Winter Solstice
This long night
buries colors like
secrets. A
grey-scaled world,
silvered reeds kiss icy streams,
wait for sun’s return–
and we clone
it in candles and
baubles. Star-
dusted, star-
drawn, we turn like flowers—now,
faces tilt to light.
A shadorma for the winter solstice, which is today. Happy Solstice, winter or summer, and happy holidays!
A Foggy Morning, Delaware River
November Morning
And again
fog, a pewter mist,
a curtain
but threadbare,
patched—here see the scarlet leaf,
the flash of white tail?
I haven’t participated in Tanka Tuesday for a long time. This is a shadorma. The challenge was to include color–though I think for me the challenge would be NOT to include color. 🙂 The photo is from this morning. I saw three deer with their white tails flashing as they ran.
Images 1.7 and 3.7
Shapeshifting: Two Shadorma
1.
Shapeshifters–
dwell in the in-between,
nightmare beasts
given form
by our baleful innermost
demons. Darkness freed.
2.
Desire
calls, shameless siren,
and female,
of course. So,
hobble her, keep her locked-in
house and mind. But then
remember
the murk-minded who
fear women,
abhor cats,
toss independence, bring plagues,
rivers of dark dread.
Paul Brookes is hosting a month-long ekphrastic challenge using folklore images to celebrate the launch of his new poetry collection, “As Folktaleteller.” You can see the images here and also read the other responses.
Now, death comes–
an owl’s wing-woosh, sighs
in moonlight,
shadow shapes.
But weary-boned, he pauses–
eyes wide-open shut
forever
gone–or in-between
time shifting,
ghosts drifting–
past meets future, unmasked
Death enters the room.
This is a shadorma for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday. I selected the artwork.
I saw the above print on the Philadelphia Free Library’s Print Department’s Instagram feed. It captured my attention, and though created during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it seems so timely, as well as seasonal. I asked Colleen if it would be okay to use it instead of a photo for her ekphrastic prompt.
Inspired by KR28 and JL28
Blue of sky
to river flowing
colored light
green growing
tall, bright, with birdsong trilling
day into night
mockingbird
sings. Hawk is screeching
gulls laugh back,
call goodbye
to fly in formation, light-
glimmered wings in flight
paths swirling,
all the sounds whirling—
sky voices,
birds and bees,
stars and moon, owl’s mournful whoooo?
So, you dream of scenes—
blue of sky
and river flowing,
all the birds’
bright knowing,
summer sounds in winter’s dream—
I turn towards you.
A shadorma sequence for Paul Brookes’ Ekphrastic Challenge, Day 28. You can see all the art and read the poems here.
Inspired by KR 24, “Wishes” and JL 24 “Snipe”
Wishes glide
on many wings, some
slight flutter
newly born–
butterflies from chrysalis
dreams, desires seen,
soar and sing
as mockingbirds of
dreams. Or dove-
cooed clinging,
birds on a wire, resting,
still before the storm
gusts, blusters–
rising tide, wind blows
winnowing
like the snipe—
creeping dreams, such feathered things
that soar, fly, drift, die
and again
reborn, spring-lighting
from winter
gloom, hatched to
buzz, sting, flitter, sing, and then
sometimes. . . they come true.
A shadorma series for Paul Brookes’ Ekphrastic Challenge, Day 24. You can see all the art and read all the poems here.
Cosmic after-
glow, echoes of light,
energy
and matter
through time, before time
before our time–eons
of coursing
color no one sees–
from the sky
to the sea
repeating cycles, fractals
and Fibonacci
on the beach,
a nautilus shell—
you hold it,
marveling
at its spiral curves, ancient
sailor, now moored here
amidst stones
and gull laughs, soaring
as Gaia
cups the world.
This is how life unfolds, in
circles and seasons
without hate.
Too late for her, or
him, or them—
the Other—
though filled with stardust, too. See
how cycles repeat?
A shadorma sequence for Paul Brooke’s Ekphrastic Challenge, Day 15. We’re halfway through! You can read the other poems here. My work is inspired by all three works of art. I am behind on replying to comments and visiting other posts because I’ve had to finish paying work this week, but I will catch up in the next couple of days. This will be my NaPoWriMo poem for today because I know I won’t have time to get to the prompt.
Listen, as
Crow caws your future—
winter goes,
spring appears,
cycles repeat forever,
light to dark to light
from before
time, it resonates–
the afterlight
of star-birds
flapping their bright-feathered wings,
and traveling on.
Ghost glimmers
spot the sky. Humming
with the moon,
the sea sighs,
everything connected. Now,
listen again. See?
A Shadorma chain for NaPoWriMo, Day 8 inspired by my walk this morning. The crows have been so active, and right now a mockingbird is putting on quite a concert from a nearby tree. It’s a good time of year to look around and listen. Since I’m writing a daily poem for the Ekphrastic challenge, and I’m behind on all my work, I’m mostly not writing for the prompts this year. But, I do love the shadorma form. 😏
Warp and weft,
life weaves through tides,
sun-sparkled,
moon-bedewed,
blue-waved and bleached white, patterns
form again and go
in dream worlds,
she sees. Star-gathered,
the crows come,
dark to light,
now, never, always—this is
what might be. Time is
an ocean
layered with rippling
currents, not
constant, but
ever-changing. Dark to light,
warp and weft. Again.
A Shadorma chain for Paul Brookes’ Ekphrastic Challenge. You can see all the art and poems here. I don’t have time today to write a poem based on the photos in the site mentioned into today’s NaPoWriMo prompt, but–as in this poem–I often write about liminal spaces.
Mortal, we
free-fall in life-aches’
whispered, whys.
Dark matter
attracted, but questioning
the spin, the drop–still
carbon-based,
not immortal, but
time-holding–
swallowed stars
coursing through our veins, scattered
light diffused, always
there waiting,
the flame, unknown or
forgotten,
a beacon
within brain, heart, skin–or soul-
dimmed till it’s released.
In a dream,
a blue river shines,
calling me,
and I wake
with the vision remaining.
I send it soaring.
And does it
live on in space-time?
Not human,
not mortal,
but eternally, star-sparked–
circling forever.
A shadorma sequence for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday, where I chose the theme, “Immortality.” I’m also sharing this with dVerse for Open Link Night, which is live tonight! I really did wake from a dream of a blue river
Yesterday and today: Merril's historical musings 