#TANKA TUESDAY POETRY STARS | Theme prompt: Immortality

Posted byColleen M. ChesebroPosted inPrior Years Poetry StarsTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to our weekly poetry stars celebration. This week’s challenge was to write about “immortality” using one of these forms: Haiku, Senryu, Haiga, Tanka, Gogyohka, Haibun, Tanka Prose, Renga, Solo-Renga, Cinquain, and its variations, Etheree, Nonet, Shadorma, Badger Hexastich (hexastich for short), and Abhanga. The Diatelle form is also an option.

Remember… the first of the month you can write any syllabic poetry form of your choice. The rest of the time, we write our syllabic poetry in one of the forms listed, and we follow a schedule (posted below). I do this for a couple of reasons. It requires those of you who would like to enter contests or to submit your poetry to literary journals to learn how to follow their rules. This challenge gives you that practice. Besides, why enter a challenge if you don’t follow the rules? That’s the challenge part. ❤

ALSO: Make sure you are grabbing the URL of your “published” post when you link back to the challenge and in Mr. Linky. If you need extra help with these features, let me know and I will help you. ❤

Many thanks to everyone who joined in below:

1.Padre11.kat21.Donna Matthews
2.Reena Saxena12.Laura McHarrie22.D. L. Finn
3.Gwen Plano13.Myforever Myrna Migala23.Jude
4.Trent McDonald14.Erlyn Olivia24.The Bee Writes…
5.theindieshe15.ladyleemanila25.Kerfe Roig
6.Jules16.Selma26.Ruth Scribbles
7.willowdot2117.Ritu Bhathal27.Sally Cronin
8.Eugenia18.kittysverses28.Pat
9.Cheryl19.Merril D. Smith  
10.Annette Rochelle Aben20.Colleen Chesebro  

There was some truly amazing poetry this week. Immortality can mean something different to everyone. Here are a few poems that expressed different interpretations of what immortality means to them:

Trent McDonald

willowdot21

Erlyn Olivia

Annette Rochelle Aben

Sally Cronin

Ruth Scribbles

I chose Kat Myrman’s Abhanga quatrain (series of four, four-line stanzas) to feature this week. The Abhanga has that lovely rhythm 6/6/6/4 syllables, L2 and L3 rhyme: x a a x, x being unrhymed. I’ve shared her poem below. Notice how the four quatrains written together form a longer poem? Just because the form is four lines long, doesn’t mean you can’t write more than one stanza. Japanese poetry is different, however. Always follow the instructions carefully on those forms.

This week, I’ve asked Kat Myrman to choose the theme prompt for next month’s challenge. Please email your words to me at least a week before the challenge to tankatuesdaypoetry@gmail.com. Thanks.

"mere mortals"

it shouldn’t surprise us
how nonchalantly death
steals away our breath
in just a blink
without considering
that we have things to do
life to live, we’re not through
no death don’t care
the cruel fact of it is
when it’s your time to go
you can bet death will show
ready or not
immortality’s not
for mere mortals like us
just accept it, don’t fuss
enjoy the ride

©2021kat

Fly free… don’t forget tomorrow we’ll write more poetry! See you then…

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.

35 thoughts on “#TANKA TUESDAY POETRY STARS | Theme prompt: Immortality”

  10. Congratulations to Kat on being the winner this week, and everyone who entered. Also congrats to the six mentioned poets one of whom was me…. thank you Kat 💜

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: