green

journaling in my living room
blue and yellow blast
i'm lost in a field of dreams
edge of the abyss

i look at my hands
the tiny emerald ring
roots me to the earth
it's time to grow and renew
the grass dancing with the breeze

Is anyone else feeling at the edge of the abyss? This winter has been so long and the creativity muse has left. Finally, this week the outdoors grey is giving some space for the sunshine and I’m starting to reclaim my creativity.

Tanka Tuesday this week is colours of the rainbow, green. My poem, consisting of a haiku and a tanka, intentionally doesn’t have the word green in it, but it has ‘green’ all over it. Hope you enjoy it!

Abhanga :: the supper is ready

spiced Indian eggplant
crisp chickpeas, delicious
mangoes are nutritious
chai, just perfect

This evening I cooked garlic Indian eggplant for supper. It was delish, I didn’t have time to take a photo. The recipe is super easy: Slice a few Indian or Chinese eggplants into rings, roast in the oven with a little bit of oil until golden. In a pot, saute garlic in olive oil, add the roasted eggplants, and spice up with salt, black pepper and turmeric, you can add a little bit of lemon juice too. It’s ready to eat with rice or bread. it’s so simple, nutritious and delicious. And very affordable too, this supper cost was less than 10 dollars for 2, me and hubby.

Tanka Tuesday this week is to write a poem using the Abhanga form that originated in India, Colleen describes it: We write Abhanga in any number of 4-line stanzas with 6-6-6-4 syllables each. L2 and L3 rhyme. The end rhyme scheme is abbc. It is customary to title your poetry.

I love Indian food, but I can’t eat most of their dishes because of the spice, so I created a few variations of it at home, like the spiced eggplant where I added garlic instead of spices.

Hope you enjoy the poem and the recipe 🙂

Yellow beauty

first tulips of 2022
yellow
catching my breath
mellow

sunshine and summer
welcoming radiant days
freedom and lightness

the beans of power
bitter and hot, delicious
at the crack of dawn

snowflakes and freezing
on my doorsteps, going out
hat, scarf, gloves and boots

Lots of tulips at the grocery store last weekend! All colours, spring was in the air, I almost forgot the freezing weather outside. I got the yellow ones to warm up my home and my mood. This poem depicts my mornings this week, the yellow tulips on the kitchen countertop, the coffee brewing, the warm indoors contrasting with the cold and the snow outside. Hope you find wonderful flowers on your way today, if not in the garden at least at the grocery store!

Tanka Tuesday – Taste the rainbow

Unknown

“The Crystal Ball is a charming painting from John William Waterhouse which features a plethora of influences from Renaissance architecture to British Pre-Raphaelites like Dante Gabriel RossettiWilliam Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. ~ via John William Waterhouse” – Colleen Chesebo
exuberant confidence
caressing the skin
in the hands, a dark future
oddity murdering joy
present mingling with unknown

Tanka Tuesday this week is Ekphrastic poem and the photo is provided by Rebecca Budd. I have chosen a Tanka to describe what the photo depicts to me.

A pop of colour

winter blues
it's dragging me down
bright colours

lifting up
creativity
stagnation

Middle of January is always difficult, winter blues guiding to lack of creativity. I hadn’t worked on any art page for so long, today I decided to add yellow and pink to a page. A pop of colour to lift my mood. I like my choice of colours: yellow and pink! Yellow means happiness and reminds me of sunshine; pink is related to self-care and love. This reminded me to buy flowers this weekend!

Haiku poem for Tanka Tuesday.

Tomorrow, an Etheree poem

moon
new moon
a fresh start
a bright new year
and what to wish for?
a blank page, or canvas
to be overflowing with
delight, respect and boundaries
for now, twinkle lights and soft music
until tomorrow, always tomorrow

It’s 6 pm, Jan 2nd, Sunday, new moon. I’m in my living room looking at the Christmas tree and thinking that it is always about tomorrow. A new day, a new challenge, a new me, a new…, STOP! I told myself, this moment is what matters, the twinkle lights, the snow outdoors, the warmth of indoors. Words and verses are dancing in my mind, finding their way to the keyboard and this poem is born.

Tanka Tuesday, taste the rainbow for Jan 3rd. The colorful twinkle lights are the rainbow 🌈 in this poem. No photo, I leave to your imagination to compose the scene.

turquoise wings

in my garden
moments
childlike wishes
the precious turquoise wings
secret message for the chosen
loved ones
connected by a split second
to the intuition
eternally
belief

Today’s prompt for Gratitude week with Michelle is about being grateful for paying attention and awareness to our surroundings and feelings. When I’m in my garden I pay attention to all the tiny little things/moments: a bird song, a butterfly, a feather, all the beauty that makes me smile, and also, to the not so nice stuff, like worms, beetles that eat my beautiful plants and make me angry. Well, I pay attention, and one day without expecting a dragonfly sits on a leaf close by, and at that moment I knew it wasn’t only an insect on a leaf but a beautiful messenger delivering love when I needed most.

Tanka Tuesday is week is “Write a butterfly cinquain (2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2) and include a colour”. I didn’t have a recently butterfly photo, however this dragonfly is gorgeous and perfect for my poem.

kindness

me time kindness
kindness
holding a door
a smile

a smile
a cup of tea
thank you

thank you
sending flowers
love you

love you
I'm listening
kindness

Tanka Tuesday – Kindness is the theme prompt for this week. I’ve written this poem but it doesn’t fit any of the classic poetry forms, at least that I could find. I love it, so I decided to be kind to myself and share it anyways. It is a syllabic poem, so I think Colleen will like. The form is 2:4:2, the last word of one stanza is the first of the following on and the first word of the poem repeats as the last one. I am thinking a name for it, but first I’d like know from the poetry experts if there isn’t already a form like this one.

Another gesture of kindness I’m sharing here, is a self-kindness. A few minutes every morning I give to myself to play with colours, images. It’s a ‘me time’ that I use for art journaling.

Hope you enjoy both of my creativity forms.