#TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 255 | #TastetheRainbow

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

Welcome to our weekly poetry stars’ celebration. This week’s challenge was to write our choice of syllabic poem, including a color, using a form from the cheat sheet or a syllabic form from the Poetscollective.org.

I called this challenge “Taste the Rainbow,” as it had to do with including a color in your poem. You do not need to include reference to the rainbow in your poem.

New this year is my rule not to use “ing” ending words in your syllabic poetry. These words only fulfil the syllable count and add nothing more to the poetry. Believe me, I had to edit my poem to eliminate any “ing” words as well. What I discovered when I finished was a poem that shared a distinct moment in time that the reader could connect with.

Many thanks to everyone who joined in below:

1.Reena Saxena11.Eugenia21.Kerfe
2.ladyleemanila12.D. L. Finn22.kittysverses
3.ben Alexander13.Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr23.theindieshe
4.Elizabeth14.Yvette M Calleiro24.Kavya Janani. U
5.Harmony Kent15.sangeetha25.Colleen Chesebro
6.Jules16.Selma26.Laura McHarrie
7.Trent McDonald17.anita dawes27.Jude
8.Annette Rochelle Aben18.Sri28.Jane Aguiar
9.Gwen Plano19.wildchild47 29.The Forgers of Fantasy
10.Donna Matthews20.Ruth Klein  

I was thrilled to see so many of you take the leap and jump into another year of writing syllabic poetry with me. Thank you. I love the company!

There were so many outstanding poems this week, too many to share. However, I want to direct you to Eugenia’s haiku as an example of a literary device called the portmanteau.

A portmanteau is when you combine two words to make a new word. This new word emphasizes the meaning of the original words, unlike a compound word, which can create a totally new definition.

mizzly and grey, the
sullen day brought on a smile
beneath the rainbow

© Eugenia

The word “mizzly” is a combination of the word mizzle and misty! This is an excellent technique to use in your syllabic poetry.

The poet, James Joyce, is famous for creating his own words. Read about his poetry HERE.

Great work, everybody!

See you tomorrow for the new 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.

42 thoughts on “#TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 255 | #TastetheRainbow”

        2. Jane, your post wasn’t in Mr. Linky. After you publish your post, copy the https:// address of your post from your browser into Mr. Linky on my challenge post. That is how I grab all of the poetry. It takes too long to go through the challenge post, comment by comment. If you need help, let me know and I’ll help you get your link in there. Are you on FB? We can meet via messenger if that helps. ❤

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      1. Oh… oops I could change the offending haiku;

        one mirror
        captures our vision
        so please smile

        adulthood
        just a few small steps
        from our dreams

        (I’ll try to comply next time… I’ve added the alternates to the blog… I see I wasn’t the only one…)

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I have to work on the ing endings myself. Nouns ending in -ing are gerunds. Verbs and adjectives ending in -ing are participles. In syllabic poetry we want or meaning clear. I’m finding better words to use every time I come up again an ing word. It’s great practice. ❤

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          1. ‘ing’-deed!
            Thanks for the grammar lesson. I really don’t remember much of that at all.
            Seems one could do some haiku on fun grammar words? 💕

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I hope by not using ing ending words we learn to discover different (verbs/adjectives) words that better convey our meaning. There are going to be times when nothing else works. ❤

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  6. I use a few portmanteau words in my every day life (though I didn’t know that’s what they were called). One of my favorites is fantabulous (fantastic and fabulous). I’ve just never thought of creating my own. I’m going to have to keep that in mind as I write future poems. I enjoyed Eugenia’s poem. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s post. 🙂

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  7. Pingback: Painter, or Painting? – The Forgers of Fantasy

  9. Of course I had ing words too, and very important they were to my image I think. I know they are discouraged in writing but I disagree that they just add syllables. It provides movement, and often just the right rhythm and sound. I will abide by it for your challenges, but I will continue to use ing-words in my other work. (K)

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    1. Most definitely! The challenge is practice. Personally, every time I come up against an ing ending, I ultimately find a more descriptive word to use. Always do what you are most comfortable with, Kerfe. ❤️

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      1. I know it’s considered bad form. I spend more time revising and tweaking words than actually writing. So if I say I spend more time on revision and word selection than…well I can’t even think of a way to say writing without an ING word. But it sounds so passive and detached to me. I do always look for a more exact way to say things though. I think we all tend to reach for the same words, and it’s good to expand our vocabulary.

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  11. I submitted, but I’m not on the list, so probably I didn’t hit the submit button. 😉 I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge. Thank you, Colleen, for everything. 💗

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Thank you so much for highlighting my poem, Colleen! 🤩 You know, I find myself using “ing” as a syllable more than I realized. So my goal is to try and think of a better word. Have a great week ahead! ❤️

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    1. Me too, Franci. I’ve been dinged by my editor numerous times. Nouns ending in -ing are gerunds. Verbs and adjectives ending in -ing are participles. When we use these words too much they muddy our meaning which we want clear in syllabic poetry. It’s my new goal to not add ing to my verbs. Fingers crossed. LOL! ❤

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  13. Loved this Sis. Interesting that you can combine two words to mean one and include in poetry, even though it may not be an accepted dictionary word. Lol, I make up name for everything. Food for though, something to play along with. Thanks to Eugenia for that. And writing without gerunds is quite a task lol ❤

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