#TankaTuesday 24 Seasons Syllabic #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #seasonalKigo #Kigo #seasons #Risshun #tanka #naturescourse #earlySpring @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! It has been one heck of a rough week for me. Someone I love dearly was in the hospital all week with multiple issues, the main one being a respiratory virus that was making it difficult for her to breath. Finally, she was released today. She's not out of the woods yet, but she's happy to be home. Please send healing energy her way.

On top of that, I've had either an appointment or an activity every day after work, so my days have been very long. By the time I finally ate dinner and watched a show with my son (our nightly ritual), I barely had any energy left. As if that isn't enough, the negative emotional energy around me has been quite high, which drained me even further.

So, I didn't get as much writing done this week as I would have wanted. I did manage to write at least one sentence every day. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I'm quite proud of myself for mustering up the energy to sit in front of the computer at night and at least produce that sentence before I showered and passed out (yes, it's been that draining of a week). All in all, I wrote a page in my WIP (better than nothing), and today, I finally sat down and wrote the poem for this week's 24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge.

Colleen Chesebro explained that we are still in Early Spring. She also shared the 24 solar terms and how they are separated by fifteen degrees, which stuck with me. You can see the chart here. These small shifts are important to farmers who must choose the right time to plant the next harvest. So, that's what I focused on.

I chose to write a tanka poem, which is five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern. The third line is usually the pivot line so that the first three lines make one image and the last three lines create another image. My kigo phrase is bolded and italicized.

(courtesy of @4533875 on Pixabay)

Nature's Course

fifteen degree shift

unnoticed, important change

a bit more sunshine

time to prepare the garden

slow and steady's still progress

Are you seeing any changes in the weather in your area? I'd love to hear from you. 

Would you like to write a poem for this season? Join us here.