Comeuppance - #dVerse #W3 #freeverse #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! I am combining two prompts today as they both have to do with conversations. D'Verse's Poets Pub invites us to include dialogue in our poem or to write about the act of conversing. Wea've Written Weekly challenges us to write a poem with two different voices that have two perspectives that cause tension. 

I decided to write a free verse poem since it fits better with having conversations. It took me a while to decide what type of conversation I wanted to create in poetry form. I am not a confrontational person. My anxiety makes me shy away from tense discussions, and I think that played a part in figuring out what to write about. There are plenty of issues to choose from in our current times, but I decided to go with our environment.

(courtesy of @TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay)

Comeuppance

Dearest human,

Why do you abuse of the land

I so generously provide?

It is ours for the taking,

Ours to use as we see fit

To further our endeavors.

It is not yours alone.

I created it for all my precious beings.

It is meant to be shared.

We are the smartest

And know how to cultivate the land

To use its resources to prosper

You strip away its beauty,

Deplete my land of its nutrients,

Pollute my waters with your waste.

We make everything better!

Look at our skyscrapers and technology!

Our advancements are amazing!

People are starving.

Animals are dying.

My forests are suffering.

Survival of the fittest, lady!

My family and I are thriving.

It’s not my fault others aren’t.

Silly fools,

You are all connected.

Your hubris will be your demise.

 

the circle of life

chain reaction affects all

dark days are coming

   

 

Would you like to write about either of these prompts? Click the links below:

 D'Verse's Poets Pub

Wea've Written Weekly

Oh, Rainbow! #TankaTuesday #FFFC #poem #DoubleEnnead #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I'm combining two poetry challenges together, both of them from Melissa Lemay. The first is from #TankaTuesday. This week's challenge is to write a Double Ennead, which is a form of three stanzas with each having a 6-5-11-6-5 syllabic pattern. The second challenge is Melissa's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. Melissa shares with us a picture below and asks us to let it inspire us.

I chose to write my Double Ennead about the various meanings of rainbows. There are many meanings through time and cultures, but I went with the three I am most familiar with.

(image credit; Sakina Faisal at Unsplash)

Oh, Rainbow!

a colorful rainbow

dazzling, majestic

a gift from the heavens after a quick storm

sunlight plays with droplets

take in its beauty

a proud, vibrant rainbow

all encompassing

an embracing concept - all are accepted

equality for all

love who the heart loves

a subtle, sheer rainbow

a bridge to heaven

transporting the souls of pets and humans

symbol of renewal

hold on to such hope

Would you like to write a poem for one of these challenges? Click the links below.

#TankaTuesday

Melissa's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Enchanted - #dVerse #choka #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's dVerse's Poets Pub, De Jackson encourages us to use some form of the word enchant in our poem. Enchant means to fill someone with great delight or charm or to put someone under a spell. Our poem also needs to be a quadrille, which is a poem with exactly 44 words. 

(courtesy of @Berzin on Pixabay)

Enchanted

Enchant me, my love

Nibble sweetly on my ear

Caress me softly

Harken my pleas for your touch

Appeal to my needs

Nestle me within your arms

Take all I have now

Enrapture me with passion

Devour and satiate me like only you can

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

Barbie Play - #WDYS #tanka #poem #Barbie #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's What Do You See? prompt, Sadje provides us with the photo below and encourages us to let it inspire us. I grew up with Barbies. My sister and I collectively had over 50 of them. Kens, Barbies, Skippers, and special occasional versions littered our playroom floor. We had the mansion, the pool, the car, the dog, the horse, etc. We even had knockoff versions. We would spend hours playing with them, and we got our money's worth out of them. By the time we outgrew them, some of them were in rough shape as we had given them hair cuts multiple times. Lol! I'm happy I grew up in a time where technology wasn't as demanding as it is now. I enjoyed my creative play time.

I decided to write a tanka poem, which consists of five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern. 

(image credit; Julee Juu @ Unsplash)

smell of hot pizza

pretty yellow wildflowers

picnic with my beau

a dreamt-up romantic date

imaginative play perks

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

Dementia - ##XplorationChallenge #tanka #dementia #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Xploration Challenge #375, Reena shared a video with us as well as the words dementia and amnesia. You can watch the video here. She encouraged us to write a poem inspired by the video or the words.

I chose to write a tanka poem, which has five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern.

(image created by Microsoft Image Creator)

memories dissolve

octopus ink obscures view

no recognition

brief moments of clarity

lily pads among the muck

Would you like to write a poem on this topic? Join us here.

Celebrate Spring - #freeverse #poem #Aphrodite #dVerse #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's dVerse's Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury invites us to write a free verse poem on any topic, though she encourages a nod to April, the open month of love as April was dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite.

(courtesy of @tomekwalecki on Pixabay)

Celebrate Spring

winter has thawed

bowing out gracefully

so spring can enter

and thaw our guarded hearts

take heed of how the rose

trusts the earth

to provide its nourishment

allowing it to bloom

and bless us with its beauty

Aphrodite now watches over us

open your hearts

allow love to enter

allow it nourish and fill you

let love flow freely

as the waves ebb and flow

whimsically

frolic frivolously

simply for the pure joy of

celebrating life's renewal

embrace this wondrous time

with open arms

now is our time to

live

laugh

love

Would you like to write a free verse poem with us this week? Join us here.

Spring - #MoonwashedWeeklyPrompt #tanka #spring #Aprilshowers #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Moonwashed Weekly Prompt, Eugi shares the image above and the following poem and invites us to use the image/words as inspiration. Here is her poem:

transcend limitations

let life peak

when, where you desire

own your expectations

I chose to use her image as well as some of her words. I've bolded and italicized them in my poem. I decided to write a tanka, which is five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern.

(image by Engin Akyurt on Pixabay)

spring is in the air

open vibrant umbrellas

April showers come

when, where is a mystery

let life be lived on a whim

Are you inspired to write a poem based on her image and/or words? Join us here.

Consequences - #W3 #monologue #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity #Diasodz #grief #regret #mourning @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's W3: Wea've Written Weekly, Lesley Scoble invites us to write a monologue. She encourages us to take a character, whether historical, fictional, or original, and step into his/her voice. The character must be seated on a bench while giving the monologue.

I decided to write the monologue from the point of view of one of my characters from my Chronicles of the Diasodz series. It's a young adult fantasy series that follows Sofia's journey as her world gets turned upside down when the Diasodz, beings with special abilities, come to take her to their world with hopes that she can save it from dying. It is filled with twists and turns, and not all is as it seems. Sofia isn't the only one whose life is uprooted. Rafe's world comes crashing down as well, and it's from his point of view that I write the monologue.

(created with Microsoft Copilot)

Consequences

This is Sofia's favorite place.

I can't recall how many times

She sat on this very stone bench

Under her favorite willow tree

Praying to Goddess.

Why did I have to choose between

You and her?

And now...

Both you and Sofia are gone, and

I don't know if she is alive or dead

Or somewhere in between.

And you...

I had just found you,

Was just getting to know you,

Love you,

Why did you go and do that?

Why did you wait so long to do

The right thing?

If only you would have acted sooner,

Maybe you would both still be here

With me.

And I wouldn't have to live with the guilt that

My decision led us on this path,

Led to this desolation,

This blackhole of mourning,

This unfathomable grief.

If only I had the power to 

Rewind the hands of time,

And if I could,

Would you choose to protect us earlier?

Would you have found your courage sooner?

Or would fate still take us down

A similar path

And once again leave me utterly

Alone?

Would you like to write a monologue for this prompt? Join us here.

If I've piqued your interest, and you'd like to read about Sofia and Rafe's journey, I've put the link for the first book in the series below. It's free! Happy reading!

The One Discovered (Chronicles of the Diasodz, Book 1)

How do you choose when both options have dire consequences? Sofia is a 17 year old who is quite content with her life. She has a caring boyfriend who also just happens to be her best friend since birth. She has a loving mother. She is successfully completing her last year of high school and enjoys her part-time job. She can’t imagine wanting more from her life…until Ar’ch (pronounced Ar-rick) enters her dreams, sparking a burning flame inside of her that she can’t seem to extinguish nor does she want to. 

Ar’ch is a Diasodz (Die-ah-sodz), a species created by the Goddess back when God created humans. Diasodz were made to heal and protect humans, but when the Diasodz turned their backs on helping humans and left Earth to live in their own world, the Goddess abandoned them. Since then, their powers and their very lives have been fading. A prophecy foretold that a young girl born on Earth would be the Diasodz’s savior. Ar’ch and his brother, Angel, travel to Earth to retrieve her and bring her back to their world before her death day in order to save their kind. 

Ar’ch knows the drill: find the target, capture her, and safely bring her home. But what happens when the target captures his dormant heart? Choices create action. Actions have consequences. When faced with the truth, what choice will Sofia make? Will she be able to accept the consequences that follow?

Resting Days - #kimo #haiku #WDYS #FFFC #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Both Sadje's What Do You See? prompt and Melissa's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge used pictures that were very similar in theme, so although I wrote a different poem for each, I decided to combine the prompts into one post. 

For the What Do You See? prompt, Sadje provides us with a picture of a man resting in a gorgeous tree. I chose to write a kimo for this poem. A kimo has three lines with a syllabic pattern of 10-7-6 and is focused on a frozen image.

In the Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, Melissa provides a picture of a bear napping in nature. For this picture, I wrote a haiku with a 5-7-5 syllabic pattern.

(photo credit; Rob Mullaly @ Unsplash)

an escape from daily obligations

hidden where no one will look

embraced by nature's arms

(photo from Four Paws)

spring arrived too soon

cherry blossom's lullaby

lulls bear back to sleep

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

Sadje's What Do You See? prompt 

Melissa's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Identity - #dVerse #PoetsPub #twotruthsandalie #Americancinquain #reversecinquain #cinquains #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For dVerse's Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay has us focusing on April Fools. She encouraged us to create a poem where 60% of the poem is made of truths while 40% of the poem is made of lies. It reminds me of the game Two Truths and a Lie.

I decided to write a set of three cinquains. The first and last are American cinquains while the second stanza is a reverse cinquain. An American cinquain consists of five lines with a syllabic pattern of 2-4-6-8-2. A reverse cinquain's pattern is 2-8-6-4-2. I'll let you decide which two stanzas are truths and which is a lie. 😉

(courtesy of @johnhain on Pixabay)

Identity

childhood

set foundation

for insecurities

approval always out of reach

striving

taught to

tell myself pretty little lies

wrapped with delicate bows

superficial

ego

now grown

embraced self-worth

proud of the path taken

fortified with great inner strength

grounded

Would you like to write a poem of truth and lies? Join us here.

Fool Card - #TankaTuesday #tanka #poem #Tarotcards #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's #TankaTuesday, Colleen Chesebro invites us to write a poem using the Fool Tarot card as our theme. In Tarot decks, the Fool card is the first card in the deck and symbolizes new beginnings, the expansion of one's horizons, and the willingness to take risks guided by intuition. He is also depicted as the symbol of innocence, one who takes a journey filled with optimism and freedom from the usual constraints in life. He inspires courage and does not worry about the future. I decided to write a tanka poem for this theme. 

steady and patient

Universe plays the long game

have faith in future

look past current obstacles

see new possibilities

Would you like to write a poem about the Fool card? Join us here.

The Messenger - #dVerse #HaibunMonday #GardenofNeuroInstitute #dream #grandfather #infertility #timetravel #windphone #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! I am back from my family cruise. My muse and I are well-rested and rejuvenated (although I still have a lingering cough). We had a wonderful time. We explored Key West through a scavenger hunt. I've been to Key West many times, but my niece had never been, so we figured this would be a fun way of seeing the area. We visited Chichen Itza and Cenote Ik Kil while in Progresso, Mexico. I briefly studied the Mayan culture when I was younger and enjoyed sharing their culture with my son, sister, and niece. Cenote Ik Kil was stunning, and we enjoyed a peaceful, refreshing swim. We also went snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico, and enjoyed being on the catamaran in between our snorkel time. I also finished reading two books while on the cruise, so I definitely enjoyed my break.

For today's poetry challenge, I am combining two prompts. The first one is actually an open invitation for submissions to the Garden of Neuro Institute's Carried by the Wind: Conversations Between Here and After Ekphrastic Poetry Call. Melissa Lemay shared the invitation here. Seven different photos of wind phones were given. The challenge is to write a poem inspired by one of the photos and connected to the theme. A wind phone is a disconnected phone people use to 'call' deceased loved ones.

For dVerse's Haibun Monday, Merril D. Smith encourages us to travel through time. She challenges us to write about our past, imagine our future, or create a time-travel tale. A haibun is a paragraph of prose and a haiku. She also gave us some paint chip colors to inspire us. I've bolded and italicized the colors I chose to use, which were caviar, freshwater, and golden plumeria. The plumeria flower symbolizes love, beauty, and new beginnings. In Buddhism, it represents immortality. The Mayans connected the flowers with life and birth, and since I just visited the Mayan ruins, it felt perfect for my haibun.

After reading both these prompts, a memory came to mind of how I first learned I was pregnant. I had great difficulty getting pregnant. An infertility specialist told me I had a one percent chance of getting pregnant on my own. I chose to try artificial insemination. The first time, I had five eggs and none took. I was devastated. The second time, I had four eggs, and I was blessed with my miracle baby. Except for the setting of my dream in the haibun (which was modified for the prompt), the poem below is how I learned that I carried my son within me.

(Wind Phone 5)

The Messenger

Weary, I lay on my side and hugged my stomach, praying my next doctor's appointment would bring a celebration instead of another disappointment. My heavy lids closed as the weight of my worries dragged me into a deep sleep. I found myself in a forest, facing the cutest antique, wooden phone. It reminded me of simpler times, when my grandfather was alive and healthy and when women easily became pregnant. I read the placard and hesitantly picked up the receiver. Winding up the phone, I closed my eyes and listened. And there is was! The same wooo-wooo-wooo my grandfather would make as he placed his hands behind his back to try to trick me in picking the wrong hand when he showed them to me. I smiled, recalling the various prizes he presented to me - coffee candy, dollar bills, and butterscotch candies. Oh, how I missed him!

"Wooo-wooo-wooo," I heard again, but it came not from the phone but from my other ear. Opening my eyes, I turned away from the phone and saw my abuelo, my grandfather, in the distance, walking along the trail toward me, carrying something in his long, lanky arms. Shaking, I placed the receiver in its holder and turned toward my grandfather. He wore the same blackened, caviar-colored shades he had always worn after his eyesight failed him. His smile radiated as he approached me. Before I could hug him, he presented me with the bundle in his arms, his newest gift to me. Tears slipped down my face as I cradled a beautiful baby boy, swaddled peacefully in a freshwater-blue blanket. I closed my eyes as my grandfather's calloused hand caressed my cheek and wiped away my tears, and when I opened them, he was gone, leaving me cradling my future son. Awaking from my dream, I wiped away my tears and caressed my stomach.

a work in progress

new golden plumeria

always worth the wait

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

Garden of Neuro Institute's Carried by the Wind: Conversations Between Here and After Ekphrastic Poetry Call

dVerse's Haibun Monday