Welcome to Week 8! This week we travel to my first attempt at a poem that follows rules on structure- a tanka inspired by a little peace of heaven where I live.

I enjoyed the challenge of the tanka, and although initially skeptical of the merits of writing to a set of rules, I began to appreciate that you need to be creative to write yourself out of a tight corner. Rather than stifling creativity, structure provides a focus within which there are still infinite possibilities.

I have since gone on to write a couple of sonnets and about a dozen haiku/tanka/haibun/tanbun on a range of topics from climate change to the sensory delight of pho.

structure, let’s be friends

quake keys to assemble words

job search, conflict, pho

climate summits and kid’s toys

seismic shift, subjects scatter

Shout out to recently published author Ronovan Hester for his weekly haiku prompts that have been the inspiration behind my spate of haiku this year. Ronovan also hosts a weekly flash fiction challenge for those interested in non-haiku writing.

Prompt words for my meta tanbun here were ‘friend’ and ‘shiver’ (which I interpreted as ‘quake’) courtesy of RonovanWrites’ Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge.

The prompt word ‘shiver’ and my use of ‘quake’ reminded me of a song I haven’t heard in a while, that I love- Sweet Jean’s Shiver and Shake. I saw them live a few years ago- they were great!

Not to forget the travel component of this post, click on the image to be transported through the tumbleweed! Watch your step, and don’t count your syllables before they hatch!