#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 334, 8/22/23

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY! 短歌 火曜日 I was amazed at all of the outstanding poetry inspired by the sunflower photo from Terri Webster Schrandt. It was …

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 334, 8/22/23

I am taking part in the Tanka Tuesday challenge, which poet Colleen Chesebro hosts on her site wordcraftpoetry.com.

For the August 22, 2023, Tanka Tuesday, Colleen Chesebro provides poets a list of kigo (a Japanese word for season words) for them to incorporate in their poems.

I’m excited to participate in this challenge; this is my first Tanka Tuesday. Granted, I have written haikus before, but this experience has challenged my writing.

From the summer kigo list, I selected “summer rain” for my haiku. I was inspired to choose this because it’s summer now where I live (Florida, USA). Not only are the summers hot here, but it’s also humid. The weather here seems to be on schedule. Many days straight, it’ll be sunny all day except for about the half hour of insane downpour we get.

Then there’s the fact that we’re in the middle of hurricane season, so we definitely experience summer rain here.

So here is my haiku in response to August 22, 2023, #tankatuesday:

Summer rain relieves
my sweat and parched skin while the
sun gets its relief.

I look forward to reading what other poets have written in response to this week’s Tanka Tuesday, too.

Teresa Sargeant is an award-winning journalist and author. She released her first collection of short stories “Inner Demons” in October 2020. She is the author of the short story ebooks “Eve the First,” “For My Sister,” and “Sammy’s Butterflies” “A Symphony of Silence” is her second poetry collection. Her latest short story “Healing” is published on Short Fiction Break.