Five Tanka

Five lines written in the syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. Here I have five of them to be read, each, as a standalone. Prompt: If you like simplicity, you should try your hand at the form. Tanka are an excellent warm-up for any writing you wish.

Lost in and out of
Times relativity and
Space’s imposition.
Where can I wander without
Myself, who finds me yonder?

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You dance me around
Margins following the lines
Imagining we
Return to those moments when
We were one, reality.

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We thought we could learn
To live without each other,
But storms battered us
Until we came back calling
For the people we once were.

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Touch is mystery
Boldly original with
No filters, constructs;
It is always what is, no
Denying precedence, no.

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Love is like ice cream,
A tasty high calorie
Treat, providing energy,
Delighting all our senses,
Yet trickles away with ease.

Opening the Heart Door

Journal Page with Tanka, Poem, and Illustration
© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

There are times when showing how things germinate and become seem essential to share. The above is a journal page. I think we all need to know that however our process works, it is okay.

Creativity can be messy. It can also travel in lots of directions to get to an end, and even then, we may wonder what we have. Learning to trust ourselves in our media is why I feel working every day is most important. Even when insecurity and doubt assail us, doing what we love is a refuge and something we cannot give up.

Prompt: Share something you are working on creatively, even if you feel it is still rough around the edges.

Gratitude:
I got up today to sunshine and opportunity.
I found some cool guitar jams.
My workstation.
I have great tools.
Sodas.

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All work on Chronicles and Haphazard Creative are © Jo Ann J. A. Jordan. If you wish to share or use something I have created, please give credit and let me know so I can celebrate.

Caesurae

Salute to those
who have traveled
with me.
I hope you
enjoy whatever
journeys you
undertake.
Sometimes,
what we hope
never appears
and we fail
to understand.
I am quiet;
so be you
and find
your best true.

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I did my Creativity Project for about a year and a half on Chronicles and have done it about the same here.

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WORDs Worth

It all began with The Word,
And the life I live
Began with words, as well.
Nothing
I learned came without
Lettered meaning.

Each day, happily,
Brought more words,
Greater understanding.
It soon became my lot
To gather and arrange
Words
To transmit to others
What intelligence
Allotted me.

WordSmithing
Is not easy
And sometimes
The messages that found
Purchase in my mind
Had little validity
For others.

Still,
I honored what
Was given,
Set it down.

Words always –
Abound.

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The second poem here was a set of paragraphs in my journal today. Often my prose is poetic. Is yours? As a prompt, take something you have written in one form and transform it into another.

Do We…

Do we too quickly
Forget those we sudden lost?
Do we count our love
Easily replaced by one
Who comes new into our lives?
Do we pray Heaven
Has sweet mercy on everyone?
Days are short, life brief,
Have we given in and up
Because change is difficult?
Are we listening
To the cares others admit?
Are souls important,
Do we point them to matters
Concerning eternity?
Do we pray the end
Of war, fear, pain, loss, hunger?
Maybe we should act –
We could become bodies
Ministering toward LIFE!

It came to me that the Coronavirus crisis has some parallels to the devastation we felt after September 11th. Not so many were lost on 911, but we came together, forgetting all our divisions. Globally we need to do the same to recover and make the world better than it was before this disaster.

Tonight, I put on the music that came out to raise money for victims of 911. If you have some of those discs or MP3s loaded somewhere, maybe you could give them a listen.

Remember, if we all work together, there is almost nothing the people of the world are unable to accomplish.

Tiny Tidy Bits

Sadness – written in
Shades of shadow, black and gray,
No way to escape

//////////

The music plays, songs
To lift weary hearts, giving
Hope enough to live.

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Profuse the lilies
Blooms coloring everything
With smiles, happiness.

//////////

Borrow the chatter
Of the squirrels chasing round
A filled bird feeder,
You might find greater delight
Than sitting alone tonight.

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Someone left the doors –
Wide-open to delight my heart,
Love, smooth, sauntered in.

These are my brand of haiku and tanka. I always have fun with counted syllables. Sometimes, the truth will take a chunk out of you when you work with these because being constrained seems to give the mind some ease with content.

Prompt: If you feel inclined, write some haiku and tanka of your own.

Gratitude:
My appointment on Monday went exceptionally well.
I am reading some great books.
I went to Aldi and got some food.
Having my little piece of real estate on the internet.
I keep trying even when I am discouraged.

If you enjoy the content you find here, please give feedback by likes, comments, follows. I appreciate each one more than you know.

Have an excellent downhill slide to the weekend. God bless and keep you always.