Thursday, May 22, 2025

Captives #FFFC #MoonwashedWeeklyPrompt #haiku #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro



Hello, beautiful readers! I'm combining prompts again. In this week's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, Melissa provides us with the image below and encourages us to use it for inspiration. In this week's Moonwashed Weekly Prompt, Eugi provides us with an image and a poem and asks us to use part of it in our own piece. I've bolded and italicized the words I chose to use. Here is her poem:

gentle eye perceives
melodies of ideal worlds
through a magic lens

I chose to write a senryu for today. It's a little morbid, but it's what came to me.

(image courtesy of Jessica Smith on Unsplash)

gentle eye perceives
fascination of captors
dreams of freedom die

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


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Choose Happiness #W3 #TankaTuesday #ReverseEtheree #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro



Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I am combining two challenges. The first one comes from #TankaTuesday, where Selma invites us to write a syllabic poem focused on joy. Within the poem, we need to include a kigo (seasonal) word within the poem. I've bolded and italiziced my kigo words. I chose to write a Reverse Etheree, which is a poem with ten lines and a syllabication pattern of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

 Coincidentally, Wea've Written Weekly also lent itself to the theme of joy. Dennis Johnstone invited us to write a poem that invites the reader toward a single abstract noun, in my case - joy. The poem cannot mention the noun until the final line. Each line should describe the noun, leading the reader to the revelation at the end.


(image courtesy of @JillWellington on Pixabay)

Choose Happiness

because hearts feel lighter with ev'ry smile

the spring's warmth chases away the cold

a baby's laughter ricochets

because dancing lifts the soul

trips create memories

kisses make hearts skip

and just because

it matters

embrace

joy


Would you like to write a poem for one of these two challenges? Click the link(s) below:


Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Yesteryears - #quadrille #haibun #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro



Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I am combining two prompts. The first comes from Creative Perspective Challenge, where Denise provides us with the photo below and encourages us to allow it to inspire us. The second prompt is from dVerse's Quadrille #224 - Walk Quietly in my Dreams. In this challenge, we are encouraged to use quiet or a word associated with it in our quadrille. I've bolded and italicized the words I've used. A quadrille is a poem with exactly 44 words. I decided to write a haibun that also qualifies as a quadrille.

(image credit; moonlight by vernonwiley from Getty Images Signature)

Yesteryears

In the soft stillness of a peaceful lavender sky, I gaze across the serene lake and reminisce of a life of parties and adventures, each experience molding me into the person I've become.

life's great memories

summer's glory days wind down

quieter days come


Would you like to join one of these challenges? Click the link(s) below:

 Creative Perspective Challenge

dVerse's Quadrille #224 - Walk Quietly in my Dreams

Monday, May 19, 2025

Weathered Wanderer - #tanka #WDYS #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro


Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's What Do You See? prompt, Sadje provided us with two photos to inspire our writing. I chose the photo below and wrote a tanka to go along with it.

(image credit; Maksym Mazur @ Unsplash)

weathered wanderer
contemplations pass like clouds
days turn to seasons
cute companion at his feet
lonely but never alone


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

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Off-Kilter #concretepoetry #dVerse #XplorationChallenge #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro

 


Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I am combining two prompts. The first one comes from Reena's Xploration Challenge #381 where Reena shares two images and invites us to use it as inspiration for our writing. I used the image below.

The second prompt is from dVerse's Meet the bar with concrete and shape poetry prompt where Bjorn invites us to have fun with the shape of the words in our poem by using concrete poetry, which focuses on the way words and letters look as much as the meaning. Because I used WordArt, I took a picture of my poem so it would appear correctly here.

 
(image courtesy of Pocket-Lint)

Off-Kilter



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

Reena's Xploration Challenge #381

dVerse's Meet the bar with concrete and shape poetry prompt

Friday, May 16, 2025

Searching For Love - #W3 #PararhymeParadox #dodoitsu #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro


Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Wea've Written Weekly, David invites us to create a Pararhyme Paradox. This is a new form for me. It is created by using words where the consonant sounds in the end words match but the vowels within the word change. He encourages us to use a theme of incompleteness, near-misses, or strained connections. I decided to write a dodoitsu, which is a poetry form with four lines and a syllabication pattern of 7-7-7-5. Here is my try at this form. 

(image courtesy of @Hansuan_Fabregas on Pixabay)

the heart seeks forever love
someone who will never leave
searches for "more than a friend"
it is never found

Would you like to write a Pararhyme Paradox? Join us here.

Not Fish Food Today - #FFFC #senryu #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro


Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, Melissa shares the image below and encourages us to write a poem or fictional piece about it. My poetry this week seems to have a recurring theme because of the renovations taking place in my home. I've chosen to write a senryu (I think) for this image.

(image courtesy of George Dagerotip on Unsplash)

chaos surrounds me
I breath slowly, find stillness
the danger retreats

Would you like to write a piece for this image? Join us here.

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Coming into my Own - #dVerse #poetics #haibun #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro


Hello, beautiful people! Over at dVerse's Poetics: "I Have No Word in English For," Dora invites us to use a few of the 25 Spanish phrases from Sandra Cisnero's poem, "I Have No Word In English For," in a poem. When I taught tenth grade, I used to teach Cisnero's book, The House on Mango Street. I loved her way of weaving the two languages together with imagery and simplicity. These are the phrases I chose to use:

susto - fear that spooks the soul away

a estas alturas - superb vista with age

divina providencia - destiny with choices and spiritual interventions

I chose to write a haibun for this poem. Haibuns consist of a paragraph of prose and a haiku. I've also highlighted and italicized the above phrases.

(image created by Microsoft Bing Image Creator)

Coming into my Own

There was a time when my mind would create one scenario after another that filled me with susto. When one would end, another would begin. Rinse, repeat. I kept hoping divina providencia would step in and fix everything for me, but a estas alturas, I have learned that I am in control of my thoughts. I no longer ruminate about worries. Instead, I focus on staying present and enjoying each moment as it comes.

gentle lake in spring

small ripples barely noticed

water ebbs and flows


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

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Nature's Beauty - #WDYS #MoonwashedWeeklyPrompt #TankaTuesday #hainka #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro




Hello, beautiful readers! The renovations being done to my house have made my muse hide under the covers, but I keep dragging her out. I'm replacing the tiles in my house after a mold situation, so half my furniture is in a storage container, and my son and I are trying to live in the other half while the tile crew remove and replace my tiles. It's been loud and dusty, and my OCD does not like that everything is out of its given place. I just keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end. So, I'm combining a few prompts because I truly enjoy participating in as many challenges as I can, but I'm not sure I will get to them all this week with all the chaos in my life right now.

For the What Do You See? prompt, Sadje provides us with two pictures and encourages us to write a poem inspired by one (or both of them). I chose the picture below from her prompt. In the #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, Melissa introduced us to the hainka, which is a combination of a haiku and tanka. The rules are a little more specific. You can read about them here. And then, for the Moonwashed Weekly Prompt, Eugi provided us with the image above and the poem below. She encourage us to draw inspiration from the image or her words. Here is her poem:

appeal intertwined
nature's grasp of beauty
balancing bliss

The hainka is a new form for me, so I hope I followed the format well. I've bolded and italicized the words I used from Eugi's poem.

(image credit; Brooke Balentine @ Unsplash)

nature's beauty warms
cold concrete on wintry morn
with splash of color

emotions teeter
I seek out balancing bliss
nature's beauty warms
sunflowers rise and face sun
chaos quietly calms down


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

What Do You See? prompt


Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Choosing to Float - #dVerse #prosery #poetrycommunity @YvetteMCalleiro


Hello, beautiful readers! For this week's dVerse's Prosery: Ada Limon, Merril D Smith invites us to use the quote below in our prosery. The quote comes from US Poet Laureate Ada Limon's poem, "The Magnificent Frigatebird." Here is the quote:

"I have no skills for flight or wings
to skim the waves effortlessly, like the wind itself."

We must use the words in the quote in that order. We can add punctuation, but we cannot insert words. It must be in the form of prose, not poetry.

Right now, I am in the middle of renovating parts of my home, and having all my things in places they don't belong is challenging my inner peace. So, when I read that quote, my mind went in the following direction.

(image courtesy of @Pexels on Pixabay)

Choosing to Float

There are moments in life where the world just feels heavy, where small snippets of scenarios accumulate into tidal waves of trepidation. It is moments like these that I just want to fly away and escape my life, but I have no skills for flight or wings. To skim the waves effortlessly, like the wind itself, is the next best option. I must avoid diving deep into darkness and prevent the weight of the world from pressing against me. I will choose to hover above the chaos, acknowledging its existence but not allowing it to seep into my pores. I will rise above the mayhem for I am the navigator of my journey.


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