I am indebted to fellow poet, Janice Scully from Salt City Verse  , who last week posted her 'Holiday Haikus.'  Janice wrote her haiku poems to accompany three  photographs gathered from a recent holiday. Her poems were ekphrastic poems. Janice's post sparked my thinking... I decided to trawl through my extensive collection of travel photographs and choose three from the archives and link them to some poetry. I consciously chose a syllabic sibling of the haiku, -the tanka (5,7,5,7,7).  I have called the resultant poems- 'Travel Tankas.' The world we wander is increasingly visual. Our smartphones make it so accessible. It is increasingly apparent that there is an interconnectedness between photography and writing. We can use the photographic image to enhance our writing experiences. It makes sense to bring these two dynamic crafts together.  Photographs don't over-ride my need for words, they enhance it... So thank you again, Janice, your post helped launch a mo...

 Poets respond. They are frequently prompted by events occurring in the world around them. Local and global matters compel a poet to respond.  Therefore,  I find myself needing to write about the conflict once more taking place in the Middle East. I write from the perspective of innocent lives lost on both sides of this hideous, rolling conflict.  Poets have long written in the political sphere. This poem has been swirling around in my head all week. I must respond to this internal tension. These became words I felt compelled to write.  My poem is a triversen poem.  The Continuing Conflict   For the duration of my life this narrow strip of disputed land has been a conflict zone.   Daily atrocities pour forth from news reports, where innocent people fall victim and terror is written on children’s faces.   Wailing sirens duly announce the firestorm of destruction and the sky rains death.   Any thought of a two s...

  I have been reading Michael Rosen's powerful poetry anthology, ' On The Move- Poems About Migration.' It is a most affecting collection of poems.  Michael delivers a personal and global perspective that speaks to endurance.  This poetry anthology is interwoven with aspects of memoir. A number of the poems are reproduced from earlier Michael Rosen anthologies. 'Migration isn't just something that happens to other people. If you look into your own family history , no matter where you come from , chances are that you will arrive at the story of your relatives' migration to where you live now.' Michael Rosen Reading these poems prompted me to think about my own migration experiences and the migration story of my ancestors, along with stories learned from those people I have met across my life.  It is frequently in reading that poetry is 'sparked' to life. This reading experience delivered a strong poetic calling.  I have migrated for work and educatio...

We all have them. Old landscape photographs that fail to register years later. I am often pondering the locations of such images. U.K. singer/songwriter, Billy Bragg has even written a song about 'Ten Mysterious Photographs That Can't Be Explained.' I certainly have a pile of such photographs among my collection that fit that category. I am sufficiently intriguied by all this photographic mystery to write an ekphrastic poem about.  This is poetry of place, even if the place is currently unknown... Landscape, Somewhere A photographic image Of a somewhat non-descript landscape Nothing in this old black and white snap To readily identify where it might have been taken No distinct memory markers No printed signs To satisfy my geographical curiosity A mysterious photo that can’t be explained As Billy Bragg once lamented. It’s just a bland landscape -a stretch of water ringed by a dark and distant forest Some tonal difference But little else The sky? -a grey unbroken mass. Would ...