Change

This was in a tree outside my house. A home for wasps, I believe. I never saw it coming, never saw them building. Then came autumn, the tree shed their multicolored clothing and there it was.

Fierce looking in size and demeanor. I didn’t touch it, I did not know if anyone was home; and I was not interested in finding out. So, I left it alone.

Now, this hive is no longer there. It seems winter and its high winds took care of the matter in its own time. A clean sweep. An inevitable change.

well hidden

until it was not –

natures roar

Pat

1/26/2023

The New Black

political strife –

fierce bubbles in the caldron

cruelty, the new black

Pat

1/18/23

For Tanka Tuesday where the specific form Senryu is the ask over at Word Craft with Colleen. To participate go here

Definition of Senryu

“Senryu is a short poetic genre which focuses on people. Men, women, husbands, wives, children, and relatives. It portrays the characteristics of human beings and the psychology of the human mind. Even when senryu depict living things such as animals, insects, and plant life, or when they depict inanimate objects, they are portrayed with the emphasis on their human attributes”, per the Senryu Circle.

Tanka Tuesday

atop the tree lines

against the bluest of skies

an altercation

mocking bird versus a crow

crow, unmoved – until he was

Pat

6/11/22

For Tanka Tuesday over at Colleens where the prompt is “…taste the rainbow color poetry…”

To participate or just read, go here

Grit

Ida is an old soul and the fiercest person I know. She was blessed with an abundance of that ‘no nonsense and why the hell not’, attitude.

Conversations this time had awakened deep feelings.

What must it be like going somewhere, and not know that feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb. Or, not having to endure the stares and the under- their- breaths mutterings.

Such feelings were never really shared out loud, they didn’t have to. They knew, being in the skin they were in. Ida too, had experienced this. On one occasion she was heard to say,

‘I didn’t know I was black till I came to America’. She would not elaborate.

But this too she tackled this with her attitude of “no, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife*.” This attitude had served her well; and serves her still.

Pat
7/20/21

*Zora Neale Hurston

Tailored Upheaval -Abhanga



a tailored upheaval

a noisy gathering

more than a smattering

angry chants raged

Pat
2/04/21

The elements of the Abhanga are:

  • stanzaic, written in any number of 4 line stanzas.
  • syllabic, 6-6-6-4 syllables each
  • rhymed L2 and L3 rhyme. Often internal rhyme is employed. End rhyme scheme x a a x , x being unrhymed.

I am trying this form that is new to me called the Abhanga. To read more about it or to participate over at Colleen’s blog go here.

#TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 211, #Abhanga, or #PoetsChoice

Also linked to Open Link Night over at dVerse Poets Pub where Lillian is hosting. Visit or participate here

Crippling Gray

lay me down to heal

till this crippling gray stills –

a regard for spring

sparks first tweet from window sills

no more will this sting endure

Pat R

11/12/20

Ronovan Writes where the prompt words are “First & Heal”

&

For Tanka Tuesday over at Colleens where the prompt is synonyms to Imagine & Regard. I used Spark & Regard.