Winter – #tanka

29 Replies

purgatory-lower-jan-2019-2

Frigid winter day
A blizzard freezes my soul
Distant stares are harsh
An icy word from your mouth
Causes the tempest to rage

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Written for Colleen’s Poetry challenge.  Each week she gives us two keywords, only we must use synonyms only, not the words themselves.  This week the key words were “Cold” and “Storm” This week I decided to try a tanka.

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In ways these words were appropriate this week as we just had our first major storm of the season followed by our coldest day so far.  I know, the first storm in late January in New Hampshire?  Unheard of!  But it has been a frigid winter!  And don’t worry too much about my storm damaged heart – this is pure fiction :)  Photo from a short hike on Saturday, before the storm.

29 thoughts on “Winter – #tanka”

  1. Vashti Q

    Hi Trent! Each line of your tanka has an underlying meaning––I love that! We writers are like actors using written words instead of actions. Much of our poetry are just an “act”, a show we put on and not necessarily real. :)

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  2. Pingback: Colleen’s 2019 #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge Recap No. 120, “Storm & Cold,” #SynonymsOnly – Colleen Chesebro ~ The Faery Whisperer

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Diana. Yes, a very strange winter – I like winter but I’ll be glad when it is over. I don’t often admit it, but most of my “love poems” are “love poems to no one” ;) Obviously, once we’ve loved or have had a broken heart, we can always write about it.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Frank. Actually, we only got about 6″ or 8″, but then it rained all day Sunday. The high on Sunday was 18F, so all of that rain was pure ice. I’d rather have the 24″ of snow they were predicting!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks! I usually try to do the challenges, whether fiction or poetry, as fast as I can. I know, silly, but I think it helps keep my writing sharp. When I read the word “cold”, my first thought was emotionally cold, so, combined with “storm”, these lines had to be written :)

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  10. Hattie Halloran

    I actually love the first storm of the year… now that I live in the city and the power doesn’t go out for days. Every storm really makes you want to sit down and write a poem though. There is something desperate about a landscape of snow.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I do like the snow, which shouldn’t be a surprise since I chose to live in New Hampshire, but this storm was ugly – After snowing all night, it rained, and yet it was only 15 F/-10 C out. Having that thick blanket of snow helped, but the ice is still terrible. I agree, those bad storms makes us want to either curl up with a warm book or with a pen and paper and write our own.

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