in looming darkness
thoughts once abandoned
plague this worried soul
nothing is as it seems
haunted by my past
This gogyohka is my response to Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry
Challenge No. 244 #Ekphrastic #PhotoPrompt,
with the art provided by Merril D. Smith.
Image source: Free Library of Philadelphia – Visitor to Germantown by Benton Spruance
(click image for larger view in new tab)
rivrvlogr 
The past is almost always present, eh?
Nice work, KG
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Thanks. Always forward, Ron.
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Excellent response, Ken. The use of “plague” is timely–and nothing is as it seems.
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Thank you, Merril.
COVID-19 Rent Relief ending means many will be in the position expressed in the lithograph.
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Oh yes, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.
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Great use of the prompt picture, Ken.
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Thank you, Robbie.
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“…Nothing is as it seems…” is the perfect description for the image and the times we’re living in. It appears history has come back to haunt us. That is what the lithograph is saying to me today.
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Thank you, Colleen. The image does seem timely.
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That image is exactly what a haunted past looks like. (K)
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It’s a striking image.
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“Nothing is as it seems” resonates strongly right now.
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Thank you, Paul. We are in odd times.
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Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #9: Ken Gierke’s latest #gogyohka for Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #poetry Challenge No. 244!
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Thank you for sharing, Frank.
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Pingback: #TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 244 | Ekphrastic #PhotoPrompt (Happy Birthday Tanka Tuesday) – 🍂Word Craft: Prose & Poetry🍂
The past partly makes up who we are now. All that was competes to find space on the page –
(PS I got to go Kayaking… you might enjoy Unusual Autumn Outing )
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So true. Tapping that resource is the key.
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Indeed 🙂
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my mother lived in Germantown, at 4101 Germantown Avenue (now, apparently, a car repair shop.) There’s a lot of family history in Philly, not all of it pleasant. the more things change…
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From the description of the lithograph, it definitely captures the spirit of an era.
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