#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.