#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.