Category Archives: Tanka

stop and smell the roses

Photo courtesy of RoonZ-nl on Pixabay.com
“stop and smell the roses”

stop trying to please
and take some time for you to
smell spring’s sweetness in
the moments after the rain
roses misted, dressed in red

~kat

NaPoWriMo2022 -Day 6 Prompt: write a variation of an acrostic poem. But rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, I’d like you to write a poem that reproduces a phrase with the first words of each line.

To challenge myself even more, this poem was created using Original Magnetic Poetry online in the format of a Tanka 😊

Tanka Tuesday Trio

A Shadorma (3/5/3/3/7/5) for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge. Today’s Prompt: Poet’s Choice, following Colleen’s suggestion to give thanks this December as the year draws to an end.

in the end
compassion prevailed
but only
by a thread
history in the making’s
ours for the taking


Also tried a Gogyohka. Each line of a Gogyohka comprises one phrase with a line-break after each phrase or breath.

nightmares
do not linger
in the minds
of daydreamers
roused by the light


And finally a Tanka. 57577

thank you dear strangers
for caring about others
for wearing a mask
to all unlikely heroes
we see you; we won’t forget

~kat

the abyss

sometimes the abyss
is a pool of black water,
deep, its skin like glass
capturing reflections of
innocence slipping away

~kat~


A Tanka for Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge, this week’s ekphrastic photo prompt courtesy of Diana Peach.


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.


instinct

instinct

not love, but instinct
keeps the mother bird nested
dawn to dusk, all night
day after day, and instinct
drives the fledglings to leave her

~kat