#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #music #musicalinspiration #tanka @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, poet Willow Willers challenges us to use music or a song as inspiration. When I was younger, I was very much into music. I grew up in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s, and I absolutely loved the music of my generation. I knew all the lyrics and would sing along every time. I remember recording the music from the radio onto my cassette tapes and getting frustration when the radio station would cut into the song to plug in a promo for the sole purpose of ruining my recording. Ah, those were the days! 😂

Nowadays, music tends to be background noise for me. I still sing along to some songs, but for the most part, I am lost in my own thoughts while the radio plays in the car (the only place I really listen to music). When Willow gave us this prompt, one song immediately came to mind, and I knew I would write with that song in my heart.

When I got divorced in 2009, Black Eyed Peas released I Gotta Feeling. I was in a very low place in my life. I was dealing with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and raising a three-year old as a single mom. This song came on the radio and filled me with happiness, energy, and hope. It became a mantra for me. I would sing every word in the car. Eventually, my son started singing the chorus with me, and it became our song. In fact, it's how he learned the days of the week. Lol! To this day, whenever the song comes on, he and I will sing it.

I chose to write a tanka, which is a poem with five lines in it. It has a syllabication pattern of 5-7-5-7-7, where the third line is the pivot line. Tanka poems are untitled.

stress overwhelms me

heaviness drains my essence

music changes mood

soul and sight focus on light

all's right with the world again

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

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #womensrights #abortion #kimo @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! This week's #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge was hosted by the poet Lisa. Her challenge this week was to write a poem using synonyms for the words promise and comfort. I have bolded and italicized my synonyms in my poem below.

I chose to write a kimo, which is a three-line poem with a 10/7/6 syllabic pattern. Kimos focus on a single frozen image. Here in America, our elections took place last night. Not only were there elections for the presidency, but most states had local elections as well. In my state, we had an amendment to repeal the six-week abortion ban that our governor imposed on us. Sadly, in our state, an amendment needs 60% of the votes to pass. The amendment only reached 57%. The majority of our state does not want a six-week abortion ban, but it doesn't matter. 

My heart is broken for the daughters, nieces, sisters, and granddaughters that no longer have the rights I had growing up. It hurts for the children who will be born into neglectful and abusive families. It aches for the babies who will be born to drug addicts and alcoholics and will most likely have a drug dependency or some kind of disability because of it. It cries for the babies who will be born with a life-ending disease and will suffer for the hours/days that they live before dying. It screams for the pregnant women who will be forced to carry those babies to term or will have their lives put in danger because something goes wrong with their pregnancy and the doctors won't help them because they fear losing their licenses.

This is not pro-life; this is pro-power. The bible clearly states that God gives His children free will. Actions have consequences, and each person will atone for those choices when he/she has his/her judgment day. This abortion ban takes away a woman's free will to make her own choices for her body. This ban is not pro-life. If it were, it would consider all the lives that will be negatively affected by this ban. It does not. Already, other bans in our country are showing a higher infant mortality rate. They are showing women dying because they were not give the care they needed in the midst of a miscarriage because doctors were afraid to help them. Families are being left heartbroken. Children are losing their mothers. This is not pro-life. 😔

her autonomy obliterated

health care assurances - gone

no solace in darkness

If you'd like to join us in writing a poem this week, click here.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #etheree #Halloween #witchesbrew @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Happy Halloween to all my followers who celebrate! For this week's #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, Colleen Chesebro invites us to get into the spirit of Halloween by creating a poem that encompasses a witch's brew. She encouraged us to create a chant or incantation and to try to incorporate humor and rhyming words.

I chose to write an reversed Etheree, which is a poem form that has a syllabic structure of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. I also decided to add rhyme to these descending lines (AABBCCDDEE). I hope you like it!

(courtesy of @Yvion on Pixabay)

Skinny Wishes Brew

Asian ginseng and ginger - just a dash!

bud of sage to reduce a hot flash

cardamom to raise energy

cumin to stop lethargy

mix and bake in the sun

pray your will be done

visualize

skinny thighs

drink in...

thin!

Would you like to join in the fun? Join us here.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #kimo #dunes #waves #rejuvenation @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, poet JadeLi invited us to choose three (or more) words from a word garden and create a syllabic poem with those words. Certain words immediately stood out to me: dune, wave, and woman. The winds were so strong this past weekend, preventing me from getting my beach fix. It makes sense I would be drawn to those words. Hopefully, this weekend will be beautiful.

I decided to write a kimo. A kimo poem consists of three lines with a syllabic pattern of 10-7-6. It focuses on a single frozen image. It does not rhyme and is untitled.

(courtesy of @juliearens on Pixabay)

dunes separate serenity, chaos

waves lap calmly on the shore

woman rests and renews

Would you like to join us in the fun? Click here.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #stopthehate #tanka #politicssuck @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! This week's #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge was hosted by the beautiful poet, Selma. Our challenge this week was to write a tanka poem using synonyms for mindless and humdrum. A tanka poem contains five lines with a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. The third line tends to be a pivot within the poem.

In America, we are just weeks away from electing a new president. Without getting too deep into the politics, I'll say it's been both stressful and saddening for me. Watching our news media and elected officials spin half-truths or complete lies and listening to elective officials and candidates pit American citizens against one another while spreading fear and hate has really weighed on my soul. So, when thinking of a poem to write this week, these two chosen words led me down this path. My two synonyms are bolded and italicized.

(courtesy of @johnhain on Pixabay)

vacuous darkness

fed by routine vitriol

crack of light enters

heart opens to brighter thoughts

compassion, acceptance reigns

Would you like to join the challenge? Click here.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #tankapuente #bestandworstmoments #chronicfatiguesyndrom #anxiety #holistichealing @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Last week was the first week of our new #TankaTuesday challenges, but life was so busy that I did not have time to even check the site. So, I decided to write a poem for that challenge today. Poet and author Robbie Cheadle provided us with our first challenge. She encourage us to write a Tanka Puente, which consists of two tanka poems separated by a line in between. She chose the theme of best and worst moments.

One of the worst moments in my life was when I lived with active Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for eight years. At the time, doctors were just beginning to identify it, and it took my doctor a long time to not only diagnose me but try a treatment. Unfortunately, although his treatment began to bring back my energy, it created a debilitating anxiety disorder. I stopped the medicine and sought holistic healers. Thankfully, they have brought me peace and energy. A side benefit was discovering mindfulness, meditation, and emotional frequency tapping. I still have anxiety, but I manage it well. I feel healthy and whole today. So, here is my poem...

(courtesy of @K3IST on Pixabay)

Road to Health

constant lethargy

heaviness inhibits me

long search for answers

remedy experiments

meds create anxiety

~change your thoughts and you change your world~*

body, mind struggle

start holistic therapy

mindfulness brings peace

focus on inner healing

strength and energy return

* This quote is by Norman Vincent Peale.

Would you like to try writing a Tanka Puente? Check it out here.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #specifictheme #divorce #insecurity #resilience @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! We have entered a new season of #TankaTuesday poetry challenges. Each week, a different poet from our poetry community will host Colleen Chesebro's page and share a challenge. This week's challenge is being presented by Sadje. 

This week, Sadje challenges us to write a syllabic poem about something that brought a big change in our lives. The biggest, most transformative change in my life was giving birth to my son, but I decided to write about my divorce. I've written a tanka prose, which involves a paragraph of prose and a tanka poem.

(courtesy of @Fotorech on Pixabay)

For as far back as I can remember, insecurity has felt like a second skin. I hide it well, but it resides in the most fragile part of my soul. Growing up, my parents told me I had to get a degree so if I ever married a jerk, I could support myself and my children. And so I did - three degrees, in fact. Still, confidence and I weren't friends. I married and gave birth to my little miracle. Shortly thereafter, I realized my husband was not healthy for me, mentally or emotionally. Fear gripped me as I began again with a toddler and a mountain of debt threatening to bury me.

marriage falls apart

self-fulfilling prophecy

miss independent

builds confidence step by step

excels more than expected

Do you have a big moment in your life that you'd like to express through poetry? Join us here. 

Author Spotlight - Shirley Harris-Slaughter #author #authorspotlight #meettheauthor #RRBC #communityactivist @sharrislaughter @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I have the pleasure of sharing a wonderful author with you all. Shirley Harris-Slaughter is a lifetime member of the Rave Review Book Club (RRBC). She is an amazing lady and a great author. I hope you enjoy getting to know her. Take it away, Shirley!

~~~

Yvette, thank you so much for hosting me on your blog page as a door prize winner in your author booth from the 9th Annual WC&BE24!  

Hello, everybody. Here is a little information about me as an author and as a community activist. I want to bring some attention to the activism side of me.

All of this is being brought to you through my affiliation with #RRBC, a virtual book club community of indie authors and readers.

ENJOY!

My author name is Shirley Harris-Slaughter (There is a special meaning behind “Harris". I produced a son in my first marriage to a Harris, and it is my family name on my mother’s side as well. The thought behind this was, if I became famous, Harris would be meaningful to me as it is my son’s namesake.)

I reside in Oak Park, MI, USA.

Here is my author bio:

Shirley Harris-Slaughter is the author of Our Lady of Victory, the Saga of an African-American Catholic Community, written to address a need to preserve catholic history from her perspective.

Crazy! Hot! And Living On The Edge!! -- written to share her story of health and healing, love and redemption. She hammers it home about never giving up the fight when the going gets rough and learning how to always improve yourself.

Slaughter mentored four freshman girls at the local middle school. She also found the time to try and save an iconic train station.

She obtained her BBA from Cleary University in Howell, Michigan, married her husband Langston, and is active in her Oak Park community.

Books and Titles:

“OUR LADY OF VICTORY:  THE SAGA OF AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY” Second Edition

“RONALD L. POWELL:  MISSING IN ACTION”

“CRAZY! HOT! AND LIVING ON THE EDGE!!” 

“NEWSPAPER CHRONICLES” 

She is also a contributor in …

“RAVE SOUP FOR THE WRITER’S SOUL Anthology, 2nd Edition” 

The Train Station project happened during my activist days. So, I want to draw renewed attention to this Detroit icon. It is just beautiful now, thanks to the Ford Family Foundation and I’m so happy.

“A CITIZEN’S GROUP IN ACTION:  SAVING A TRAIN STATION” 

BLURB:

Around 1992, this study was pulled together for one specific purpose – to save the Michigan Central Depot, a train station in downtown Detroit. After it was boarded up in the 1980s, I agonized about what was happening to the building as it descended into neglect and decay; with no hope of it ever rising to its former glory. I needed to form a plan and a way to do it. Attending a university afforded me that opportunity. I always loved trains even though there was never a chance for me to experience the thrill of it all growing up. My mother was pregnant with me when she traveled from California, all the way to Detroit, to be with my dad’s family while he was stationed in Guam during World War II. So I always thought that I was touched in the womb. There was no other way to explain this love affair with trains.

Fortunately, while group efforts failed so many times in the past, on June 11, 2018, the station was purchased by the Ford Motor Company. It has undergone a vast transformation into the beautiful building we have today.

Congratulations Detroit!

Hi!  I love to hear from you, so I’ve listed my contact and social media information below.

Email:  Sharrislaughter@gmail.com

Twitter:  @Sharrislaughter

Facebook:  sharrislaughter3

Website:  Remember Our Lady of Victory

Amazon Central

Shirley is an award winning author as well! Check out her book trailer here.

I appreciate you all visiting and getting to know Shirley. We would love to hear from you below. :-)

#TankaTuesday 24 Seasons Syllabic #Poetry Challenge - #Syllabic #poem #poetrycommunity #seasonalKigo #Kigo #seasons #WhiteDew #tankaprose #MiddleEarth #hobbits @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! I completely missed participating in last week's #TankaTuesday 24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge. I had something to do every day after school, and I'm sticking to my commitment to go to bed at a decent time so I can get eight hours of sleep every night. Sleep is vital to health, and I treasure it. My weekend was spent visiting my parents at their new beachside condo about two hours away from me, so I just didn't have time to write.

This week hasn't been any less busy - still had something to do every day after work, but today has given me a few moments to rest, so I decided to play with poetry. For this week's challenge, Colleen Chesebro invited us to write a tanka prose for the new season of White Dew. She shared a list of kigo words that would go with this season, and to my pleasant surprise, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins' birthdays are in this season, so I knew instantly what I would write about!

A tanka prose is a combination of one paragraph and one tanka on the same subject. There are two different kinds - preface (explanation) or poem tale (episodic narration). My kigo words are bolded and italicized.

(courtesy of @StockSnap on Pixabay)

I first fell in love with JRR Tolkien's fantasy world when my seventh-grade English teacher, Mrs. Hoffman, read The Hobbit to us. Her animation and excitement throughout the story made me fall in love with the world despite giving me a gripping fear of spiders that still resides within me. After that story, I couldn't get enough and eventually devoured The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, The Rings of Power airs on Prime, and I am hooked! The battle between good and evil has always teetered on a thin line within this world, especially since evil calls to each character so uniquely. But the hobbits - they truly are the epitome of what all people should try to exemplify.

Middle Earth hobbits

living off the land with joy

accepts adventure

danger, evil run amok

Bilbo Baggins' pure heart wins

Would you like to try your hand at writing a tanka prose? Join us here.

August Book Reviews #bookreview #books #amreading #readingcommunity #paranormal @KarensStories @YvetteMCalleiro

Hello, beautiful readers! School is back in session, so I am not reading as much as I could in the summer. Still, I managed to finish a great short story, so enjoy my review below.

Rustic Acres

by Karen Black

Genre: Fantasy Short Reads

Pages: 54 pages

Book Blurb:

Melonie is a witch with a problem. Golatch, the goblin king, cursed her with an ancient virus that substantially reduced her power. The only cure for the mystical disease is his death. But a three-hundred-year-old goblin will be hard to kill, especially with limited abilities.

When the goblin army invades Melonie's home in Rustic Acres, a telepathic cat and a wise old raven enter the battle to help her protect the little people who live there. But chaos erupts when an energetic pixie complicates the plan.

My Review:

This was such a fantastic short story. Melonie is a witch who angered the goblin king, Golatch, when she killed his brother. Golatch cursed her with a spell that stole her powers and then promised to return one day to kill her. When that day comes, the community of Rustic Acres vows to stand by her side and fight until the end so she won't fight alone.

This author does such a great job with mystical creatures and animals in her stories, and this one was no different. I really enjoyed the interaction between the various creatures and how they were willing to come together despite their differences or animosities toward one another. 

For a short story, the characters' personalities are well-developed and even bring out several laughs despite the dire circumstances. I especially love the fearless, little pixie, Kiki. This is a story both young and old can thoroughly enjoy.

Have you read any great stories recently? I'd love to hear from you.