This week's #TankaTuesday challenge was an Ekphrastic challenge featuring a painting by George Henry Boughton, called The Lady of the Snows. Find the challenge post HERE. Boughton, George Henry; The Lady of the Snows; Walker Art Gallery; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-lady-of-the-snows-97671 a covert meeting— she stays for her one truelove fiery passions burn wintery winds rough bluster does naught … Continue reading “The Lady of the Snows,” chöka
Category: My Poetry
The first thing I remember is snuggling in my grandmother's arms. She always smelled like apple kuchen. When the dark dreams threatened, she was always there. Gram, a Swedish immigrant who married a Russian/German immigrant, set out to farm the great dust bowl of Kansas. My gramps wasn't a farmer, but bootlegging liquor called his … Continue reading Dedicated to Gram, tanka prose
pale winter sky, the color of turned milk an unfriendly wind skims across the pond cold as a whisper, caressing my icy cheeks the streetlamps aren’t on, but shadows creep coldness descends frosting the street conscious dreams create my reality end of day succeeds © Colleen M. Chesebro A quadrille for dVerse, a day late.
For #TankaTuesday this week, I thought it would be fun to write senryū. Senryū is a Japanese form similar to haiku: three lines with a s-l-s syllable count up to 17 syllables. Senryū are written about human foibles, while haiku are more nature related. Senryū can be cynical or humorous. This poem makes the human, not the world around them, … Continue reading Time Marches On, senryū
"Everything I do is stitched with its color." W.S. Merwin, from “Separation” Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com The gray sky bleeds raindrops into my world. January feels leaden, a Michigan-gray, displaying a perpetual pallor that cloaks the woods near my home in a silvery mist. Even the pine trees wear greenish-gray shrouds, dark phantom … Continue reading The Gray of Winter, Prosery
Terri Webster Schrandt is the host of the Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: Days of #Gray and #White. Find the link to her post HERE. Gray and white are the perfect colors for January in Michigan. Our skies are mostly gray and white, although this year we've had little snow. I won't complain. We had … Continue reading Gray & White: Sunday Stills
This week’s haiku invitation from the Naturalist Weekly is to write a haiku or senryu that contrasts hot and cold. Check out the post Micro-Season: “The Springwater Holds Warmth” (2023) and learn more about writing haiku. cold morning walk—last fall's leaves blowingin my coffee © Colleen M. Chesebro
This week for #TankaTuesday, I asked Terri Webster Schrandt to share a photo from her collection for our poetic inspiration. What a beautiful scene! Read the challenge post HERE. This year, I'm working on improving the imagery in my poetry. My goal is to eliminate wording that sounds like sentences in my syllabic poetry. Good … Continue reading The Gloaming, tanka
Dawn breaks—bold, golden light an explosion of color against a winter-blue sky When was the last time I felt sunshine on my face? Bright light streaks the heavens, pink glow birds circle from lofty heights While I gaze up in awe from below © Colleen M. Chesebro Photo by Rahul Pandit on Pexels.com For dVerse, … Continue reading Dawn Breaks
Happy New Year everybody! It's time for #TankaTuesday. Back by popular demand, our first poetry challenge of 2023 is to write our poem by selecting synonyms for the two words "new & experience." We can't use the two words—synonyms only. Photo by Anton Atanasov on Pexels.com Winter's Folly dewy morning drizzle changes to white snowflakes aimless … Continue reading Winter’s Folly, mirror cinquain
Colleen M. Chesebro 