Poetry ~ Waka
(troiku)
autumn simmers
reassessing life’s options
season’s nesting spell
autumn simmers
rolling into sleepy times
winter’s slumber
reassessing life
sitting by a crackling fire
knitting my options
season’s nesting spell
searching under winter skies
making snow angels
(shadorma)
thoughts echo
in my weary brain
telling me
to slow down
run through future options
life is too damn short
©Tournesol’17/11/16
Daily moments – reassessing – November 16th, 2017
(haiku)
they ran wild
through fields and woodlands
serving themselves
serving themselves
legends of these horses
wild and free
wild and free
hard to believe they’ve been around
for centuries
(shadorma)
running wild
from another time
long ago
wanderers
shipwrecked many years ago
trusty survivors
(c) Tournesol’16-05-02
At Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, we were asked to write a shadorma on “fantasy” and I chose to write about an imagery ending with a troiku.
(shadorma)
month of May
makes me reminisce
Mother’s Day
without you
is never ever the same,
but – now I’m Nana!
tunes play in my head
with eyes closed,
you’re right here
Judy Garland is Somewhere
‘Over the Rainbow
your voice seems so real
imageries of long ago
melodies of you
your voice seems so real
your laugh echoes
warms my heart
imageries of long ago
I’m still
ton bébé
melodies of you
Irish Eyes and Edelweiss
make me smile
© Tournesol’16/04/28
(shadorma)
rendezvous
merriment echoes
purity
of their love
savouring stolen moments
‘til they meet again
Every Wednesday, they met behind the gate like clandestine lovers. She would bring a picnic basket and he, a bottle of Merlot. She would often giggle like a young teen despite her sixty years in age. It was the only time she felt alive and filled with a sense of hope until her return home to care for her senile brother.
wind blows in her hair
blossoms fall softly on her cheek
from the plum tree
© Tournesol ’16/02/21
The church was filled with people of her past, close friends, colleagues and family. It felt so bizarre being in this house of worship. This was where she received five sacraments…only one left to go. The voice of the priest interrupted her thoughts now and then.
At the reception a few old high school friends offered their condolences. Her first high school sweetheart looked like a caricature of his teen-self decades ago adding jowls and lots of wrinkles on this stranger’s face. She was touched by his presence; his husband was introduced to me too. How life was different then, she thought. At least today society seems a little more open. Leaving a small, gossipy and unforgiving town helps too.
(shadorma)
young lovers
wishing life were fair
eagerly
expecting
sweet innocent love affairs
dreams just may come true
That night she rummaged through her bedroom closet and took out her old childhood jewelry box. Sitting on the bed, she opened it and tears streamed her face as the music box played Lara’s Theme. Looking through the old memories, she held a pin her mother had given her when she had “become a woman”. It was their secret. She held it in her hands and still felt the warmth and love they shared together, that very special bond.
She smiled at a postcard her best friend in Grade 9 had sent her when she had met her first love that summer long ago. She cranked up the music box to feel she was back there in her childhood bedroom years ago. Her fingers felt the sharp edges of the Eiffel Tower. Her art teacher had given her this hoping she would take her gift in painting seriously…she never did get around to that after college…life happened.
At the bottom of the jewelry box was an old photo…her mind traveled back in time.
that first kiss,
sealing promises of dreams
fairy-tale wonder
© Tournesol ’15
B & P Shadorma & Beyond and MindloveMiserysMenagerie
© MindLoveMiserysMenagerie – Collage 9
rendezvous
terrasse du café
sous la nuit
des étoiles
ce soir, sont engagés
pour s’aimer toujours
~
rendevous
at café terrasse
underneath
the night stars
that night, they made their promise
forever to love.
© Tournesol ’14
Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie – Bastet’s Shadorma Photo Prompt
When I saw this photo taken by Georgia at Basket and Sekhmet’s Library, I had to smile. I had taken a phto of 2 pay phones in the Métro last Spring. The fact that these are near such a lovely green space stirred contradictions…beauty, ugliness, pleasure and pain and this is what my muse came up with for Bastet’s Shadorma Prompt at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie.
(shadorma)
Assaults lurk
In the dead of night
behind trees
far from phones
cyclists never heard her screams
would have dialed for help.
(senryû)
predators always
study their territory
and their prey.
(shadorma)
phones by parks
gives false illusions
of safety
late at night
listen up! one`s never safe
when monsters still breathe
© Tournesol ’14
Now to make this fun a little and give me more of a challenge, I am adding my photos of these phones in the Métro. Having looked at them, my muse seems fixated on sad affairs.
(shadorma)
unused phones
ever see someone
actually
Use a phone?
subways are sometimes seedy
all’s in the open
(senryû)
people make believe
blind to sordid actions
“I ain’t seen nothin’”
(shadorma)
Unless there`s
a Samaritan
does good deeds
calls for help
shouts out loud scaring monsters
back into their hole.
(tilus)
Wherever you go, bring
along a
friend.
© Tournesol ’14
Originally posted at Tournesol dans un Jardin, by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts
This prompt, Chèvrefeuille has discovered Shadorma, a short poetry-form from Spain. I have had the privilege to have learned about this through Bastet in her weekly prompts at Mindlovemiserys Menagerie. I think I was drawn to it as well because Oliana is an island in Spain…so it was most fitting that I learn this poetry-form. The Shadorma is a poetic form consisting of a six-line stanza (or sestet). Each stanza has a syllable count of three syllables in the first line, five syllables in the second line, three syllables in the third and fourth lines, seven syllables in the fifth line, and five syllables in the sixth line (3/5/3/3/7/5) for a total of 26 syllables. A poem may consist of one stanza, or an unlimited number of stanzas (a series of shadorma). I sometimes like to add another form, Bastet introduced to us called Tilus which is 3 lines consisting of 10 sylables 6/3/1 with Shadorma forms to get a message across.
Chèvrefeuille sought the internet and ran into several examples of Shadorma, but this one by Richard Ankers is was one he found beautiful.
Emerald,
Verdant grass of dreams;
Swaying free;
Living free;
Gathered together as one:
Most peaceful landscape.
© Richard Ankers
Here is another lovely example written by Jen at Blogitorloseit.com
Memories
with crocodile teeth
overwhelm
the phoenix –
plumes turn to ash in his mouth –
he singes his jaws
© Jen of Blog It Or Lose It
Here is Chèvrefeuille’s first try at it.
red Roses
sharing their perfume,
morning mist
and the soft breeze
giving it to the whole wide world,
unknown love
© Chèvrefeuille
I think that is a wonderful offering…I could smell the scent of the roses in this poem. Didn`t you?
(shadorma)
salty tears
my river listens
challenges
life’s choices
water roars over the dam
releasing sorrow.
(tilus)
waterfall swallows tears
and then I
smile.
© Tournesol ‘14/08/02
Hauntingly
seeks reconnaissance
echoing
brilliance
sun reflects on golden pond
unlike empty eyes.
Insights, comprehension
forever
gone.
In a daze
strives for some semblance
hesitates
contemplates
who is this old face who gapes?
where has time escaped?
rouses from a deep sleep
spots her, in
me.
Is this fate…
reality bites
I shall change
destiny
cast off all senility
inhale lucidness.
Embrace reflections on
this pond…see,
me.
© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/05/27
Submitted for: Mindlovemiserysmenagerie Shadorma Photo Prompt #9
A shadorma is composed of six non-rhyming lines (sestina or sextet) and the syllable pattern is 3-5-3-3-7-5. It can have as many stanzas as you like, just as long as each stanza follows the syllable pattern mentioned above . You have a week to create you poems so be patient and let the photo inspire you! Or use your own photograph or art work!
Tilus – the poem is divided into two parts, the first consisting of two lines of 6 – 3 syllable count. The second is composed of a single one syllable word. The goal of the tilus which must not be more than 10 syllables is to contemplate the world of nature and how it can open the door of understanding life.
(Shadorma)
Margueritte!
enfin tu fleuris
en vigueur
en beauté
s’étirant le cou au ciel
parmi toutes ces roches.
*************
© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/04/05
*************
Oh Daisy!
at last, you’ve blossomed
in splendour
and in strength
stretching your neck to the sky
among all these rocks
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
