Dreams coming true! Author and motivator Tal Gur has discovered Tao of Thoreau. He published this amazing review, and granted me an interview.
This is the kind of opportunity I have only dreamed of before, and now this dream has come true! It has motivated me to keep chasing my goals and aspirations. Thank you Tal!
Been a while since I did a TankaTuesday challenge. This one is to use the phrase “in the shadow of” with the task of creating contrasting imagery of real or metaphorical light and darkness.
In the shadow of of the sun, the moon waxes and wanes.
In the shadow of ambition, small achievements are lost to pride.
In the shadow of trees, shade provides cool shelter.
In the shadow of envy, what we have is lost to what we want.
In the shadow of loss, love's sad face is a mirror of what we miss.
In the shadow of the mountain, cool valleys grow by snow fed streams.
In the shadow of the moon, we remember that darkness is enlightened by stars.
The challenge on TankaTuesday this week was to use synonyms for promise and comfort. My mind did not go to it’s usual happy place, so enjoy a bit of a downer.
Some things can't be soothed.
A broken vow can't be fixed.
Safety is shattered.
The pledge's soothing assurance
Split into sharp edged pieces.
I used these ingredients from Macbeth to create my witch’s brew tanka for Tanka Tuesday: Eye of newt, toe of frog, tongue of dog, owl’s wing, adders fork and blind worms sting.
Newt pirate eye patch
A cane for the frog to match!
No more yelping dog:
Its tongue licking owl wing,
Adders fork and blind worms sting.
The Tanka Tuesday challenge was to use words from this word garden:
I wrote three Tankas focused on different meanings of the word “wave”, and included the words “two”, “sail” and “castle” to focus my wavy theme.
1.
Still water sailing
Contemplating smallest waves
Powerful enough
To lift our heavy boat up
Working with the ocean's strength
2.
She is first to wave
The only movement within
The stillest moment
And then we break free, smiling,
Surging, running, embracing.
3.
Thick brick and cold stone
An edifice of power.
A castle's defense
Has no strength to stop the wave
Flowing force of joy and love.
The tankatuesday challenge this week is to write a tanka based on the words “humdrum” and “mindless” without using those words.
I always try to catch myself when I allow this miraculous existence to become dull. It’s easy to coast through life without appreciation. Today’s sunrise was another glorious reminder.
It's the sun again
Same old fireball rising
Boring miracle.
Wait! That's not like me at all
I crave its light and its heat.
A Tanka Puente is a a tanka poem with a prose bridge between two parts. Mine is about my frustrated ambition to be published by a publishing company. Thanks as always to tankatuesday for the prompt.
Living inspired
Magic and my characters
Alive and speaking
My thoughts my words my stories
My world becoming the world
~My love of writing is not enough. My ambition requires publication.~
Success desired
Acceptance by publishers
Close calls, rejections
Not enough for me because
My dreams stride across the world
All the ashtrays have been emptied
The ashes blown to dust
Long ago.
The decorative stone ones,
The ceramic one your mother made,
The heavy one that was thick and gemlike
Faceted, bending light.
That one was too nice,
It made the ashes seem dirtier.
The cheap metal ones, bent up at four sides
That I had in college in ‘91.
That one was on the dresser:
The one I fished half smoked butts out of,
Careless of the last lips that held them.
The souvenir one that once said Canada,
The red word on the clear glass
And the maple leaf on the bottom
Faded and chipped away.
The smokers are outside now,
Or quit,
Or dead.
The ashtrays are in landfills,
In forgotten boxes in the dark cellar,
Dim corners behind old books.
Existing in their decay,
Fading to ashes.
Returning to dust.
There are five crows that hang out in our yard. I wanted them to be ravens, so I could pretend that Odin was guarding the yard. But the internet deflated this fantasy: they are indeed crows.
I really shouldn’t want more. They are GREAT crows. One day, I was sitting in the backyard, and they were perched in the trees along the property border. They began cawing, and then one took off, flew down steeply, banked around the power line pole, then accelerated back up to the starting branch.
This was cool, but then one by one they each did the same thing. The waiting crows cawed loudly, as if encouraging their mate. As they continued to fly around the pole, it was clear that they were playing. Not only that, it seemed like this was a type of drill, practicing maneuvers that would be useful in the wild.
Crows call a challenge
Leap, rise, stoop into a dive
Tilt, twist, bend their path
Beat down wings to rise again
Cawing cheers upon return
I return to this remarkable memory whenever I see them. I thought this would always be the high point, until last week. That’s when I saw one of the crows and a hawk together. Flying together.
The crow led, the hawk followed, beak almost to the crow’s tailfeathers. At first, I thought the hawk might be chasing the crow away, perhaps from a vulnerable nest. But as they flew, curving, diving, flying into tree shadow and reemerging, it became obvious that they were playing.
Thankfully Patty was there to witness this, or this would have been another of my partly believed strange animal stories.
The crow and the hawk
Fly aligned, dive together
United by flight
Transcending their barriers
Darting, flapping, rising, one.
The reality of these birds is so much better than my mythological fantasy. Still, I’d like to think Odin would be proud to have them in his real world.
This post is part of a poetry challenge at http://www.tankatuesday.com
Teachers measure years a little differently. Our year goes from September to June. On the 26th, my new year begins. Unlike the traditional New Years Day, I don’t need to make a list of changes or resolutions. Those will come in the form of the 70 plus new students I will get to know and teach over the school year.
Ads for school shopping
Remind me I have a job
That fresh minds await
The feelings at this time of year are always mixed. I love summer, and its mix of productive tasks, like writing and landscaping, along with relaxing and recreation. Soon, my focus will change to the trials and the joy of teaching seventh graders as they navigate the challenges of childhood coming to an end and adulthood beckoning. Though this will be my thirtieth year, even with all my experience each year starts with the nervous excitement of new beginnings.
Visit TankaTuesday to join the challenge of writing syllabic poetry.
Mark Bozeman 