Posted in Horror and mystery, Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Inner storms. Cinquain and Haibun

Image credit; Johannes Plenio Unsplash

Calm seas
ńeath brewing storms
where morals turn agile
and perspicacious drifters long
for Self

Pity
enshrouds the spy
the unwitty witness
Innocence pays the maiden price
World’s Way

Of hope
on same wavelengths
fickle, is life’s grapevine
upon the volatile current
Of truth

Our fear
Precient ally
reveals and then withholds
bitter endings, brave beginnings
The Call

The You
you always tame
dewy-eyed explorer
wandering through life’s hypnosis
The spark

Tall Tales Corner

Le Jardin de l’artiste à Giverny by Claude Monet

It is said that ‘art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’
Or so their picture-perfect family hoped, as they mounted a piece of spring in their livingroom. It was odd that on sunny days, those trees seemed to bleed and a face lurked in the background windows.
The patch of sunlight surrounded by shades induced a claustrophobic feeling, like conflict was closing in.

New petals may sing
to mask whispers of winter
lavender secrets

The teenage daughter, in the first trimester of a problem-pregnancy, saw a little girl waving from those distant windows, longing to play, to climb trees and eat the juicy-red fruit. To her, the painting held hope.
The mother, a neighbourhood leader, dreaded what people would say about her daughter, and worse, about her. But the painting made her think of swings in the backyard, and lullabies long abandoned, of a baby’s gay laughter and the way she’d say to people, ‘this is my grandchild.’ She too, smiled at the painting.

big trees, wider shades
when night and day seem furthest
their likeness deepens

The father, a model gentleman, was a chin-high kind of man. Indeed, he knew himself to be without flaw. And that’s why he’d fought so hard for that painting at auction. The art plunged chaos into order. It was wild, free, and yet the flowers remained flowers, and the trees were still trees.
Now that his pride-and-joy son had discarded their christian beliefs for the rainbow movement, and his sweetheart daughter was pregnant in High school, maybe he could find the beauty in his own chaos. His eyes were always drawn to that patch of sunlight. Perhaps it was the light eating away at the shadows.

face in the window
judging from winter’s recluse
I know you are me


Hey Everyone, hope you are well.
I really enjoyed writing this.
The first is a crown cinquain for Reena’s xploration challenge and Sadje’s whatdoyousee.
The Tall Tales Corner is a haibun for Colleen’s tankatuesday.
Looking forward to your thoughts,

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie
.

Posted in Fantasy and Adventure, Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Sighs of solitude #Tankaprose

sighs of solitude
listen to conflict’s whispers
reconciling depths
some woes come from good intent
rebirths that will never die

In the deep stillness, I ponder scars long etched in my blemishfree beginnings, healed yet forever barren. I ignore the itch of scabs that inflame with the lightest touch or slightest approach; a decay upon my soul. I think of trials past that left behind monuments of fear, conquest, and survival. I cannot change what festers within me. But the most beautiful flowers often bloom from decay.

Soul divinations
beneath these troubled guises
seeds longing to bloom
when dreams and life commingle
they know, Growth must beget growth

Book Candy Corner

The Necromancer’s daughter. A retelling of the legend of Kwan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. Set in a winter world of dragons, intrigue, and magic, The Necromancer’s Daughter is a story about duty, defiance, cruelty, and sacrifice— an epic tale of compassion and deep abiding love where good and evil aren’t what they seem. By D. Wallace Peach


Some tanka prose for Colleen’s #tankatuesday (synonyms for spring and green).

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Posted in Cooking and Poetry, Life and Awareness, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

The Spice of Life. Poetry and updates

Hey everyone,
I’m bursting with good news. I finally dispatched the beta copies of Book2 in the Realms of the Mist trilogy. (Title and cover coming very soon).

My eyes welled up as I glossed those famous last words in an intricate font: “The End.”
Guys, I don’t know how to describe the happiness and accomplishment I felt. I whooped and jumped and gave my laptop a giant KISS.

Now I can wait for Beta feedback as I concentrate on the promo campaign. I can catch up with courework which I’m sure I’ll ace. Trust me, there’s no coursework that can compare to even writing one chapter of a book.

All that’s left after the Beta feedback is a final copy-edit for the little bits that escaped my own personal edit. I would have been practically alone in my author dream but for a number of remarkable people from the wordpress community, who have given me invaluable guidance and encouragement. THANK YOU. It only gets better from here.

Okay, enough about me. Here’s some poetry for you.

Rising or setting
The bliss is the same
Between then and next
It’s the now we cherish
So here in this moment
Nothing is truer
Than this love

The world may change us. Misplaced deeds or words may incubate hate. Thank God our love is bound in nostalgia. #TWT

Tall Tales Corner

Between forsaken lines
dwell cocktails of musings
He writes a heart that stings
The spice of life

Of cinammon romance
And currie betrayals
Black pepper portrayals
Balance in life

In the bachelor's kitchen
variety is scarce
but potency is terse
Just - what - matters

Hope you enjoy.

I feel I should apologise for always joining prompts but I post once or twice a week and I have so many favourites.

The first poem is for both Eugi’s moonwashed weekly prompt and Sadje’s #Whatdoyousee
In bold, is an accompanying twenty word story for Bookish bubble’s TWT
The Tall Tales Corner is for Colleen’s #tankatuesday where she asked us to use spices in our kitchens to write about recent events in our lives. Since I’ve been submerged in editing, it’s a cocktail of mental events, but I did use the spices in my kitchen to portray some of that in the three Abhanga poems.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Posted in Fantasy and Adventure, Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Doors and blades of grass #poetry

#writephoto

Once, we painted the door to shared dreams of two
Unloved, it now reminds me of you
Fades of time corrode its sheen
Too long left unseen
Glum relic
Pinned
Pedantic
with hope grating thin
My soul barters for its queen
Must I swap new greens for an old blue
Or evolve, to sparkle in different hues

Great expectations
On the tip of a lone gaze
longing for the stars
I stretch for the heighest leaf
When grass below has all I need

#whatdoyousee

An Andaree poem for Colleen’s tankatuesday
Based on image prompt from Caley’s #writephoto
And theme from Reena’s xploration challenge.

The tanka continuation was inspired by Sadje’s whatdoyousee

Today’s Tiny Treasure

...
Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Lead us lest too far we wander
Love’s sweet voice is calling yonder

Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Hey there don’t get dimmer dimmer
Light the path below above
Lead us on to love
...
Extract from this beautiful rhythmic poetry and song.
Glow worm by LadySighs

An Andaree has an 11/9/7/5/3/1/3/5/7/9/11 syllable structure with an AabbcbcbbaA rhyme scheme.
Hope you enjoy.
Looking forward to your thoughts

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Posted in Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Evolving. A haibun #poetry and #prose

It is not an impotence to shine, that anchors me in the obscure. Neither is it loneliness or despair that keep me from the sun. Perhaps it is the clarity from rays beaming upon glamour and gore alike, or the beauty that can only be dreamt in the dark, which keep me here, away from where I must go. Am I incomplete, if I bloom where the world cannot see?

demeure of shadows
does light hide in the hidden
where the pollen floats

It is not wonder but a yearning to wander, that chains my gaze to the lady in red on a backdrop of sullen winter. The only cold I have known is the one from a shoulder, as my pleas wisped into nothing. She draws the eye, gay in the grey. And I think, maybe the light I seek, must come from within.

thralls of mystery
a rapscallion wonder looms
virgin decisions

The days of going-with-the-flow are behind me. These be monstrous tides. I cannot survive if I cannot swim. The old strokes won’t do, a minute’s breath falls short. I must find those pockets of air. Here in the depths, I must evolve.

dirigible ways
call the wide-eyed butterfly
to bloom in the dark

©judeitakali

Reena’s xploration challenge
Sadje’s whatdoyousee
Colleen’s tanka tuesday

Book Candy Corner

In this second book in the Fairies, Myths, & Magic series, step into a world where dark fairies, and other magical beings converge in a collection of poetry and short stories inspired by winter and the celebration of the winter solstice.

From Autumn’s scary fairies to the forgotten female characters of Yule, prepare to embrace the magical winter solstice myths from around the world. Book on Amazon


Hope you enjoy this. Looking forward to your thoughts. Just one more paper to go.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Posted in Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Approaching the future. A #senryu series

Dire predictions
the dimple in a grim smile
Is my resistance

like changing seasons
heedless deeds spin fortune’s wheel
a chain reaction

I see with thine eye
Is this the lover’s edict
hybrid creations

In a lawless world
karma keeps a watchful gaze
the peasant toils on

Inhibited soul
you must bloom in their vision
to grow your wisdom

On a dreamer’s whim
pave new ways to withered ends
that you must rebuild

#writephoto

A Senryu series for Colleen’s TankaTuesday. See if you can pick a favourite.
Also for:
Sadje’s whatdoyousee
Caley’s writephoto
Reena’s xploration challenge
.

Tall Tales Corner

We named her Aangaz 
the village clutz
Clumsy to a tear

Tinkles trailed her tippytap step
pots and pans broke in her wake
coins and trinkets fell from her pockets
the children chortled with laughter
but always returned her lost treasures
and how she loved them so

One day the earth shook
trees fell, roofs collapsed, wildebeests stampeded
Many passed, more were injured
but none of them children
For Aangaz the village clutz
Tippytapped through the mayhem
Clumsy with everything-
except what she truly loved...

Looking forward to your thoughts. I’m still getting a hang on telling tall tales, I’m not writing them just right, but I’ll get better.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Caught in the gray. A haiku and senryu garland

Caught in the gray. A haiku and senryu garland

my table is yours
this dream grows bigger when shared
the meal is better

Oh winter’s sunrise
you once taught the secrets of warmth
when love held plenty

Cyclical seasons
why won’t life spin as you do
to bring my love back

In the cold between
I cling to your phantom warmth
within our gray scarf

Oh winter’s sunset
replay our intimate times
thaw my loneliness

Linger in the gray
where transcient souls are moulded
metamorphosis

I’m on a haiku spree. I hope you enjoy these next ones that I wrote on twitter yesterday.

Hope you enjoy. Don’t forget to follow me if you are on twitter. I have shorter writing I post there.

Blessed day and happy thanksgiving.

Savannah love #kouta #poetry

Oh this land of loving sun!
where light wakes in song
and dancers bewitch shy moons
Sweet Savannah love

Aiyeee Aiyeee! we bellow
This need cannot hide
When love sings upon the wind
Lions sleep that night

The grass whispers our yearning
Secrets in the glade
The leopard won’t change its spots
So too our promise
of true Savannah love!

copyright

For #TankaTuesday this week, we were given a specific form chosen by Reena. The Kouta’s themes reflect ordinary life and often use colloquialisms and onomatopoeia. The most popular are love songs.

Kouta is a Japanese syllabic form perfect for traditional or hometown/village poetry. I hope you enjoy. Follow the tankatuesday link above to see the guidelines for writing it. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Stay safe, stay loving.

Halloween Romance. A Garland Cinquain.

With You
What I wish for
Sweet words from painted lips
Bewitch, beguile, ensnare our love
In Dream

We walk
Beaneath these stars
Hands round waists, hearts abuzz
For shadowed kiss and whispered bliss
We Long

As one
With one purpose
We love and love blindly
Letting pleasure engulf our pain
Zombies

Undead
Dare not wake us
For those up to no good
We forsake and solemnly swear
Vengeance

This love
of ignorance
Is perfect for my soul
Beyond spirit, within feeling
Betrothed

With You
Beneath these stars
We love and love blindly
We forsake and solemnly swear
Betrothed

#whatdoyousee
Copyright

For Sadje’s #whatdoyousee and Colleen’s #tankatuesday (what I wish for)

Been a while since I wrote a garland cinquain. Hope you enjoy. Looking forward to your thoughts.

I’m balancing between very dark and friendly-dark in the build up to halloween.

Previously in the very-dark(ish) category; Call of Darkness. #Horror #Villanelle

Stay safe everyone. Happy haunting.