pen touching paper
becomes tentative keystrokes
some shared, others held
always, from the beginning
poetry as therapy
This tanka is my response for Colleen’s 2019 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 122 #SynonymsOnly,
where the words are origin and write.
Image source: openclipart.org (edited here)
rivrvlogr 
Wonderful! Indeed, poetry is self-help be it words swimming around in the head, pen on paper, or keystrokes … And at times the value extends to a far broader an audience. Thank you! (I’m reading this a couple hours after waking from an afternoon nap interrupted by a dream: I was explaining that I’m a self-taught poet, a life-long learner.”)
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thanks!
Writing definitely helps me sort through my thoughts, memories and emotions, which is not quite as simple as it sounds, since my thoughts and memories are less like a Rolodex than a thesaurus, subject to where my head is at the moment.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Less Rolodex, more Thesaurus – that’s so apt! Often my memories spring up unsolicited, hardly recognizable – morphed through rubbing against newer experiences. (Kinda crowded in my head.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
BORN MARKING TIME
Pens stroke paper
Fingers caress keyboards as
Writers slowly die
LikeLiked by 1 person
drawn to the ether
thoughts coalesce on the screen
message living on
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still write everything down first, but I do revise while typing.
Very therapeutic, and full of surprises. (K)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, always surprises.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Poetry as therapy–I know that, too. Nicely done, Ken!
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 Thanks, Merril!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Therapeutic as my kind of journal – I’ve tried other kinds.
But I’ve been writing too long to have anything else take the place of my writing poetry as my solace. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
I appreciate it as much for the fact that it keeps my brain in gear. My sort term memory isn’t worth the brain cells it’s written on, so the exercise is a good thing. One example… If I read a comment from a two-day old poem in my notifications, I may have to go back and read it to understand the relevance of the comment. Another example… If given a line in one of my poems (even a very recent one) I couldn’t tell you the next line, or (sometimes) even the direction it’s going. I tend to think in bursts. So I guess poetry serves two purposes for me – therapy and exercise.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I generally work out of the notifications at WP for comments, so I always have to go back to see what is being referred to. 😉
Keeping active physically is only one part of health – the mind needs exercise too 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poetry is definitely a type of therapy, almost like a meditation. Ken this is so lovely. By the way, I have to write everything down or I totally forget. However, since writing poetry in earnest, I do see an improvement. We’re reconnecting our brain cells. ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Colleen.
For the most part, I type, which ensures I’ll not lose what I’ve written. Poetry didn’t worm its way into my brain until the early 90’s. I wrote for the first couple of years, often misplacing drafts. By the late 90’s I was on a PC, and made a point of saving drafts as I wrote – even minor changes within an hour’s or day’s work, because, of course, I want to be able to look back at the growth process of a poem. Already in my 40s, I was well aware that my forgetfulness was increasing. I laugh and say that ADD is my friend (something I didn’t fully grasp until my 50s). I think if I went back to pen and paper I couldn’t write as fast as the ideas come – then disappear – to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I hope you keep writing. You write beautiful thoughts and string them together well. ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Colleen. I enjoy it too much to ever give it up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, gosh! Me too, Ken. I’m thrilled to hear that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Colleen’s 2019 #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge Recap No. 125, #SynonymsOnly – The Faery Whisperer
“some shared, always held”
That line was great – it spoke well to the difficulty of sharing something so precious as your own thoughts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Sometimes, sharing is the therapy.
LikeLiked by 1 person