Hiatus - #poetrycommunity #springbreak #vacaytime @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Two weeks ago, right after my birthday, I developed a horrible cough. Many of my students have been sick, coughing and sneezing all over the place, and they aren't the best at keeping their germs to themselves. I normally have a very strong immune system, but this one got me, and it got me hard. 

It doesn't help that I have also found mold in my home from a water leak that went undetected for a bit. So, I've had a hard time healing. My muse has gone into hiding, and it's been hard for me to write poetry. I tried to create a few poems for the challenges, but since the mold is in my office, I'm avoiding it as much as possible, which means no access to my computer. (I'm typing this from my son's computer while he's at work. Shh....)

Tomorrow, my sister and I are taking our kids on a cruise to get away for a bit. I'm hoping my cough will finally clear up with the salt air and the open seas. So, I'll be offline for the next week or so. I will miss interacting with my poetry community, but I'm really looking forward to this escape.

I'll join back in on the challenges when I return. XOXO :-)

Spring Cleansing - #TankaTuesday #BadgersHexastich #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's #TankaTuesday, Selma invites us to write a series of Badger's Hexastich poems (no more than three stanzas) about one of the activities we enjoy doing in the spring. This poetry form consists of six lines with a 2-4-6-6-4-2 syllabic pattern.

(courtesy of @arozwadawska711 on Pixabay)

Spring Cleansing

spring clean

out with the old

declutter all spaces

create good energy

sage around rooms

new start

clear mind

release what was

embrace the positive

focus on gratitude

mindful moments

peaceful

Would you like to write a Badger's Haxastich? Join us here.

Living with Grief - #dVerse #prosery #haibun #WDYS #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I am combining two poetry challenges. The first is dVerse's Poets Pub: Prosery, Leonard Cohen. Bjorn Rudberg invites us to use the following quote from Leonard Cohen in a prose: There's a lullaby for suffering. The second challenge is the What Do You See? prompt, where Sadje invites us to the use picture below to inspire us.

Lullabies are soothing songs that comfort us and allow us to fall to sleep peacefully. The picture shows the beauty of spring, so an idea came to me and I went with it. I chose to write use an experimental haibun to connect the prose with a haiku.

(image credit; Redd Franscisco @Unsplash)

Living with Grief

There's a lullaby for suffering in every season. Cherry blossoms reflecting on still ponds mimic the beautiful harmony of heaven. Waves rhythmically lapping upon the shore cleanse our souls and remind us that healing occurs when we release our need to hold on. Autumn's brilliant display of glorious transformation allows us to embrace nature's circle of life, her acceptance that all things come to an end after its season has been enjoyed. The warmth of a crackling fire on a cold, wintry day wraps us in a warm embrace and prevents the chill from invading our hearts. Allow Mother Nature to comfort you in your loss for Her experience will teach you not all that is lost is gone forever.

petals fall from tree

a graceful transformation

embrace season's change

Would you like to write a poem for either of these prompts? Click the links below:

dVerse's Poets Pub: Prosery, Leonard Cohen

What Do You See? 

Full Circle - #haibun #FFFC #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Melissa provides us with the image below for our Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. I felt a story unfold, so I decided to go with an experimental haibun for this photo.

Full Circle

"Right there, Marge! That's where the Coast Guard picked us up on our makeshift raft." Manuel pointed to the cerulean sea. 

His wife had never seen the ocean, and from the moment he met her, he promised her he would take her to see it one day. He was smitten with her from the moment he saw her. After being processed, he and a friend found a job on a farm in Iowa. It was there he had first set his eyes on Marge as she was strawberry picking at the farm. She became a frequent customer, and he finally built up enough courage to ask her on a date. They wed just a few months later. Children came soon after, so his dreams of showing her the beach fell to the dreamscape until now. Marge's memory was slipping, but after sixty years together, she still remembered his promise. So, here they were, staring at the serene ocean that brought him the opportunity to find the love of his life.

"It's as beautiful as you described it, hun." Marge leaned her head on Manuel's shoulder.

"It pales in comparison to you, my love." He caressed her cheek and held her close, grateful for all his blessings.

waves lap upon shore

continuous push and pull

a beautiful dance

Would you like to write about this picture? Join us here.

Stronger Together - #XplorationChallenge #tanka #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Xploration Challenge #372, Reena provides us with an image and haiku and encourages us to write a piece using any of the nouns or the. Here is Reena's image and haiku.

I ended up using a noun, verb, and adjective in my tanka. 

(image by @Aristal on Pixabay)

Stronger Together

held in your arms

my heart hears a symphony

of comfort, healing

our in-sync souls unified

against all adversity

Would you like to write about Reena's prompt? Click here.

Hamster Wheel - #dVerse #complaintpoem #poem #wagedisparity #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's dVerse: Poets Pub, Grace introduces us to Complaint, A Poem of Lament. A complaint poem "is a poem that laments or protests unrequited love or tells of personal misfortune, misery, or injustice." Grace encourages us to write a complaint poem using William Dunbar's form which has the following properties:

- stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains

- metered, often iambic or trochaic tetrameter

- rhymed, rhyme scheme: aabB ccbB ddbB etc. (B being a refrain)

I struggled a bit with this one. There are so many injustices that it took me a while to settle on which one to choose. 

(image created by Microsoft Copilot)

Hamster Wheel

be studious, they always say

they can't take your degrees away

what good is it if the pay's crap

hard work just doesn't bridge the gap

put in extra hours, show you care

prove your work ethic's very rare

do all you're asked until you snap

hard work just doesn't bridge the gap

misogynists control the game

revolt about making pay same

good luck making glass ceiling snap

hard work just doesn't bridge the gap

Would you like to write a complaint poem? Join us here.

Vicarious Life - #stackedEtheree #dVerse #W3 #MoonwashedWeeklyPrompt #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! The next two weeks are going to be a bit stressful for me. The marking period is coming to an end, so I have a ton of assignments I need to grade. I'm also working on a course I'm taking for renewing my teaching certificate. I'm also still celebrating my birthday with friend outings. And in between, I'm trying to fit in the gym, edit my novel, and write poetry. So, I'm prompt combining again.

For W3: Wea've Written Weekly, Sally encourages us to write a story in the form of a poem with fewer than 500 words. 

For dVerse: Poets Pub, it's all about The Romance of the Open Window. Dora encourages us to give our take of the romance of an open window. One of my favorite paintings is Young Woman at a Window by Salvador Dalí. I fell in love with the painting during an art exhibit at a museum in Spain, so much so that I bought a copy of it and have it hanging in my house.

Over at Moonwashed Weekly Prompt, Eugi provides us with a picture and the poem below and encourages us to allow it to inspire us. I chose to use the word oblivious from the poem.

I decided to write a stacked/double Etheree. It felt like a great form to use to tell a story. A stacked/double Etheree combines two Etheree poems. The lines follow the syllable pattern of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1.

(Young Woman at a Window by Salvador Dalí)

Vicarious Life

she

leans there

quietly

window watching

creating stories

of strangers on sidewalks

passerby oblivious

as she weaves tales of romance

little boy plucking flowers for girl

young couple planning their future marriage

pregnant wife dreaming of husband's massage

old man hobbling home to wife

baker gives free croissant to crush

girl bats her eyes and blushes

lovers tenderly kiss

while she watches all

through her window

all alone

her love

gone

Would you like to write a poem for any of these prompts? Click the links below:

W3: Wea've Written Weekly

dVerse: Poets Pub

Moonwashed Weekly Prompt

Mondo - #TankaTuesday #mondo #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

 

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's #TankaTuesday, Melissa Lemay encourages us to try our hand at writing a mondo poem. This form consists of two stanzas with a 5-7-7 syllabic pattern. The first stanza poses the question while the second stanza provides the response. 

She also provided us with three different options to choose as our first stanza in case we wanted to write a more collaborative poem. I chose to go with one of her first stanzas. Here are the options she provided. My poem is below.

(courtesy of @JonKline on Pixabay)

while the koi fish sleep

in their underwater worlds

what are they dreaming of?

delicious morsels

gently raining down from sky

satiating lazy fish

Would you like to write a mondo poem? Join us here.

March Madness - #dVerse #CreativePerspectiveChallenge #quadrille #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! I'm combining two challenges today. In the Creative Perspective Challenge, D.L. Finn encourages us to use the photo below as inspiration. In dVerse - Poets Pub, De Jackson challenges us to write a quadrille with the word hoot in it. A quadrille is a poem with 44 words in it.

(image by Eduardo Gonzales from Pexels)

March Madness

what fun March brings!

green percolating in everything

tiny sprouts create flowers

blooms bring bees to happy hour

lucky leprechauns sprinkle charm

trick or treat, be wary of harm

drink, dance around, don't trample my foot

ah, go ahead! I don't give a hoot!

Would you like to try one of these challenges? Click the links below:

Creative Perspective Challenge

dVerse - Poets Pub

Coexist - #haiku #FFFC #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, Melissa provides us with the photo below and encourages us to use it for inspiration. I've decided to write a haiku, mostly because I'm pressed for time and the last line of the haiku is what came to me when I saw this photo.

(image from Getty Images on Unsplash)

dumb human species

nature, animals get it

we can coexist

Would you like to write about this photo? Join us here.