Robbie Cheadle's Blog, page 27

Robbie’s Inspiration – Three in one poetry catch up #TankaTuesday #W3 #ReenasXplorationChallenge

I got behind this past weekend. I accompanied Michael to a 2-hour art session on Saturday morning and had a d’Verse live meeting in the afternoon (which was great fun so if you are a poet, I encourage you to join d’Verse). On Sunday, I went on a breakfast date with TC and in between, I cooked for the week and baked mom a German gingerbread cake. That is why I am late with my poetry postings. But, better late than never, so here they are.

Tanka Tuesday

We had so much rain last week, there was flooding. Fortunately, not where I live as my house is at the top of a hill, but houses at lower levels had some flooding. It’s as if we got the whole summer’s worth of rain over 7 days. I understand more rain is forecast.

My poems are a Reverse Etheree and a Etheree under one title, Relentless Rain. You can read more poems for Tanka Tuesday here: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/04/09/24-seasons-poetry-challenge-no-29-part-ii-clear-and-bright-april-4-18-seimei-%E6%B8%E6%8E24/

Relentless rain

I can almost hear the sigh of relief

Cracked earth welcomes continuous rain

It pitters, patters and puddles

Rich loamy smells fill the air

Grey clouds filled with promise

Of much more to come

Bedraggled birds

Take shelter

Under

Eves

Rain

Patters

Soft, gentle

Soaking deeply

Into crumbling earth

It’s come to late to save

This year’s crops, harvest time now

People will suffer high prices

Some will starve, incomes decimated

Government has declared a disaster

Picture caption: Road with lots of puddles from the heavy rain. We are not used to rain here.W3 Prompt #102 Matt’s prompt guidelinesWrite a nine-line poem under the title of:

“Who am I & What is My Purpose?”

You can read more poems for this prompt here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2024/04/10/w3-prompt-102-weave-written-weekly/

The Dreamer

My dreamer’s thoughts dissolve

Into my imagination

Reforming as word crystals

Which I string together

Into poetry necklaces

Their purpose – and mine

To create a design

That captures the spirit

Beautifying minds

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #325

I’ve picked up two lines from a cryptic poem to serve as a springboard in this week. The full poem can be found here.

whilst searching for my sanity,
I’ve become my own worst enemy.

Cruel Compassion, Collaboration with the Silent One by Ink Empress

You can read more poems for this prompt here: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2024/04/04/reenas-xploration-challenge-325/

Grasping at Sanity

The world’s gone mad

A constant refrain

Morals and ethics treated

With gross distain

War and discord greet us

At every turn

Through social medias’ eyes

We watch the world burn

Is it now worse than ever?

As people continuously say

Or do we just know too much?

All available to watch and replay

Is poverty, need, and want really worse now

Than during the European famine of 1315?

Or have overpopulation and greed undermined

Each person’s ability to achieve their dream?

Is every flood, firestorm and crop failure

Truly the fault of climate change?

Or has incremental weather been known

Human plans and affairs to disarrange?

With issues beyond my control

My mind cannot continuously wrestle

To maintain sanity, I escape to the bush

Watch mama elephant her baby nestle

Picture caption: We saw this cute baby elephant during our last trip to Madikwe game reserve.

Robbie’s Inspiration – Reblog: Story Empire post, Managing Two Author Profiles

My latest Story Empire post is a discussion about my personal experiences with managing two author profiles.

MANAGING TWO AUTHOR PROFILES

Robbie’s Inspiration – Repost: Growing Bookworms – Age groups for children’s books: Early Readers

This month, my Growing Bookworms article discusses age groups for children’s books. This is important information for writers of children’s books and for purchasers of children’s books. It is much easier to interest children in an age appropriate book. Thanks to Kaye Lynne Booth for hosting.

Growing Bookworms – Age groups for children’s books: Early Readers #GrowingBookworms #childrensfiction

My Review of Robbie Cheadle’s Square Peg in a Round Hole

Thank you to Professor Charles French for this amazing review of Square Peg in a Round Hole. Charles has a wonderful blog where he shares thoughts on writing and reading. His selection of excellent books is also on display.

Square Peg in a Round Hole by Robbie Cheadle and her son Michael is a masterwork! This book is a collection of art, including paintings, drawings, …

My Review of Robbie Cheadle’s Square Peg in a Round Hole

Robbie’s Inspiration – Reblog: Welcome to the WordCrafter “Poetry Treasures 4: In Touch with Nature” Book blog tour

Kaye Lynne Booth kicks off the tour with an introduction to, and reading by, talented poet and author, DL Finn. I’ve closed comments here so please comment over at Writing to be Read.

Welcome to the WordCrafter “Poetry Treasures 4: In Touch with Nature” Book Blog Tour

Robbie’s Inspiration – Tanka Tuesday & d’Verse – Quadrille Monday: Autumn elephants and other poems #TankaTuesday #d’Verse #Poetry

I have two shadormas for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday. I actually wrote another shadorma and a haiku but I’ll keep those for another post. You can join in Tanka Tuesday here: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/04/02/24-seasons-syllabic-poetry-challenge-no-28-4-2-24-part-i-clear-and-bright-april-4-18-seimei-%e6%b8%e6%8e24/#respond

Sum of its parts (shadorma)

Reduced to

The sum of its parts

Beak, dried out

Feathers dull

Bird of Paradise no more

And yet, new life thrives

Picture caption: Dried out Bird of Paradise reduced to husks and seedsGrey against orange (shadorma)

Moving mass

Grey against orange

And autumn

golden browns

Elephant bull forages

But remains alert

Picture caption: A male African elephant against an autumn backgroundGrey contours (Quadrille)

Grass, orange interspersed with golden brown,

Embraces the grey contours of his vast bulk

Reaching to the top of his three metre high body

As he forages to maintain his 6,000 kilogram frame

Uprooting trees and scattering their remains

African elephants are messy eaters

The d’Verse Quadrille Monday prompt was to write a quadrille (poem in exactly 44 words) including the word contour. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2024/04/01/dverse-quadrille-monday-198-fuzzy-frameworks/

This is a short video of this male elephant walking through the autumn terrain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtp9tDfoEeU

This is a short video of an elephant splashing in a puddle. I love the play of the light on the water:

Robbie’s Inspiration – Reblog: My poem, He Walks Away on MasticadoresUSA #poetry #cakeart

Thank you to the dedicated Barbara Leonhard from Masticadores USA for sharing my poem and cake art

“He Walks Away” by Robbie Cheadle

Robbie’s Inspiration – Book review: Poetry in Brief – thin skin of time by Jean-Jacques Fournier #poetrybook #review

Today, I am showcasing prolific poet, Jean-Jacques Fournier’s, latest book, Poetry in Brief – thin skin of time. Jean-Jacques Fournier has a lovely WordPress blog: Poetry on a Canapé

You can read Jean-Jacques Fournier’s latest poem and view/listen to the audio video here: https://fournierjj.wordpress.com/2024/03/31/where/

My review of Lulu.com

I discovered Jean-Jacques poetry through his WordPress blog and I immediately enjoyed his short and sharp style of writing. Through powerful, well chosen words, the poet addresses many aspects of life including aging, anxiety about consumerism and global warming, the gift that is life, excessive emotion, death, and many others.

To illustrate the poet’s writing style and typical themes, these are a few extracts from poems that particularly resonated with me:

“An indifference to planet at risk
As we Consume with greedy thirst,
Beyond quotient level in found binge
A fare that we mortals will live to curse,”
From A Place in Space – once planet earth –

“If time does stand still
You’ll find ye sit there,
Tho indifferent to will
Be wanting remember,”
From A Thought – question you to fail –

Some of the poems are very amusing. One example is The Mouse Dude:
“Will remain
In my house,
From the rain
As a mouse,
With a brain
Shan’t go out”

Many of the poems are accompanied by beautiful artworks which make this book a visual as well as intellectual delight.

You can purchase Poetry in Brief – think skin of time – from Lulu.com as either an ebook here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/jean-jacques-fournier/poetry-in-brief-thin-skin-of-time/ebook/product-v8kmvq5.html?q=Jean-Jacques+Fournier&page=1&pageSize=4

Or a print book here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/jean-jacques-fournier/poetry-in-brief-thin-skin-of-time/paperback/product-kvvk98d.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4

About Jean-Jacques Fournier

Jean-Jacques Fournier is a native of Montreal, and has been living in Sweetsburg, of the Eastern Townships, in the Provence Québec since 2010 with his French wife Marianne. Prior to returning to Canada, he had lived for eight years in  the South of France, first in Vence, then in Grasse, the city of perfumes.

In the process of reinventing himself numerous times, his penchant for the language of poetry seemed best suited to express emotional experiences.

He has so far had eighteen books of poetry published, namely Issues – of black and white -, Matters – of body and soul -, Images – in shades and shadows -, Places – of loss and found ~, Obliquities – of a lucid mind -, Reflexions ~ of a probing eye,  Second Editions of all three, Issues, Matters, and Images,  Kaleidoscope – musings of life chronicles , A Hyphenated World – held fitting guise -, A Scent of Reality ~ be inherent perception ~, Held Instant ~ on life’s clock -,  Conjugated People – by shade – , and as of today, Chaos – a human side of man –   Love – by any definition -, Poetry in Brief – a day in a life -, and Poetry in Brief – a blissful silence – now available, along with all my aforementioned books,  in book stores in Cowansville and Knowlton or thru Lulu, Amazon books, and Barnes&Noble, and can be purchased on line by clicking on ‘My Books’ save for the first three or any of the aforementioned eighteen books not mentioned on the the three book sites, are also available via e-mail, by contacting  fon.int@sympatico.ca.

You can find out more about Jean-Jacques Fournier’s poetry books here: https://fournierjj.wordpress.com/books/

Robbie’s Inspiration – Tanka Tuesday, W3, and lion cubs #poetry #lioncubs

Tanka Tuesday

Below are three kigo phrases for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Use one kigo phrase in each of your three poems in whatever order you’d like.

#1: “remaining heat” (zansho, early autumn)#2: “autumn color” (shuushoku, all autumn)#3: “new coolness” (shinryoo, early autumn)

I didn’t do it like this. The first prompt didn’t inspire me so I used #2 and #3. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/03/26/24-seasons-syllabic-poetry-challenge-no-27-3-26-24-part-ii-the-spring-equinox/

Cold Moon (shadorma)

Autumn moon

Smiles at new coolness

White washes

pre-dawn sky

Tinging clouds with cold,

pearly, grey lustra

Picture caption: full moon just before the dawn

Autumn lion cubs (tanka)

Feisty lion cubs

Blending with autumn colours

Enjoy new coolness

Tumbling through golden grasses

Heavy with cold morning dew

Pictures above and below: Two lion cubs tumbling together just like domestic cats. They blend into the tawny autumn grass perfectly.

Picture caption: one of the lion cubs (about 1 year old) crossed the road in front of us.

Here is my YT video of the two lion cubs playing together:

W3 poetry prompt

W3’s guidelines for this week:

Theme: Last week many of us were strangers to Wagner, so this week’s theme is ‘Stranger’;Form: Please take us on an introspective free verse journey; This website  offers an outline for this form:  https://allpoetry.com/

You can join in here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2024/03/27/w3-prompt-100-weave-written-weekly/

Stranger

Knock! Knock!

A stranger at the back door

“Who is it Mum?”

I peered into the gloom

Mum hovered at the window

The yard, bathed in silvery light

Silhouetted a man

Hair tousled, clothing askew

The straight burglar bars

Casting shadows

Jailing his black shadow

“Help me,” the man called

“The tsotsis* are after me.”

Fear constricted my throat

Tsotsis were bad men

And Daddy wasn’t home

“You can hide in the outhouse”

Mum gestured towards the building

On the other side of the paving

It rose out of the darkness

Like a hulking monster

The man ran over to it

Disappearing into its gaping maw

“It’s okay,” Mum said

“Go back to bed”

I lay in the darkness

Thinking of the scared man

Imagining the vicious tsotsis

Outfitted in flashy togs

With afros and toothy smiles

Their knives flashing cruelly

in the cold moonlight

In the morning

The man was gone

No disturbance during the night

Suggested he’d escaped unscathed

But … I never knew for sure

*tsotsi is street langauge for a thug or gangster

Robbie’s Inspiration – Reblog: Who’s at the #Thursday Door, Michael’s first interview

Amazing creative, Teagan Geneviene, has generously hosted Michael with his first interview. Teagan has shared one of Michael’s poem from Square Peg in a Round Hole, and one of his charcoal drawings.

This is the video promo for Square Peg in a Round Hole.

Wednesday Writing & Who’s at the #ThursdayDoor? A Doors Safari