The prompt this week is dreams…. I’m reading a romance at the moment, it’s getting steamy…. Lol.
Lips still tingling
Mouth kissed by sweet dreaming lies
I awake alone
Embracing the pillow’s curves
Longing for your tender touch
Hope you enjoy the tanka!
My new poetry collection is out!!
BLURB
Lockdown Innit is a poetry collection of eighteen poems about life’s absurdities and frustrations during lockdown. Wherever you live in this world, this is for you. Expect humour, a dollop of banter and ridiculous rants here and there. Amongst other delights, witness the strange antics of a swan posing by a bin and two statuesque horses appearing like arc deco pieces in a field. Check out the violin player on a tightrope, or the cheeky unmentionables wafting in the lockdown breeze!
Buying Links Lockdown Innit Released February 26th
The prompt words this week are: transition & harmony but we have to find synonyms for our poetry. For transition I chose – metamorphosis and for harmony – peaceful.
Recently, I went on a walk with my two daughter to the nearby river. We crossed a bridge over the lock, looking down I noticed a stone frog hidden under the ramparts of the concrete bridge. I’ve walked over that bridge but have never noticed it before. Perhaps, being a writer and a poet has made me more observant than most people – particularly during Lockdown!
I took an ‘instant’ video of the frog. But it was so swift and almost impossible to see.
My daughters walked ahead and didn’t see the frog. Next time, we walk over that bridge I will point it out to them. Unless of course I imagined it!
I’m sitting in a cafe in Cambridge watching the snow fall. A lady crosses the road with a large black umbrella, the white flecks of pure snow fall covering its surface. I am drawn to this image to write a poem.
The world faces so many challenges at the moment: climate crisis, Coronovirus, economic crises. Where are we headed? Unfortunately, the Coronovirus has led to some racist abuse due to the origin of the virus. So, this is my poetic take on the state of affairs, expressed with a Tanka…
White snow falls to black Umbrellas hiding cold stares Finding clarity Sick quarantine continues Media spreads people’s fears.
My poem’s a sad one today as I recently heard about the tragic death of a young woman in her early twenties. How fragile we are.
I miss you; I’m blue Above me heaven’s sky opens My light shines for you Waiting for you to return Dinner’s ready love, come home.
Colleen is looking for Senryu poetry in the 3/5/3 and 2/3/2 format to use in her new book as an example. If she uses your poem you will retain all rights to your work. Your work is copyrighted and she will cite you in the Bibliography at the end of the book. Please email Colleen at tankatuesdaypoetry@gmail.com.
Unique Selling Point: Unique, Imaginative, ‘Charming, enchanting and richly layered this is purely delightful.’
“This delightful book will appeal to teens and young adults who love stories filled with magical crystals, dark family curses, and mysteries waiting to be solved around every corner. Each chapter leads you on a journey of discovery where Amelina earns the right to use three wizard stones to reset the balance of time and finally break the curse that holds her family hostage. A captivating tale!” – Colleen M. Chesebro (Editor)
This week for Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge there’s an awesome photo to use as inspiration, which you can see above. Image Credit: Commons: Wikipedia.ogr
Hibiscus flowers bring back memories of tropical sunshine. Nowadays, I enjoy catching a glimpse of them at the Botanical Gardens in their glasshouses, this is one I photographed a while ago…
I added the last line as the dragonfly has such a short life like the butterfly and change can be fragile unless we encourage and nurture it and learn to be our better self.
This is my contribution to Colleen’s poetry challenge, inspired by an encounter with a dragonfly.
I will be writing about this soon on our collaborative blog The Sisters of The Fey.
Unique Selling Point: Unique, Imaginative, ‘Charming, enchanting and richly layered this is purely delightful.’
“This delightful book will appeal to teens and young adults who love stories filled with magical crystals, dark family curses, and mysteries waiting to be solved around every corner. Each chapter leads you on a journey of discovery where Amelina earns the right to use three wizard stones to reset the balance of time and finally break the curse that holds her family hostage. A captivating tale!” – Colleen M. Chesebro (Editor)
Word prompts: Kind and shift. For kind, I used breed and shift: transform.
The idea for this Tanka came from a passage in my WIP: The Curse of Time Book 2 Golden Healer when Esme (the mirror girl,) tells Amelina (my main protagonist,) about her experience with the shadow men.
Could it be a dream or is it real?
I am currently working through my edits after my beta reading comments with a view to publishing this in the autumn.
Here’s a short extract:
A black furrow of shadows lined his forehead. He beseeched me with his eyes, but when he saw my resolve a maniacal laugh erupted from his demented mouth. This laugh galloped from his lips in the form of a diaphanous spirit which became a pack of wild neighing horses – all black, glossy stallions. They galloped towards me. They didn’t stop, they kept on coming. Their hoofs trampled upon me pounding all of those black shadows away. They should have crushed me but I didn’t die. Instead, their hoofs stamped and stamped, breaking bones, crushing my organs and tissues until the bleeding stopped. The pain was unbelievable. I longed for death. But the horses whinnied, as if laughing. Their laughter ran through my body, fixing my broken bones, easing my pain, making me whole again. They tossed me up in the air, and I landed on top of the lead stallion’s back. He leapt into the blackness, carrying me off with him.
Black Diaphanous Horses
Such a breed they are
Like no other you will see
Transformed from shadows
Wicked horses galloping
Are they real or devil’s dream?
If you’d like to join in the challenge here’s the link:
