#TankaTuesdayWeekly #Poetry Challenge #etheree

This week’s challenge is a photo prompt. from photographer, Terri Webster Schrandt, from secondwindleisure.com to share her photos with us for inspiration. Terri runs a weekly photo challenge called Sunday Stills. Check it out HERE.

Terri says: “This is a filtered version of a rose I photographed at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland.”

I imagined an artist painting a life portrait of his love.

Here are my Etheree poems:

Love Unchained❤️

Love
Unchained
Heartstrings play
Captured verses
Loose petals scatter
My brush strokes velveteen
On your desirable skin!
My breath hitches with excitement
Your hair loosens, and your smile escapes,
You laugh so hard that each rose tumbles free…

© M J MALLON

Painting Your Beauty With Rose Petals 🌹

A bouquet of a dozen blooms arrive
As lipstick red as each dewy kiss
My rapt caresses make you smile
With trembling hands I begin
To paint your dear beauty
With red rose petals
I’m cherishing
Such naked
Sweetest
Love

© M J MALLON

Latest Release Details:

Blurb

Do What You Love Fragility of Your Flame Poems, Photography & Flash Fiction is a personal poetry collection celebrating how the fates may have a part in all that we do.

With special poems and short reflective moments inspired by family, flowers and nature, love, scrumptious morsels, places I’ve visited, lived and intend to live in, the friendships and hopes I have for the future.

The overarching theme is to live a life well lived… And to do what you love.

float along with me
create clouds of sweetest joy
to do what you love
hold fate’s hand as we venture
near and far on life’s journey

(EXCERPT DO WHAT YOU LOVE © M J MALLON)

Buy Links Do What You Love:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BKLC9DYY/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/What-You-love-Fragility-Photography-ebook/dp/B0BKLC9DYY/

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/What-You-love-Fragility-Photography-ebook/dp/B0BKLC9DYY/#

Reviews And Features:

Book Review: ‘Do What You Love – Fragility of Your Flame’ by MJ Mallon

A review of Marjorie Mallon’s new book. Do What You Love .

I am thrilled to say that three of my poetry collections, (Mr. Sagittarius, The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet and Lockdown Innit,) have been requested by prestigious libraries in the UK: The British Library, The Bodleian Library Oxford University, the Cambridge University Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin for Legal Deposit.

Add the book to your TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63114445-do-what-you-love

Media kit: https://mjmallon.com/2022/11/04/media-kit-do-what-you-love-fragility-of-your-flame-poems-photography-flashfiction-new-book-release-writingcommunity-poetrycommunity-mediakit-paperback/

Other poetry/flash fiction collections:

Kyrosmagica Publishing

The Hedge Witch And The Musical Poet

https://books2read.com/u/mv1OeV

Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose

http://mybook.to/MrSagittarius

Anthology – This Is Lockdown, (poetry, diaries and flash fiction – kindle)

http://mybook.to/Thisislockdown

Poetry during Lockdown – Lockdown Innit

http://mybook.to/Lockdowninnit

Colleen’s publishing services including cover design and formatting which I can recommend:

My Services: Unicorn Cats Publishing Services

Poetry also features in my highly acclaimed YA Fantasy series.  Each chapter begins with a short poem. The Curse of Time Book 1 Bloodstone and Book 2 Golden Healer are published by Next Chapter Publishing.

https://www.nextchapter.pub/books/bloodstone

https://www.nextchapter.pub/books/golden-healer

https://www.nextchapter.pub/authors/mj-mallon

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#TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 221 @ColleenChesebro #SYNONYMSONLY

Synonyms this week are: search and lost

For Search – Look, or hunt for lost  astray, Steering me off

I wrote a couple of Etherees… This was in the window of an art shop on King’s Parade, Cambridge.

Hunt

For cheese?

Three dear mice

Full of colour

Someone’s creation

Their artsy makes me smile

Steering me off my planned course

Where was I going? Oh, yes work!

I’d rather stay and play with you guys

Maybe see you later, I finish soon!

Look

What’s this?

Pucker mask

Astray it hangs

Placed at eye level

Imagine its sad plight

I pause for a brief moment

Faceless it waits patiently

For its owner to come pick it up  

It has become a stray mask with no home.

 © M J Mallon

Hope you enjoyed the Etheree poems. Bye for now!

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WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 203 #EKPHRASTIC #PHOTOPROMPT

How could I not take part with such an evocative image chosen by Diana?

This challenge explores Ekphrastic writing inspired by visual art (photographs). Diana Peach from last month’s challenge has provided the photo for this month’s challenge.

ETHEREE: The Etheree poem consists of ten lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. An Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Double Etheree

Stare

Downwards

Beyond life

A darkness grows

To infinity

Seeping into water

My long blonde hair stays behind

Exposing my poor nakedness

A child lost in a time with no kindness

Cold skin, white against teeming cruel shadows

Black heart whispering melancholy words

Stay still, forever no one will care

Who will remember you strange child?

Mother, father, sister, none.

Death is your only friend

Come! In the water

Reflect and be

Still. Death’s friend

Holding

Hands

Ooh, that was creepy!

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D G Kaye : Isolation Writers #COVID19 #Thoughts #Isolation #Etheree #Poem

Marje, thanks for inviting me to share my thoughts on Covid19 and my observances. I’ve written an Etheree to express my thoughts.

It’s my pleasure Debby, so glad you can join me to discuss these challenging times.


These are most certainly strange times. Covid19 has put the world on pause. These uncertain times give us opportunity to reflect and step outside the box of life as we knew it, urging us all to take a good long look at our world. Across the globe there are people hiding safely in their homes, people who worry about losing their homes, and many who protest the lockdown rules by defying them.

Question marks still abound about this mysterious disease as there is still much we’ve yet to learn about the contagious Coronavirus. Countries are doing their best to keep ‘the curve’ down from spread and it’s up to each one of us to do our parts in both dodging and keeping from spreading it in our tracks. But human nature is always a factor, and there will always be those who oppose the rule of law.

I’m a writer, so I observe life and its contradictions. From my vantage point I’ve seen a lot of the world expose itself through this unprecedented time, from the good to the bad, from the obedient to the defiant. I’ve seen images of waters clearing and fish once again swimming in places not seen for decades. I’ve seen images of nature from afar, otherwise camouflaged by smog. This pause is revealing to us what’s wrong down to the core’s nub of this world. I’m seeing the greed of man and the kindness of strangers. I’m seeing how seniors in many places are being forgotten with age, but I’m also seeing that the next generation is taking a stand in crime, climate, equality and racism, and convinced it is they who will most-likely be the generation to save the world. I’m seeing despair, but I’m seeing the hope. The purge is on and we are observing and living it.

There’s always upheaval before building anew – first comes the demolition, and from that will rise new beginnings. We are in the moment of the pre-new beginnings. We have one last big chance to keep the movement going for the change to come. The change for last chance to make the world better in every possible way. This is what I see.

As a writer, the isolation part doesn’t affect me because I’m always writing or clicking away on a computer, working best in a solo environment. The only affecting part is going out for groceries and having to wait in a line, 6 feet distanced from the next human, in order to enter, and same procedure to checkout. I abhor grocery shopping in a normal world. Covid19 just exacerbated the issue. I am very much missing human engagement – talking in person, hugging a friend, and seeing a compassionate, genuine smile, not hidden behind a mask.

Cabin Fever

Anxiety exacerbates within.
The pandemic reigns on human life.
We grieve the lost art of living.
While idling in neutral,
We remain suspended,
Awaiting normal,
A new concept.
Lessons taught.
Observe.
Breathe!

©DGKaye

Bio: Debby Gies is a Canadian nonfiction/memoir author who writes under the pen name of D.G. Kaye. She was born, raised, and resides in Toronto, Canada. Kaye writes about her life experiences, matters of the heart and women’s issues.

D.G. Kaye writes to inspire others. Her writing encompasses stories taken from events she encountered in her own life, and the lessons taken from them. Her sunny outlook on life developed from learning to overcome challenges in her life and finding the upside from those situations. Her refusal to accept the word No or the phrase I can’t, keep her on the path to positivity. Kaye loves to look for the humor in whatever life can dish out, and when she isn’t writing intimate memoirs, she brings her natural sense of humor into her other works. She writes with a rawness and honesty, leaving readers with something to take from her stories.

Social Links:
www.dgkayewriter.com
www.goodreads.com/dgkaye
www.amazon.com/author/dgkaye7

www.linkedin.com/in/DGKaye7
www.facebook.com/dgkaye

http://www.amazon.com/author/dgkaye7

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Debby and for the wonderful Etheree poem which captures the essence of our times so well.

I’m thrilled that you will be a contributing author in This Is Lockdown – more about that soon!

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Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge – Poet’s Choice

It’s been a while… I’ve missed writing poetry but I’ve been very busy trying to finish editing the second book in my series The Curse of Time and to be honest I’ve been struggling with it as it is a very ambitious project, especially as I work full-time. I’m getting there but still lots to do. My beta readers have been an enormous help and I’ve had lots of feedback after attending the SCBWI conference in November.

More about that here: https://mjmallon.com/2019/11/06/scbwicon19-tips-for-newbies-writing-illustrating-conference-agents/

So, in the meantime a little poetry diversion is in order… inspired by a lovely robin that came to sit beside me whilst I was on my lunch break from work. This seems to happen to me quite a bit, last time it was a dragonfly! https://mjmallon.com/2019/09/29/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-146-synonymsonly/

The robin was very tame and stayed with me for some time. I was feeling sad, (it was the day after the terror attack on London Bridge, in which two young Cambridge University graduates died,) so his visit was very welcome and his gentle, unobtrusive time with me lifted my ailing spirits.

I’ve written a double Etheree…

Bench,

A bird,

Red-breasted,

So tame you rest,

Beside me Robin,

Two friends on a park bench,

One human, one of nature,

I appreciate your kind time,

Until you away… exploring far,

Hinting at possibilities you go.

 

 

I wonder what you notice in your world.

And why you chose that ground to explore,

When you could have stayed here with me,

In mindful meditation.

Maybe you’ll visit me,

Christmas day, perhaps?

To bring good cheer,

Until then,

Peace to,

You.

https://colleenchesebro.com/how-to-write-an-etheree-poem/

I wonder who will visit me next on the park bench…

Bye for now,

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Colleen’s 2019 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge #Poet’sChoice #Etheree #Trees #Photography #Bookish

 

 

I love trees, and enjoy my wanders in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens which is home to many champion trees. Just recently I came upon this beautiful Paperbark Maple, such a find for an author: a tree that peels it bark, like the well-worn pages of a book that has been read many times! So, I decided to grace its beauty by writing an Etheree poem which you can see below.

I will also be sharing more about the Paperbark Maple soon on the The Sisters of The Fey Blog so do keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, here is my poem, I hope you enjoy!

 

Paperbark Maple – An Etheree 

I

see you

Paperbark

Peeling brown curls

Enticing me quick

Imagination twirls…

Wow, what a bookish delight!

A captivating, living art

Small tree but unique, fresh and renewed

You’ve captured my heart, Magic Maple bark!

 

https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/09/03/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-142-1st-of-the-month-poetschoice/

 

Bye for now,

Social Media Links

Authors Websitehttps://mjmallon.com
Collaborative Bloghttps://sistersofthefey.wordpress.com
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mjmallonauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

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Colleen’s 2019 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 125#SynonymsOnly

poetry-badge-blue-2

Who better to write about than my lovely dad, Ronald?

He has always been my inspiration. I doubt I would ever have become a writer if it hadn’t been for him. Both of my parents  are much loved and have had an extraordinary life  with many stories to tell. My dad is quite the raconteur! He has been fortunate to have travelled to, and lived in, many exotic countries in his life: Hong Kong, Singapore,  Malaysia (where he met my mum,) Africa, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, British Virgin Islands, Fiji, Anguilla, Abu Dhabi… etc.

 

So this is for my dad, who isn’t Russian but learnt Russian as a young man. I find it quite extraordinary that he still remembers how to speak and sing in Russian after all these years.  Like his grandfather, who lived a long life (and walked miles when he was ninety,) he has a zest for life which I admire enormously. And the ladies seem to love dad – apparently he received many birthday wishes from the female golfers in his club! Which mum took very good-naturedly… He is so like his grandfather, (who he loved.)

Apparently his grandfather was also a big hit with the ladies too!

Dad,

Is great,

From his birth,

One of a kind,

He likes a challenge,

A dapper gentleman,

Whose impeccable taste shines,

I’d describe him to impress you,

Just like his grandfather before him,

He dazzles all those he meets with his charm.

 

From the beginning

He was so adventurous,

Now ninety he sings,

Russian songs to our waitress,

For the record – he’s handsome!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my tanka and etheree. Do join in with Colleen’s poetry challenge.

Here is the link:

https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/02/26/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-xx-synonymsonly/

And in case you’d like to see how to write an Etheree:

https://colleenchesebro.com/how-to-write-an-etheree-poem/

 

To see my latest review pop over to Beaton’s blog: https://becomingthemuse.net/2019/02/26/of-the-curse-of-time-book-review/

Featured Image -- 42809

Buy Book: myBook.to/TheCurseofTime

Social Media Links

Authors Websitehttps://mjmallon.com
Collaborative Bloghttps://sistersofthefey.wordpress.com
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mjmallonauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

 

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