Gravity, or: Force of will

A Choka

beyond the edges
of fraying maps workers toil
trampling their compass
roses in tattered sandals
thorns tearing at shins
as they trudge uphill against
the gravity of
existences long since spun
south to sheer hunger
to desperation through to
survival by force of will

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Choka?

The most intricate Japanese Poetry form is the Choka, or Long Poem. The early form consisted of a series of katauta joined together. This gives a choice of form structures of 5/7/5/5/7/7… etc., or: 5/7/7/5/7… etc.

The Choka could be any total line length and indeed many exceeded 100 lines. Looking at this, it is easy to see why Poetic Historians believe the katauta is the original basic unit of Japanese poetry using either the 17 or 19 unit onji.

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d’Verse Quadrille

The above choka is my take on d’Verse’s Quadrille challenge.

The Quadrille is simply a poem of 44 words (excluding the title), and it can take any form. This week’s challenge was to use the word “map” in a Quadrille.

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What Do You See #184

For this week’s WDYS image prompt, Sadje offers us the above image by Dobrinoiu Denis (Unsplash) of an old woman carrying two buckets of water with the help of a wooden branch over her shoulder. She is standing amidst a field of high grass.

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Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!