And just like that… October disappears into November

Welcome to the Tanka Tuesday Poetry Recap featuring the Poet of the Week and the honorable mention poetry. 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.

Don’t forget the time change! I’m on Mountain Standard Time in Arizona and do not change time. If you don’t want to miss my posts, sign up for email notifications. Look for the widget on the right.

What a great Halloween week. Thanks to all of you who helped me celebrate! Your poetry reached new heights this week. You should all give yourselves a pat on the back!

Congratulations, and many thanks to all the participants! As we move from Halloween into the month of giving thanks, I want you to know I appreciate your weekly creative endeavors. Think back to when you first starting writing poetry. Now, compare that to now. Look how far you’ve come!

Don’t forget to visit the challenge post comments HERE, where you’ll find the links to everyone’s poetry. Stop by and say hello! ❤

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. You may not feel the same way about my choice. That’s okay. Perception is different for all of us.

The Poet of the Week

This week, I’ve chosen H. R. R. Gorman as the Poet of the Week for his Garland Cinquain featured below. The challenge words were grave and dig, associated with Halloween and the Day of the Dead (November 1st).

First let me say that if you wish to write a longer poem, the garland Cinquain is a great choice. Each Cinquain stanza should share a thought to move the poem forward.

In fact, H. R. says, “Now, before you think I cheated too much with renaming the first word, “Shovel” is a tool while a “sucker” is also a tool. Get it? Anyway, all the renaming at the last line is very slanted, possibly too far twisted, but I found the choices clever enough within my own head.”

I liked the word “dead-ite” which is a made up word. It’s creative and sounds better than “deader.” The suffix “ite” is used in scientific terminology which for me, really adds to the finite nature of the word dead.

One more thought… The gritty harsh theme of this poem resonates with the idea of death, burial, and the process of digging a grave. Excellent way to show and not tell!

“Shovel”

Shovel
Burdensome soil
Outta Almighty’s Earth.
Hopin’ God forgivin’ sinners
Tonight.

Bury
Secrets away –
Your misbegotten corpse
Ain’t welcome Earthside anymore,
Dead-ite.

Scumbags
All disappear
Using death’s hideaway.
I simply advocated you
Hurry.

Safety
Remains below.
Villains turned corpses
Ain’t sabotaged anyone yet,
Capisce?

Second
Coming even
Ain’t gonna awaken
Boogeymen entombed far below,
Sucker.

Shovel
Secrets away –
Using death’s hideaway
Ain’t sabotaged anyone yet,
Sucker.

©2019 H. R. R. Gorman

Honorable Mention(s)

Trent McDonald gets the Honorable Mention for his poem this week. Trent wrote four Tanka poems and linked them together to tell a story. I’ve added his photo because he took the image and it’s part of the poetry. Clearly his inspiration for the poetry came from the image of the well on his property.

Trent’s poetry is another example of how we can use syllabic poetry to create longer form stanza poetry that tells a story.

“Midnight Adventure”

Midnight adventure
To exhume the ancient crypt
But we are too late
The slab is already moved
The dead has unearthed himself

Did we delve too deep
Awaken that which should sleep
Release the terror?
We run from the open tomb
But once more we are too late

The crunch of a twig
Silver shadow from the moon
He is following
A hand grabs me from behind
Sharp nails gouge into my flesh

Leave the dead alone
Sleeping under the cold ground
Peaceful undisturbed
It is a lesson I learned
Only when it was too late

©2019 Trent P. McDonald

Willow Willers double Etheree was another fun story poem. I could see a sequence of Etheree poems (inverted, double, etc.) strung together to tell a story also.

Important FACT: Did you know that we should never use Haibun poetry to tell a story? Why? Because, the Haibun should capture a moment as if it is occurring now, but told from the perspective of the poet. Haibun poetry should not be about past events which is how we tell a story.

“Double Etheree – Halloween Story”

So
Pale her
Skin, so dark
Her eyes. Blood red
Her lips. She watch him
From afar, yearning to
Hold him close and inter him
Within sweet, damp earth enfold him
With her roots. Excervate around his
Soul to take him whole, entomb, bury him.

He,
Unaware
Went about
His life unaware
Of her Vampire eyes
Watching and waiting to
Catch him unaware, his life
To sap. His body to cover
And wrap deeply, making him hers.
Underneath entombed, hers to keep always.

©2019 Willow Willers

The new challenge is live tomorrow! See you there.