Category Archives: Challenges and Writing Prompts

if only…

if only…

consider Gaia’s cycling days
her seasons gently yield and flow
no forced succession, letting go,
no power struggles, coups, or frays

if only men could learn her ways
and realize all things must end
in order to emerge again
if only we could just be still
and listen to the wind and chill
perhaps our enmity might mend

there’s no calm, no eye
‘midst the tempests formed by men
only destruction

~kat


A combined response to Ronovan’s challenges this week. The Décima (Prompt word STILL/D-Line Rhyme./ abba-accddc) and the Haiku (Prompt words CALM and STORM /Tempest).


homecoming

homecoming

soaking the treetops

aflame in red, amber, gold,

cool rain in autumn

cannot quench the fading leaves

but softs the loam to tend them

~kat


A Tanka for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday.


apple cider sunset

apple cider sunset

leaves droop drearily on exposed branches
tinged amber from the sun’s fierce fading,
fire-red on the horizon at dusk of day,
the autumnal equinox is upon us, crisp and cool,
apple cider, cinnamon steeped, nips my tongue

~kat


A Gogyohka for Colleen Cheesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge.


dark days

dark days

darkness enshrouded
moon fading slowly to black
bodes fury at dawn

As if we needed more heartbreak…
two hundred thousand souls now gone
a stalwart prophetess moves on
now when there is so much at stake
with riots in the streets, earthquakes,
fires, floods, hurricanes…can’t look!
The year god looked away, forsook
our selfish prayers, our hateful ways,
our sins exposed on full display,
our end assured by hook or crook.

-kat



Combining Ronovan’s challenge today:
Haiku Challenge Words – Fury/Slow

Décima Challenge Word “Look” (c-line rhyme) – Rhyme Scheme: abbaaccddc/8 syllables per line.


alternative mentality

alternative mentality

science warned of global warming

hoped the world would heed their call

now ancient forests burn and fall,

tempests rage, o’er oceans, swarming,

plagues, death, riots in the streets

and through it all, our leader tweets

nothing to see here, all is great

it’s all a hoax, you’ll see, just wait…

our only hope is his defeat

~kat


For today’s challenge at Ronovanwrites, write a décima where the word FALL must be one of the B line words. Then the other B line(s) word(s) must rhyme with FALL.

A Décima is a 10-line poem with 8 syllables per line. The rhyme pattern is: abbaaccddc. Further study of this form indicates that the subject matter of a Décima tends to be more socially conscious than some poems, taking on topics such as philosophy, politics, dogma, and religion. It can also be in the form of satire, criticism or insulting to an enemy/opponent in a situation. 

Sometimes you break the rhyme into two stanzas using the following rhyme pattern.

abba/ccddc