Colleen’s 2019 #Tanka Tuesday #Poet of the Week & Honorable Mention(s), No. 143, #PoetsChoice

Colleen M. Chesebro9 Sep 201920 Mar 2022Prior Years Poetry Stars#poetry, Butterfly Cinquain, Double #Etheree, Honorable mention poetry, Prior Years Poetry Stars, Reena Saxena, Sally Cronin, Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge Recaps, The Poet of the Week

Welcome to the Tanka Tuesday Poetry Recap featuring the Poet of the Week and any honorable mention poetry that deserves a second read. If you would like to participate in this challenge, you can learn the rules in the menu item called Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Guidelines.

This week for the first of the month, the challenge participants had the opportunity to choose their own words. I’m always blow away by the creativity and the poets never disappoint.

Congratulations, and many thanks to all the participants! Please visit the challenge post comments HERE, where you’ll find the links to everyone’s poetry. Stop by and say hello! ❤

The Poet of the Week and Honorable Mention Poets will be published in the 2019 Poet of the Week Anthology, which everyone will be able to grab as a FREE PDF in January 2020.

Each week, I like to highlight a poet who I call the Poet of the Week, who has shared an exceptional message, or shown impassioned creativity through words or form. Poetry is all about perception, so don’t be shocked if you don’t feel the same way about a poem that I do.

The Poet of the Week

This week, I’ve chosen Sally Cronin as the Poet of the Week for her double Etheree poem featured below. What I especially loved about this poem, was how smoothly her words flowed. She completes her first thought, which then flows into her next thought. The poetry is succinct, and the reader easily understands her message.

This poem is unrhymed, but the words carry their own rhythm, meaning, imagery, and in this case, an underlying second meaning. Not only are we saying goodbye to Summer, we are also rejoicing in the bounty of the harvest and welcoming the darkness of winter. Excellent!

The Summer Bids Farewell

With
sadness
I utter
the words goodbye,
to warm days though brief
that boosted my morale.
The glow that has bronzed my skin,
reminds me of the longer days,
of a summer that has been too short,
though bolstered me for the winter to come.
But, in the interim we have autumn.
A welcome season of fruitfulness.
Leaves will turn gold and apples red,
with fields stripped of their harvest
Soon we will give our thanks
for all this bounty
that fill the stores,
giving life,
through dark
months.

©2019 Sally Cronin

Honorable Mention(s)

Reena Saxena’s Butterfly Cinquain featured below, shows a lovely connection between the shape of the poem (butterfly) and her theme of how “writing gives her freedom.” Do you remember the 1970’s poem, “If you love someone, set them free?” There was always a butterfly featured on those posters. I felt her words, if you know what I mean?

I also love the significance of the phrase “soul colors.” That really caught my eye.

Reena also makes a great comparison between the colors of black & white, and how she wants to “recolor life’s ends.” I like the analogy she set up with her choice of words.

Colors of Life

writing
gives me freedom
paint words in soul colors
I choose colors sandwiched between
extremes
black and white - do not a life make
whole spectrums invite me
to recolor
life's ends

©2019 Reena Saxena

Stay Tuned for the Next Challenge!

Published by Colleen M. Chesebro

An avid reader, Colleen M. Chesebro rekindled her love of writing poetry after years spent working in the accounting industry. These days, she loves crafting syllabic poetry, flash fiction, and creative fiction and nonfiction. In addition to poetry books, Chesebro’s publishing career includes participation in various anthologies featuring short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She’s an avid supporter of her writing community on Word Craft Poetry.com by organizing and sponsoring a weekly syllabic poetry challenge, called #TankaTuesday, where participants experiment with traditional and current forms of Japanese and American syllabic poetry. Chesebro is an assistant editor of The Congress of the Rough Writers Flash Fiction Anthology & Gitty Up Press, a micro-press founded by Charli Mills and Carrot Ranch. In January 2022, Colleen founded Unicorn Cats Publishing Services to assist poets and authors in creating eBooks and print books for publication. In addition, she creates affordable book covers for Kindle and print books. Chesebro lives in the house of her dreams in mid-Michigan surrounded by the Great Lakes with her husband and two (unicorn) cats, Chloe & Sophie. View more posts