Tag Archives: syllabic poetry

Not Meant for Humans: #TankaTuesday

Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested this prompt today: to write in response to this Monet painting of his garden in Giverny. I decided to write a haibun as I had a story to tell.

Not Meant for Humans

The walkway seems to have no beginning, and so I tiptoe through the purple and blue blossoms to reach the rough path, feeling naughty and bold but safe for its proximity to a well-painted building. I circle the garden of Iris, the rainbow herself. Round I go three times and then spy a spot of bone under the willow. The sun ray has moved, so now I can see what I have missed. Or did it just appear? I step closer, into the flowers, careful not to crush the blossoms themselves, aware I might be harming stems.  My curiosity draws me in. As I bend toward the ground, I part the plants and see a very small skeleton, as of an excruciatingly tiny human. Her shredded wings are faded with age, but once must have been the blue of Iris with yellow dots like bright and miniature suns. Perhaps she fell from the branch above when she was asleep. I understand now why the path repeats itself, an endless spinning trail, meant as it is for those with wings to fly above the garden and to rest in the shade of the well-nourished trees. Still, being human, I invite you to share in my experience.

Watch for tiny wings

hidden by goddess Iris

and her endless path.

###

I’ve been intrigued by fairies lately. And by the notion of fairy skeletons because, after all, what is left of them after they die?

As you can see from the poem, I also constantly worry over our human enjoyment of and curiosity about nature because we are such destructive creatures, even when we don’t mean to be.

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Two Springs in Arizona: #TankaTuesday

Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested this prompt today: write a syllabic poem using synonyms for the words green and spring, but do not use those words themselves. I decided to use the form tanka because I am starting to really appreciate that structure.

Rather than a title, a tanka might have a topic. My topic is Arizona seasons.

March in the desert
is verdant, a vernal gem,
budtime under blue
and blossomy without freeze,
Phoenix repeats in the fall.



Vernal and budtime are both synonyms for spring. Verdant is a synonym for green.

In Arizona we tend to have two springs, meaning that some blossoming trees bloom twice a year and that we plant new annuals in both fall and spring. For this reason March and April—and October—are my favorite months in Arizona.

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Kerf with Mild Sri Lankan Curry: #TankaTuesday Today

This week’s prompt by Colleen Chesebro is to find a spice in my cupboard and write a syllabic poem about it. I chose a spice that I no longer use that has sentimental significance. And for the form, I chose a hard one, the Kerf. The reason I find it hard is that I think pairing syllable counts with rhymes makes it hard for the poem to be sincere and meaningful.

Kerf with Mild Sri Lankan Curry

When I was in grad school,
she was my daughter’s teacher
in the university’s large day care.

She taught my girl each rule,
was the one who could reach her.
We became friends with times and hugs to share.

We loved her native food--
curry that she loved to cook--
so she gave us dried powder at the car--

richest spices, imbued.
Now we can just hug; time took
her memories, leaving only this jar.

 

You can see why I want to keep the jar of curry powder, although what is left at the bottom is no longer fresh or at its peak. But when I open the jar I remember the old Elaine, vibrant and chattering and smelling of roses and fresh chicken curry.

About the Kerf: it is 12 lines with 4 tercets. Lines of each tercet are syllable counts of 6-7-10. The rhyme pattern is abc, abc, dec, dec per stanza.

This Sunday and Monday is the release of my new poetry chapbook, Our Wolves, based on the Red Riding Hood story.

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An Ekphrastic #TankaTuesday

This week’s prompt from Colleen Chesebro’s https://wordcraftpoetry.com/2023/02/21/tankatuesday-ekphrastic-poetry-challenge-no-308-2-21-23/ is to write an ekphrastic poem about the following Singer Sargent portrait. The whole idea of #TankaTuesday is to write a syllabic poem according to prompt. Syllabic poems are quite different from what I usually write. They are formed by certain patterns of syllables.

By John Singer Sargent – Own work by Ad Meskens., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29347966

I love that Colleen wrote: “REMEMBER… don’t just describe the woman… we can all see her. Like all of us, this woman has a story. Write THAT poem….” I have been working on my ekphrastic poems, as well as syllabic, so this was a fun exercise. I chose to write a Reverse Cinquain. And, I’m sorry if this seems like a strange response, but all I could think about once I put myself into the woman herself is how uncomfortable I feel wearing this outfit. Then, my second thought was, but I sure feel beautiful (and I can’t wait to unhook my bra and the spanx and take off my shoes, etc.).

BEAUTIFUL PRISON

My dress

itches my breasts,

my corset produces

heartburn, this beauty I strive for

tortures.

This dress

my dressmaker created from

lavender gossamer

soothes mind but not

body.

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