegory etc.

I decided to write about the Great Blue Heron that showed up in my yard last year. In the photo, the coyote behind the heron is an inanimate metal coyote!

I glanced out the front window — the Great Blue Heron

stood motionless by the pool — it stared straight ahead

perhaps lost in the desert — perhaps it mistook

pool for a swamp or wetland — beauty or sadness?

###

Hmm not my favorite form. When the description mentions “literal,” it means the form is not to employ figurative imagery. In general, in English language poetry, literal poems tend to be for children whereas figurative poems (using metaphor, simile, etc ) are for adults. In a literal poem the focus is on a plain description or a simple point or philosophy.

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