I took these photos last autumn while I was travelling in Portugal. So, with colour poetry, taste the rainbow as the theme for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday, it seemed the perfect opportunity to share these now, along with some haiku.
Vila Nova de Castelo
muted life’s colours
tranquil portuguese autumn
bringing me much joy
Almancil
blue sky and blue sea
green leaves but autumnal earth
orange underfoot
Val do lobo
golfer’s paradise
val do lobo is so green
autumn algarve day
Altura Beach
my favourite spot
empty of souls only shells
autumn on the beach
I’m excited to reveal that I am working on my next poetry collection: Do What You Love… I will share more about this soon!
Also, I’m delighted to be a contributing author in Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships compiled and edited by Kaye Lynne Booth and Robbie Cheadle.
This challenge by Colleen Chesebro explores Ekphrastic poetry, inspired by visual art or photographs. D. L. Finn provided the photo for this month’s challenge:
My poem is a diatelle, which is a fun, syllable counting form like the etheree with a twist. The syllable structure of the diatelle is: 1,2,3,4,6,8,10,12,10,8,6,4,3,2,1.
Poetry features in most of my books, do check my publications and buy links via this post: https://mjmallon.com/
My latest poetry is featured in the following anthology. I’d highly recommend you get a copy as there are many great poets in the collection compiled by Kaye Lynn Booth and Robbie Cheadle.
I’m thrilled to be a participating author in this lovely collection of poetry compiled by Colleen Chesebro and edited by Jules Paige. My review relates to the other authors in the journal.
It begins with an introduction by Jules Paige in which she discusses the choice of theme in this particular collection.
There are haiku, senryu, tanka, tanka prose and many more forms, all of which are fabulous with so many favourites…
dancing in moonlight in the autumn of our years still chasing blue skies
Pat Raffington.
the empress rises summer and winter curtsy nature holds its breath while the symphony begins fireflies dance in the moonlight
Gwen M. Piano
Other highlights include D. L. Finn’s Moon’s Magic which I loved – about a lone black cat on the edge of the world, under the harvest moon and her “Harvest Moon,” Butterly Cinquain.
The collection concluded with a Best of Issue Poetry with favourites chosen by Jules and Colleen. The chosen poems were by D. L. Finn, Merril D. Smith and Ken Gierke. All excellent.
D. Wallace Peach’s “Moon-spun” tanka prose idyll – so magical and enchanting and her “Revolutions” Butterfly Cinquain.
Merril D. Smith’s Crapsey cinquain entitled “October Night,” her shadorma sequence “Harvest Moon,” and her abhanga “Through the Leaves.”
A new poet to me Sujata Khanna wrote a lovely double inverted etheree entitled “A Viaduct.”
And I particularly enjoyed Bill Engleson’s nonet, “Her Winged Way,” and his diatelle “Above Campbell Bay on a Hot August Night.”
Loved Colleen Chesebro’s Luna’s Soft Glow.
Shadorma took me to a “Moon Dance” with Ruth Klein’s contribution.
There was a “Meeting of Minds,” with a Badger’s hexastich written by Susmita Ramani and her “Autumn Half-Dream” “Prom-ises.”
A Triple Abhanga by Annette Rochelle Aben was lovely too.
I could go on and on. Do read this wonderful collection you won’t be disappointed.
I’m very behind on my blog reviews… so here is a fantastic poetry book I read some time ago from P. J Reed.
My Review
I didn’t know what to expect as I haven’t read poems from P J Reed before. I was interested to see that some of the poems in Flicker are about COVID19, a subject which I have also written about too.
There are observations of a child standing apart from a long lost friend. The impact of closure of public toilets. Overheard conversations from disbelieving binmen. The UK governments eat out to help out scheme. Nature’s revival in roaming wildlife seen in our streets during the first Lockdown in March. Hoarding of toilet rolls and the impact of selfishness on the vulnerable. Poetic commentary about the public’s inability to wear face masks properly, and amusing face mask faux pas!
There are so many wonderful poems expressed in so few words. The power of poetry at it’s best!
Such a great variety of poems – poetic observations about plastic surgery, homeless men, the blessing and curse of social media, modern war, the authors rescue dogs, tourist watching abroad, magical observations of the moon, sea and nature, to light-hearted and amusing coffee shop anecdotes.
Plus a wonderful intro by Karen Jones.
My recommendation: a fantastic collection of poetry. I loved it.
A Slice of Sky Pie - Shadorma
Blue and white
A slice of sky pie
Massive tree
A redwood
Leafy lollipop heaven
Steep climb to the top!
My poem is inspired by a recent trip to the botanical gardens in Cambridge. I noticed this magnificent tree and the wonderful slice of blue and white sky.
Here are some other magnificent champion trees that I saw on my walk. Enjoy!
And a bee hotel.
I intended to go for another walk today but it’s pouring with rain so I’m writing this blog post.
I managed to go for a walk in the rain later!
Check out this wonderful review post from Balroop Singh for Colleen Chesebro’s Wordcraft Prose and Poetry and my poetry and prose book – Mr. Sagittarius.
Thank you so much to Balroop Singh for these wonderful reviews of Colleen Chesebro’s Wordcraft Prose and Poetry and Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose. So thrilled.
For life I chose fate, for move I opted for disturbed
I saw these trees whilst out for a walk with friends. There was something quite melancholy about their soaked roots.
I see a wonder
Trees disturbed in deep water
Soaking up their roots
Drinking in fate’s wilful woes
Sorrow is an endless pit
I originally wrote this before I knew the prompt synonyms! The 2nd line was: Trees submerged in deep water, which I changed to Trees disturbed in deep water. And thereafter, I made a few other adjustments – fourth line – was Drinking in life’s wilful woes, I changed to fate’s wilful woes. Colleen’s SYNONYMS made me dig deeper for a different word!
Congratulations to Colleen on her new release and on her new poetry journal. So exciting!
NEW RELEASE: Word Craft: Prose & Poetry: The Art of Crafting Syllabic Poetry by Colleen M…. https://t.co/0eSqU4z0Es via @amazon
— 🌸Word Craft: Prose & Poetry🌸 (@ColleenChesebro) May 14, 2021
Thank you so much to Robbie Cheadle for this lovely feature on Treasuring Poetry over at Kaye Lynn Booth’s Writing To Be Read
Curious about my favourite poem? A clue… think Autumn. Want to know what my favourite poem is from Mr. Sagittarius? A clue… a bird. There’s more… a wonderful review of Mr. Sagittarius from Robbie, (thank you so much,) and a discussion about my inspirations.
My good friend, and sis Colleen Chesebro has some wonderful news!! Her new book Word Craft Prose and Poetry is out in kindle! Such a huge accomplishment. I know that Colleen has worked so hard on this. It is a huge poetry community endeavour and she includes so many of her community’s poems as examples in the book.
I’m thrilled that my Garland #Cinquain poem about a copse of trees is included!
Over to Colleen…
In her words: I’m honored to share with you the Ebook release of “Word Craft: Prose & Poetry, The Art of Crafting Syllabic Poetry.” Are you ready to learn how to craft Japanese and American…
Are you ready to learn how to craft Japanese and American poetry? Consider this book the first step on your journey to learning the basics of how to craft syllabic poetry. Inside, you will discover many new forms, syllable combinations, and interpretations of the different Japanese and American forms and structures of haiku, senryu, haiga, tanka, renga/solo renga, gogyohka, haibun, tanka prose, the cinquain, and its variations, Etheree, nonet, and shadorma poetry.
So… what are you waiting for? Let’s craft syllabic poetry together!
This is a comprehensive guide covering both American and Japanese poetry including Haiku, Senryu, Haiga, Tanka, Gogyohka, Haibun, Renga, Crapsey Cinquain Etheree, Nonet, Shadorma, and variations, as well as examples of all the forms and recaps to refresh the memory too.
It is written in such a way that it is easy to understand and get the most from.
The Art of Crafting Syllabic Poetry begins with an introduction to how Colleen’s journey began – her poetry community, and goes on to discuss definitions of “meter, syllable, and stresses,” and the hard work required to find your creative soul. She suggests ways to encourage creativity, and talks about figurative language too.
It is clear that author Colleen Chesebro has put her heart and soul into this guide and loves helping others to be the best poets they can be. She runs a wonderful community of poets with weekly prompts, (which again must be an incredible amount of work,) and is now expanding her repertoire to include online submissions to her poetry venture with poet JulesPaige. Colleen is also a co-editor of “Word Weaving, a Word Craft Journal of Syllabic Verse,” at wordweavingpoetryjournal.com more about that below in her Bio.
What an incredible amount of work, dedication and research has gone into this book and into everything that Colleen Chesebro does.
It is a wonderful resource for both new students of poetry to learn and to refer to whilst writing poetry and for old hands, (such as me,) to jog our memories and to avoid making careless mistakes about the forms!
There is a bibliography at the end with the names/links/detail of all the poets who have contributed to the anthology. I’m delighted that my #Garland #Cinquain poem is included amongst this section along with so many awesome contributions from poetry community members.
My recommendation: This is a fabulous book, and one that Colleen Chesebro should be very proud of.
5 stars. I’ll be buying a paperback to use as a resource.
