Cinque Tanka

The sad can take you
To your knees where you whisper
God, oh, help me, please;
Beg Him, heal the pain that ails,
Trusting life with Christ prevails.

Addendum

I know much better,
How did I come to be there,
Looking at cupcakes?
What happens inside the mind
Can sometimes be undefined.

I was leaving, but
Something took me over, rolled
The cart back so I
Did not have to do much for
Chocolate treats get inside.

Okay, now control
I must expend so all of
Them do not quickly
Take up residence on my
Happily willing body.

I left the dog loose
Knowing I should cage her up
It was a test, yes.
I came home to disaster,
The dog is my love, wrong, debt.

No Rust Here

Our halos fell off
Many long years ago, or
Perhaps never once
Were ours, here to wear, joy share;
Life is bizarre now, never
The things one expects,
Disorganized, time of plague.
Disaster movies
Did not well prepare us all;
Constant stress, no withdrawal.
Government, all states
Of confusion, shattered gates,
Disillusion where
Clear-eyed justice is sorely
Needed in citizens’ control.
Pandemic, if we
Can believe it, some less so,
Numbers rising much
Higher, how can anyone
Deny contagion, people die.
If you love someone
Do not hesitate to tell
How much you love, care,
For as these days go onward
We can on little depend
Even less believe
In temporal existence;
We lack any guarantees.
Still, God sovereign reigns,
Even in this mess, we find rest,
When we share our love
With those who need to know all
Is not lost, for together
We will build futures,
Shoring up the brokenness
Living better than before.

Currents

Being who we are
Accepting what we have
Knowing the best is yet,
Allowing the is to be;
Smiling moon above the sea.

We behave ourselves
Absent any monitors,
Children sufficient
For this time in history;
Eagle flies freedom, glory.

Looking we reflect
Decisions hastily made
Pain never erased,
We run into the sunset;
A slice, life remains to get.

What once we wanted
We hardly recognize now
Health we keep praying,
God becomes more real than day;
Every voice some thoughts convey.

Throughout

This hour will not last
The past hurtles forward to
Swallow all the light
Shining lovingly from eyes
Lately discovered, adored.
Still, the music thrills
Into nearly forgetting
These moments passing
Dreamily caressing hope
Convinced time will always wait.
Patience – mythology –
Oblivion draws cuddling close –
Whispers into ears
Prepared to believe minute
Dishonesty if love paints
Itself in bright hues
Beguiling and beautiful
Enough to dispel
Doubt all wants are made to need
Flesh becomes a solution
For uncovered greed
Never expressed, politeness
All fall for such long
Beginnings, story inspired,
With no ending together.
Lives bound shiver, shine,
Entwined with bonds otherwise
Escaped to show one
Burning full ready alone
To search out a safe real home.
All hours hurry fast,
Love lasting, the only thing
Humans past, present,
Tomorrow, evermore woo,
Reality creates romance,
Forever and forever.

This was typed in on the tablet as I sat in bed, so the spacing is off. The lines should not have space between them. I wrote it in my journal first, but it underwent significant revisions...

I may correct the spacing or no. When done with things, I usually let them stand. There is a strong temptation to do like Leonardo and never stop adding, subtracting until all remains incomplete. (I corrected the spacing)

Allegiance

It is not like me
To dwell here inside my flesh;
My mind is often
An aptly chosen abode,
Words my finest furniture.
You, however, call
Me into reality,
My visions react
To your being with growing
Hopes, you may one day love me.
Time beating unkind
Reverts to seeming stillness
When you hold me near;
Better dreams, futures appear,
We, together, display promise.

What you see is quite different from what came out in my journal (in Kindness Pink ink), but I think it serves well. Again, I used the syllable counts for tanka and strung three together.

I keep thinking I will find some other forms, but I have almost always been a Free Verse poet. It is hard to break the habits of a lifetime.

What forms do you like? Can you illustrate one?

If you are another type of writer or artist, what patterns do you see in your work? Can you break with those, change things up?

I went to the library yesterday. Oh, what a treasure trove I amassed. I appeased my dragon self with a horde of books. No zombies though, no, done with those for now, maybe ever.