This week I am participating in #TankaTuesday for the first time. Inspirational photo prompt was shared by Terri Webster Schrandt. I hope I am following the instructions correctly. Apologies in advance if I didn’t!
Terri says: “This is a filtered version of a rose I photographed at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland.”
Tankas are syllabic poems of five lines—5 syllables, 7, 5, 7, 7. Here is my tanka:
Note how the red rose, velvet worn by early frost, clings confidently to its own treacherous stem, never accursed by mirrors.
This writing prompt and process reminded me of a poem I wrote a long time ago and forgot about. It’s not a tanka, but free verse and about “one particular rose.”
my essay students write of gifts or if I'm persistent flowers I have to nurture for a full quarter to earn violets or daffodils or simply bouquet I'm the one with the backyard full of rosebushes which my husband usually waters he's in Korea now with my one particular son while I water them, each blossom an individual that must be noticed by me between the time it rises and sets this particular bend toward the light this particular black eye-dash of blight this particular magenta shading into pink I'm usually too busy for this particular about the work I do teaching show not tell
Thanks for letting me participate!
