As you can see from the pictures below, my friend The Dune Mouse (Cybele Moon), who blogs at The Runes of the Gatekeeper’s Daughter, is a super-talented photographer. In fact she’s the queen of magical images, as well as the weaver of wondrous mythological tales.
To my delight, she agreed to select three of her creations for me to respond to with Japanese-style 31-syllable tanka poems. This is a great honour, so I hope to have done the pictures justice; it’s very much my interpretation, and they might mean something completely different to Cybele.
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Storm clouds muddy dawn;
make an omelette of sunrise.
A hilltop tombstone…
Full of life, the girl races
to read her own epitaph.
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Peacock perched in shade,
mere hint of iridescence
in his silhouette.
He belongs to a proud earl,
who nicks feathers for his hat.
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In the dark forest,
fraught birds exchange alarm calls…
human invaders.
A perfect day for walking;
how beautiful the birdsong.
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Related reading:
To read more poems in this style, enter the word “Tanka” into Search on my blog’s sidebar
https://sarahpotterwrites.com/2017/01/25/an-interview-with-poet-sarah-potter/ (all about Japanese poetic forms)
https://cybeleshineblog.wordpress.com/
https://sarahpotterwrites.com/2014/05/03/mays-guest-storyteller-cybele-moon/
Lovely work as always…great images and phrases…..so well done!
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Thank you, Bill. You are always so encouraging in your comments 🙂
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perfect Sarah! Thanks so much! You wrote the images beautifully! -Peacock brought a smile!!
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I’m so glad you like them, Cybele, and that peacock brought a smile 🙂 Your images are so beautiful, I felt a great responsibility in doing them justice.
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The pictures are beautifully haunting, and the poetry for the first pic, echoes the emotion in the picture. Beautiful!
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Thank you, Fatima, for your kind words 🙂
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Beautiful images, beautiful poems, and a beautiful article, thoroughly loved it.. There was this nice flow going into it… keep it up…
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Thank you for your lovely comment, Nikesh.
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My pleasure…
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Oh yes, I also love all of these, Sarah. Well done. 🙂
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Thank you, Sylvia 🙂
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Oh Sarah! I just came here from the link on Cybele’s recent post and I think each tanka is amazing. The first one about the girl though gave me shivers. It’s great to see what words came to you from the images!
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Thank you, so much, Christy. To have such wonderful words of praise from the Queen of Poetry, herself, has made me very happy 😀
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And, in turn, you make me smile, Sarah 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend, dear friend
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Wow…what beautiful words and stunning photographs. Just lovely dearest Sarah xxxx
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Thank you, dearest Sherri. I just love Cybele’s magical pictures, so felt very honoured having the opportunity to write tanka poems to go with them. xxxx
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