distance, measured in time always out of reach in the future lie possibilities in the past, all that is unobtainable memories, the only present
This gogyohka is my response to Colleen Chesebro’s#TankaTuesday #PoetryChallenge No. 274, #Ekphrastic #PhotoPrompt, where we are asked to write any form of syllabic poetry (including gogyohka), inspired by a photo provided by David, The Skeptics Kaddish. The photo is of David’s father who is gone, but always present in his heart.
What rises from this wheel is at the mercy of the hands that shape it.
Will there be traces of the elements that go into its making?
Or will the making remove the traces of all that came before? Will it rise,
or will the hands that determine its future crush all that lies within in it,
like tanks rolling across a border that means nothing to those hands?
This poem is my response to The Sunday Muse #200, which offers ten of the top viewed prompt images of the last four years. When I used this image last year it was for a love poem. The current invasion of Ukraine by Russia sends my thoughts in a different direction.
No potter, I can only hope this vessel is worthy of your affection. With each turn of the wheel, each minute, hour, that passes, it beats only for you.
This poem is my response to Sunday Muse #164, with the image provided by The Sunday Muse.
The beauty held in the far horizon cannot be gauged until it is experienced. There is no chill in the unknowing, only an awareness of heights scaled and heights waiting to be achieved, the warmth of their intrinsic value.
Light or dark, each moment along the way brings me closer to enlightenment, the hindsight to reveal the gift within each moment, in that moment when all fog is lifted.
This poem, with 99 syllables, is a response to a challenge at The Carrot Ranch, which was to write prose of 99 words or a poem of 99 syllables, inspired by the provided photo (above). Although I inadvertently submitted an earlier draft of 98 syllables, the challenge was for a worthy cause, which was to raise funds to assist Sue Vincent with expenses incurred as she struggles with her illness. The entire collection of responses can be found here.
Obscured perception will
one day open to distinction.
What lies beyond?
KL Caley has taken over as torchbearer for the photo challenge started five years ago by Sue Vincent. This poem is my response to Beyond the Door – #writephoto Renewal, which uses the first photo used by Sue in her challenge.
The heartache of our final moment shared,
at a distance greater with each passing second,
cannot be denied. You, nearing the horizon,
on a sea of sadness as I watch under a gray sky
bluer than any we have known together.
Silence in the sounds of nature,
my footsteps just another element
lost in the whoosh of waves
on this, my lone companion,
a deserted beach not so deserted.
Seclusion amidst the raw edge of nature,
a hundred gulls the voice in my ears.
Removed from myself in this isolation,
the silent voice of my thoughts
surrounds me, a greater force
of freedom craved, achieved.
Ever-changing, from tranquil to wrathful,
from granite gray to aqua, this beach,
this enigma, is as uncharted as my life,
never knowing what lies beyond the horizon.
Here, I am myself,
unquestioned, unchallenged
as I think, consider, compose.
Inspired by and distilled from “My Secret Beach,” by Keith Hillman, at Keith’s Ramblings. Thank you to Keith for graciously allowing me to post this poem.
Please visit the original, here.