Tag Archives: #TankaTuesday

by Luanne | March 21, 2023 · 12:14 pm

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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by Luanne | March 14, 2023 · 2:01 pm

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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by Luanne | March 7, 2023 · 12:03 pm

#Tanka Tuesday and Poetry Reading

See below for the video that goes with this fireplace photo.

Today Colleen’s prompt for #TankaTuesday involved writing a syllabic poem using a photo by https://secondwindleisure.com/about-me/ as a prompt.

I’ve been wanting to try a cherita, which is 3 stanzas–one line, two lines, three lines. So this is what I came up with.

I can hear the thunder and spray before I see it.

Then it appears before me in its many textures
of wood and stone and the glorious movement of water.

As I stand on the viewing platform overlooking all,
the mist parts from the water, rising up toward 
the blue sky, hugging me in its wet embrace.

Then I started to question if a cherita was really syllabic poetry because you don’t count the syllables, so I quickly came up with a haiku to make sure I’m covered!

powerful water
sheeting down to be as one
with its still-wild self

The publisher, Alien Buddha Press, of Our Wolves has created a YouTube playlist of authors reading from their new books. I read four poems from the chapbook. Oh, and if you do check it out, watch for when I say the most UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNIEST thing. Hint: it has to do with whether Antarctica has folk and fairy tales.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Wolves-Luanne-Castle/dp/B0BTKNP31D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8PAK9E03LTBV&keywords=our+wolves&qid=1677978570&sprefix=our+wo%2Caps%2C355&sr=8-1&asin=B0BTKNP31D&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

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Tagged as #fracturedfairytale, #OurWolves, #TankaTuesday, Alien Buddha Press, book release, cherita, Haiku, Our Wolves, Poetry, poetry chapbook, poetry collection, poetry reading, Red Riding Hood

by Luanne | February 22, 2023 · 12:20 pm

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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by Luanne | February 18, 2023 · 5:20 am

#TankaTuesday Today

The hummingbird on her nest right outside my backdoor several years ago.

This week’s prompt is to use synonyms for change and growth in a syllabic form. I decided to write a haibun because it’s a form I feel comfortable with. I like the expansive quality of the haibun. It’s a prose poem, followed by a haiku that sort of furthers the poem or comments upon what comes before. I prefer the prose portion to be aligned on both left and right sides, forming a box, but I don’t know how to do that on WordPress.

My inspiration was the hummingbird mother I reported on years ago on this blog and then two years ago it happened again that a hummingbird mother helped her more immature baby.

***

How to Mother

She builds an elastic nest of spiderwebs and leaves, twigs and lichen, so small and round it fits in a child’s palm. Then she lays two white eggs, the size of cannellini. All month she warms them with her tiny body and only whirs away to feed on nectar and then whir back again. When the babies burst through the shells in all their wet messy glory, she begins the rapid rhythmic constant search for food for their always open mouths. After the first one leaves the nest, she spends all afternoon with the other demonstrating how to fly. The metamorphosis from nesting to new flight is complete.

The mother directs
life’s forward move, inspiring
her babies to thrive.

***

Have you tried writing syllabic poetry for the #TankaTuesday prompt? If not, give it a try!

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by Luanne | February 8, 2023 · 8:08 pm

My First Time at #TankaTuesday (Even if It’s Not Tuesday)

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!

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