Here’s Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #256. This week is a Specific Form—haiku. I’m using pictures from our recent storm as inspiration, and the haiku is a 3/5/3 format.

the sun opens
winter’s icy gift…
renewal
Here’s Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #256. This week is a Specific Form—haiku. I’m using pictures from our recent storm as inspiration, and the haiku is a 3/5/3 format.

the sun opens
winter’s icy gift…
renewal
Here is Colleen Chesebro’s #TankaTuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 255: #Tastetherainbow. We pick the color to use and poetry form.
I went with a poem I wrote during our six-day power and phone outage. I was surrounded by four feet of snow, so white is the color of my poem, even though I don’t directly mention the color. Tanka 5/7/5/7/7 is the format.
NOTE: We are lucky to have gotten our phones, internet, and power back so quickly. There are still many who are heading into day nine without— and some without access to heat. There was a lot of damage below us and we are praying things get back to normal soon for them. Like our firefighters, those who go out in these icy conditions to restore our power and communications are our heroes too!
These are the moments when the magical goodness in humanity steps up to help fellow neighbors.

snow fairies rejoice
when mother nature provides
winter wonderland
they can fly amongst the flakes
capturing special magic
Here is this Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #251. This week we were given the option to do a synonyms only poem or taste the rainbow. I went with the latter which is a butterfly cinquain (2/4/6/8/2/8/6/4/2) that brings colors into it.
Taking our dog out for her morning nature visit, I saw the sky reflected on my car’s back window. I immediately thought of the Allegory of the Cave and how we only see shadows, not life’s beauty, until we step outside our limited experience—or the cave. With those thoughts in mind, I came up with this.

blue skies
a reflection
Under silver raindrops
illusion on my car’s window
Nature
blissfully surrounds the moment
awakens my gray soul
vivid lushness
heals me
Here is this week’s Colleen Chesebro Weekly Tanka Poetry Challenge Poet’s Choice.
I spent some time a few days ago putting pictures and haikus together for my yearly calendar. So, I was still in the mode of this combination or a haiga poem and went with it.

Here is Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge #249. This week is a theme poem. Kindness was provided by fellow Story Empire Author, Harmony Kent.
I went with a tanka 5/7/5/7/7 and added to a picture of a local waterfall.

Here is this week’s Colleen Chesebro Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #248. It’s a Photo Prompt, and the picture was provided by Sangeetha, from MindFills .
I love photo or image challenges for writing poems and short stories. This one immediately spoke to me and became a haiku 5/7/5.

life strips away leaves
leaving imagination
where happiness blooms
Here’s Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #246. This week it is the poet’s choice.
I went with a picture I took while waiting to pick up my husband after a surgical procedure. I couldn’t be inside with him due to COVID, so part of the time I sat in the hospital parking complex. Here’s where I saw a dolphin-shaped cloud. I immediately knew that meant he’d be okay, and he was. I wrote some poetry that day too and added one to the picture which makes this a Haiga Poem.

Word Weaving is a yearly poetry journal, and for our first issue, we bring you poetry crafted from a broad mix of new and established voices across the spectrum of Japanese and American syllabic poetry forms. Enjoy this collection of poems that celebrate the Moons of Autumn.
Contributing Poets:
Annette Rochelle Aben, Mona Bedi, Nancy Brady, Colleen M. Chesebro, Goutam Dutta, Bill Engleson, Elizabeth F., Andreea Finichiu, D.L. Finn, Jeff Flesch, Ken Gierke, Franci Hoffman, Thom Kerr, Sujata Khanna, Ruth Klein, Jules Paige, D. Wallace Peach, Gwen M. Plano, M. J. Mallon, R.V. Mitchell, Elaine Patricia Morris, Lisa Smith Nelson, Pat Raffington, Susmita Ramani, Kerfe Roig, Aishwarya Saby, Akhila Siva, Merril D. Smith, Willow Willers, and Cheryl Wood.

(This was one of the three favorites!)
MOON’S MAGIC
A lone black cat sits on the edge of our world, under the harvest moon. Her green eyes reflect the celestial beams, and her fur absorbs the stars. She rubs against the night’s promise, and its magic fills her soul.
our perceived shackles
released in nature’s healing
under the moonbeams
HARVEST MOON
full moon
autumn’s forest
fairies celebration
of a season full of magic
joyful
all the woodland creatures join them
dancing under the stars
before the snow
arrives.
blood red trees
autumn’s forest glows
hunter moon
Here’s Colleen Chesebro Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge # 245. It’s a Theme Prompt and Eugi (Franci Hoffman) picked the theme, The Harvest Moon.
I went with tanka poem 5/7/5/7/7.

glowing harvest moon
reflects in offered crystals
they light up the night
a moment of pure magic
where grateful souls emerge healed
Here is Colleen Chesebro’s TANKA TUESDAY WEEKLY POETRY CHALLENGE: POET’S CHOICE #237!
We have blue lights reflecting off the trees next to the back deck. It’s a spectacular combination of the twinkling stars above and the bugs that fly through the light beams that add to the night show!
This is a picture I took while laying on my lounge chair stargazing. It was the inspiration for the Tanka Poem below.

encroaching darkness
retreats into the forest
beneath stars soft glow
Brilliant blue beams decorate
my piece of eternal night