Walks – M J Mallon YA Author and Poet

“LIFE & MOVE” are the prompt words this week.

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

Submissions are Open for the Word Weaving Syllabic #poetry Journal. Start counting your syllables! https://t.co/jZNWvcBcY6 pic.twitter.com/S0RZWM9c3l
— 🌸Word Craft: Prose & Poetry🌸 (@ColleenChesebro) May 15, 2021

#Tanka Tuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 225, #SynonymsOnly

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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.

#Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 221 #SynonymsOnly

Hope you enjoyed the Etheree poems. Bye for now!

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I wrote a series of short poems inspired by photographs I’d taken during a walk at my local country park lake.

Hidden behind reeds,
Swan sits, her neck curls, twirling,
Twigs bend in circles,
I pause, observe, imagine,
White tiny cygnets hatching.

A White Mound,

I see you flash by,

Concealed, nest.

No White Mound

Trees, lake, hidden life

Bright Yellow

#TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 220, #POET’SCHOICE

I hope you enjoyed!

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This week I decided to share a garland cinquain. Colleen also shared a garland cinquain so I thought I’d use her example to help me write one too: https://colleenchesebro.com/2020/06/04/the-old-gods-garland-cinquain/

In Colleen’s words: ‘This poem is created with a 2/4/6/8/2 syllable count for each of the five stanzas. The last stanza is where it gets interesting. You take line one from the first stanza, line two from the second stanza, etc. until you’ve created the last refrain.
I especially like this form because it combines the brevity of syllabic poetry into a longer verse poem that tells a story.’

This is inspired by my photo of the copse of trees. My daughters and I were taking a walk during lockdown. We’d often taken this walk before but this time we stumbled upon a different pathway to the left.

It led us to:

A copse

Of trees past fields

I’ve never seen before

Like tiny balls of knitted wool

Airy

***

Blue Gaps

Vast space beyond

Quiet and still the grass

My mindful feet touching the earth

Six eyes

***

Wander

Ahead, one foot

Treads to infinity

Taking our feet somewhere special

Perhaps?

***

My girls

Daughters join me

Walking in the sunshine

As we move in sweet steps forward

In time

***

Waiting

For something new

A sight we haven’t seen

As we turn beyond the grasses

New dreams

***

A copse

Vast space beyond

Treads to infinity

As we move in sweet steps forward

New dreams

https://colleenchesebro.com/2020/06/02/colleens-2020-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-180-poetschoice/

I hope you enjoyed the cinquain garland poem. I’ve never written one of those before. I liked how it told a story! When we drive everywhere we miss so much. It’s great to walk in nature and find little gems.

My new book is coming soon! It is currently with first draft beta readers. There may be some changes and a few more writers to add to the collection.

This Is Lockdown, is a compilation of my diaries during lockdown, plus short stories, flash fiction, and poetry.

The ‘Isolation writers’ who featured on my blog sharing their thoughts on isolation during COVID19: Richard Dee, Alice May, Jeannie Wycherley, Ritu Bhathal, Jackie Carreira, Fiona Phillips, Andrew Neary, Ceri William’s, Katherine Mezzacappa, Peter Taylor-Gooby, Chantelle Atkins, Sharon Marshisello, Tracie Barton-Barrett, Catherine Fearns, Lynn Fraser and Miriam V. Owen, plus poetry from Sally Cronin, Marion Wood, Debby Gies, (D G Kaye Writer,)