#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. :-)