Skeleton Architecture

This is the 44th tanka of the 44 I told you I'd write for the tanka project. I actually accidentally wrote 45, but the spare one will have to remain secret for now, you might find it somewhere in the future. I need to get my head out of the tanka shaped space. I'm yearning to go longer, I'm getting excited about stories, although I am mainly finding ways to keep writing while the house keeps getting messed up (honestly it's as if five people and four animals lived in it), and I'm working at the library. On that, I'm loving working in the library. It's such a fabulous place to be, even on days which are a bit fraught, like today. I am also incredibly impressed with how lovely my co-workers are. I've never worked somewhere like this before! Anyway, this tanka was something I wrote while drinking wine in front of the TV, binge watching Poldark (I finally got 'round to it, I am gutted that Ross and Elizabeth didn't end up together yet because t

Today's tanka is inspired by The Red Painting's song, 'You're not one of them' (as you can see - I stole that line). I love The Red Paintings, even though I think he might have said that 'time holds no bears'. My son shrugged at the lyric and said 'well, time doesn't hold snakes either.' The logic, my friends, is inarguable. It's a good video too isn't it? If odd.  Anyway... I am not really down with the whole binary thing, so I find the idea of 'us' and 'them' totally fascinating. Any binary division is bound to be a Venn diagram at best, a noose at worst, and really lacking in usefulness, in my opinion, so us and them, well, it's meaningless - we're all us, we're all them. It is all our fault and it is all our problem. I know at least two people who definitely voted the way I totally think they shouldn't have done lately. Do I ditch them? No, they are us. People cannot understand my way of thinki

All sorts of loveliness from today's guests post people, so let's not waste time. We'll start this Sunday morning with Ruth Long's tanka of bacon, coffee, and kisses, because how better to start your day? Many thanks to Ruth for letting me share her tanka which is so beautifully suited to a long weekend morning. #Repost @bullishink (@get_repost) ・・・ #poetstagram #poetry #tankapoem #tankaproject #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #tanka #inspiration #poetryofinstagram #instapoetry #igpoetry #instapoetry, #poetsofig A post shared by Tanka Project (@tanka_project) on Nov 18, 2017 at 12:09am PST Next up are two tankas from Eugenio Saenz Jr, who has a rather luscious way with layout which I would like to steal. They are also full of wistful, haunting, romance. I love the way Eugenio has used the layout of this sea swept tanka. #Repost @eugeniosaenzjr (@get_repost) ・・・ Tanka 17004 Foam beached baby clams, Leaving puddles of footprints, Volcanic bub

My youngest's homework this week included a_e word spellings. We spent a lot of time with those words and so I did a homework tanka to try to use some of her spelling words too. This may be the meaning of life . Or not.

We're coming to the end of the tanka project. I never had as many people join in as had meant to - we're all living busy lives, that's ok, but it makes me feel really grateful for those who did take part, sharing their tankas with you lovely folks. First up is Magaly Guerrero ( previously seen here ), with a fabulous tanka about using her weird. I love the celebration of using what we have and embracing it, and I love the enjambment in the penultimate line, which makes me keep coming back for more. (For non poetry types enjambment is just the way a line runs into another). Magaly uses this tanka to breathe fresh life into being the change. Love it. #Repost @wordsbymagalyguerrero (@get_repost) ・・・ #poem I’m using my weird to kick impossible’s butt— hope is exotic. Let’s become the uncanny change that makes happy the norm. ~ MG From “Become the Uncanny”; read the complete piece on my blog (Poems page). #poetry #spilledink #resist #normal #micropoetry #poetryisnotd

Fake news infuriates me. I can understand a foreign power wanting to destabilise a nation with lies, but I cannot understand the people in power in that nation lying to the people who have elected them, whom they want the votes of in future. That slogan on the bus for Brexit? People believed it, and voted accordingly. And Boris Johnson keeps on telling the same lie again and again despite it being shown to be a lie. My father in law tells me that politicians lie - that is what we should expect of them. It is not what I expect. I expect politicians to tell the truth about what their intentions are and then to do their best to represent the people in their constituencies while following the basic ideas of their intentions. Sometimes changes will have to be made and that's fine, but to lie just to get power, that's despicable, and no one who does such a thing should be allowed to keep their office. There aren't just lies about the NHS millions though, there are so ma

More! Yes, more terrific tankas from guests to the tanka project. I'm so thrilled to have these guys taking part in this project, so I'm sharing their work with you so you can love it too. First up is another awesome artwork from Joseph Massey ( you've previously seen his work here ), this one speaks to the world being rubbed out by November and reminds me of Thomas Hood's 'November' ( set to music by the Art of Noise ). I love this tanka from Joseph Massey. It reminds me of Thomas Hood's poem, November, and speaks to the grey on grey outside my window. #Repost @tongbliss (@get_repost) ・・・ Still writing tanka over here. #poetry #poem #poems #poetsofinstagram #haiku #tanka #tankaproject #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #tanka #inspiration #poetryofinstagram #instapoetry #igpoetry #instapoetry, #poetsofig A post shared by Tanka Project (@tanka_project) on Nov 7, 2017 at 11:29am PST Elizabeth Bae-rett Browning does not enjoy the tanka, and

Back in 2013 a quiz had me pegged as Batwoman (Batgirl? Surely not?) but I fancied myself as more of a Wonder Woman/Misfit/Sookie Stackhouse mashup, if I had to have super powers. We have just been to see Justice League (which was OK, but would have worked much better as a TV series), so I'm again pondering my superpowers. Now that I'm in my 40s, it seems to me that like so many women in films like Justice League (because we can't see them, ya ken?), my main powers are invisibility and inaudibility, with a heavy dose of empathy thrown in - not so that I can read minds or anything, not so I could send anyone to sleep or make someone afraid, but just so I will cry genuine tears for a sad advert. Sigh.

My apologies, it's been a while since I've put together a selection of the tankas from guests to the Tanka Project, and you can no doubt tell from some of the subject matter in these three, fabulous tankas. First up is Brianne Bowman, with a Halloween inspired tanka which I adore because of the image she conveys of a book as a magical place of refuge, it reminds me of Julia Donaldson's 'I Opened a Book' ("I opened a book and in I strode./Now nobody can find me./..."), but with a gorgeous fairytale twist. I am currently reading Sarah J Maas' A Court of Mist and Fury, and would love to step into the book and discover the artist's quarter in the city of Velaris. Feyre and Rhysand can do the flying around, those dresses are never going to suit me. I've been working in a library for a week and my list of things to read is even more endless than it was before so this Halloween inspired tanka from Brianne really spoke to me! Thanks for sha

I'm currently reading A Court of Mist and Fury by Sara J Maas, because I am obsessed with the fairy tale of Tam Lin and will find him anyway possible. TBH I'm very disappointed in his behaviour in this book, although it does make sense and provide a sound reason for Feyre's continuing story arc. Who knew? OK, so everyone knew, but still. Anyway, I like to use first lines as a writing prompt from time to time. It is ridiculous how much thought goes into a first line, and some of them are utter genius (Patrick Rothfuss, I'm looking at you). This one is intriguing, but a little annoying and pathetic as well. It seems more like the sort of thing a teen might write in her diary than an opening line, so I thought I'd fudge it up a bit and go elsewhere from there. I am, being a raging goth, assuming that the darkness is a good thing.  Here's the first line: "Maybe I'd always been broken and dark inside." And here's where I went with it:

Sara at Mum Turned Mom is ending The Prompt. I know. I'm gutted too. But you know, all good things and all that, so here I am taking part in the last one, because I missed the first. This tanka is inspired by Sara's prompt - ENOUGH - and by a conversation about endings and beginnings I had recently. Perhaps for every ending there isn't a beginning, but there is space. That space can hurt sometimes, but it is a space for possibilities. I think. I might be wrong. Endings can hurt so much that it's difficult to notice the space, sometimes the space is covered in rubble, and it can take a long time to slowly, gently, clear it away. I know Sara will find things to grow in the space The Prompt leaves, and I hope her ideas enjoy their space to bloom. the last one!

This is inspired by a prompt from Sara at Mum Turned Mom. One that I almost missed, so it's appearing out of order - sorry! The prompt was - PURPOSE - which made me think of all the things we use for something other than what they were made for and what a joyful thing that can be.

Time magazine brought out a great issue in September, with interviews with lots of successful women. One of them was Cindy Sherman, whose artwork I remember studying at university. A quote from her was highlighted on the page: "Of course we're all feminists, right? We all want women to be seen as equals."  Of course we are. I thought that was obvious. I mean, what's not to like about equality (barring my comments from yesterday )? But then I thought it was obvious that we Brits wouldn't be stupid enough to vote for Brexit and my own mother did, I thought it was obvious that America was about to get its first woman president, and Jeezo, let's not go there.  For many and various reasons people go against their own interests all the time, so no, we're not all feminists...                                  ...yet. Oh, and this is what a page from my notebook looks like (when I'm lucky enough to have things I can tear up and keep).

There is a school of thought that says that feminism is simply the belief in the equality of men and women. It sounds reasonable, but... ...we started from a position of patriarchy - men were in charge and they got to do the most valued things, women had to do the rest, and anything which women did was devalued either because it was devalued first and so women did it, OR (and this is really important) women did it and they were of less value in a patriarchal system (I mean this literally - men were people, women were property), therefore the thing done was less valued. We are well on our way to breaking out of the patriarchal system now, barriers are being removed to women entering the roles that men traditionally did. We have lots of women in power. Most of those women are childless, and this is really important, because women's traditional roles in looking after people, raising children, all that nurturing stuff is still undervalued because of patriarchal hangovers. Until the

We drove home late the other night, and the moon was late rising, so it was really dark, and for once the Scottish sky wasn't full of clouds, so I could see the stars, and search for constellations, trying to remember just how they worked. All of this while my husband was driving so I had the luxury of just gazing up at the stars. It always makes me wonder who else is gazing up, and where they might be.

The best parkin I ever ate I ate in Haworth, where we used to go on the train because we would get these awesome train passes which let you go pretty much anywhere in the Yorkshire conurbation, and you could get as far as Haworth. Haworth was really important to me as a teen because I wore clogs, Walkley's clogs, made to the shape of my feet and then sprayed silver with car spray, finished with metals to kick up the occasional spark, make a fantastic noise (a lot of noise, there's no creeping in clogs), and let you slide around corners in supermarkets. You can't walk in snow though. Sorry. Haworth also had a fab occult supplies shop called Spooks, the Bronte parsonage, for all your cultural needs, the cute old fashioned chemists at the top of the hill for present buying, and some rather special cafe's. As you've no doubt gathered, I grew up in Yorkshire, and the moors are where I feel at home, and we all know that Heathcliff lives on the moors (apart from when

Once a month I get to go to an amazing poetry group at the Glasgow Women's Library (which is also an amazing place). This is one of those things that you do and it feels like the universe has gift wrapped it just for you. I get to work with brilliant women and it is totally inspiring. This month we were looking at a gorgeous poem by Dana Gioia, Nothing is Lost, which someone else has shared here . In it Dana imagines a coin once held by you as a child coming back to you as an adult, and the different ways that you'd understand it at the different times. There is a call there to pause and reflect on the little things and there is also a nod to the things that end up in pockets. As a parent, pockets and bags can be filled with weird things, things that not only you chose for their shape or look or oddness, but other people's little hand-holdy things. The other day I had a blue dinosaur in my pocket. It probably wasn't the one I had in my pocket in my childhood, pull

There are so many pat things that we all say about what life is like, we have heard them so often that we sometimes just nod along. It can take a jolt to make us question them, like Dany, breaking the wheel (for you GoT fans). The other day I heard a bunch of older men speaking, they were all nodding at each other about how the nature of life was conflict - in whatever way, that conflicts arise and are dealt with and so another arises, and so it is and so it is and so it shall be. I think there's something peculiarly male and patriarchal about this idea, and I hope that as the structures of patriarchy crumble (they are crumbling, it's not pretty), so this notion can be questioned more. I don't believe there is anything truly warlike naturally within men, nor that there is anything intrinsically peaceful within women, but it has fallen to women in patriarchal society to do the emotional labour of bringing people together, which has been seen as part of their motherly rol

This morning I hid real live human beings in drab, contained their hair, but whispered that I knew they were still in there, and I sent them to their undercover work as schoolchildren. This morning I wrestled electric cats into a fairy faraday cage, and took them to the torturer, who weighed their hearts and found them wanting. I rubbed magic potions onto the electric cats gums, and we widened our eyes to each other. This morning I cornered the laundry monster and labelled its parts. It still lives, but the first of its limbs has been wrestled into submission. This morning I bargained with the weather gods and won, for a while, and took the tribbles out to work their way across the grass. And then I stopped for coffee and while I drank the coffee I wrote a tanka on a scrap of paper I've now glued in a notebook and shared it with you. What have you done this morning?

I love it when people use small things to make a big impression. The flower in the snout of the gun, little acts of yarnbombing, murals to brighten up our world. We can use these things and a million more small acts. They might not seem like much to do, but the tiny roots of these acts of beauty can make structures crumble.

I have been so lucky with guests over on the Tanka Project Instagram feed, here are three more of their wonderful tankas. First up is Melayne Bowden with a gorgeous tanka about wanting and love: A post shared by Tanka Project (@tanka_project) on Oct 30, 2017 at 3:42am PDT Next it's Kyelsang Choeden, with a lovely tanka about pausing, which is really what I should be doing. I promise I'll do that after this post! A post shared by Tanka Project (@tanka_project) on Oct 30, 2017 at 4:14am PDT Finally, for today, an amazing tanka from Joseph Massey which I was telling my aunt about just last night. It's so interesting the way he uses words to craft something about the constant art of creation. Love this. I love this tanka from Joseph Massey, it's very meta while also saying something about how we're involved in creation itself. Thanks for letting me share! #Repost @tongbliss (@get_repost) ・・・ After breaking news, a formal f

Today's tanka was inspired by something someone said on Instagram, that they were not really there on that day because they were really upset. They said it on a day when I was not really there either. Does everybody get that? Sociability waxing and waning? Anyway, it inspired me to write, so here you go.

Most of the time I do my writing in the living room. Sometimes, before I'm done, it will be invaded by small people. When I wrote this it was invaded by small people who were watching Avatar, an episode where they were in caves and had to find their way out in the darkness, letting love lead the way.

It has been ages since I've joined in with Sara at Mum Turned Mom's regular Prompt. It's on my list, but my list has got out of hand lately, so I was delighted when I got a reminder from Sara in the form of her very own tanka, go check it out here . Her theme this time was 'CAPTURE', and this is what I came up with: I'm joining in with The Prompt. If you're quick you can join in too!

Today's tanka arose from an image that turned up in my head. I don't know what her name is, or the kid's, I don't know what's happened (although a patriarchal apocalypse springs to mind), nor what she's going to build. But I know she will build it.

I generally avoid watching or reading stuff about wars. There is nothing that I can do about men in power sending young men to die and to kill people for whatever reason they've thought up. We hear about 'heroes' who have killed lots of people on someone else's orders. Often people who were trying to kill them on someone else's orders. I do think that sometimes something needs to be done, but I really do believe that too many men in power send too many young men to kill each other, to brutalise others, and to brutalise themselves, to the damage of us all. I also believe that people in power rule by division, the Tories are an excellent case in point - destroying the livelihoods of the poor and then somehow managing to get them to blame other poor people for their situation. The divisions they have fostered have given them power, and done huge harm to our country, particularly to the poor who have had their marrow sucked while the rich have plumped their feathere

I am coming to the end of a period of what I was inspired by Henry Rollins to call 'breathing out' - when I put my work out into the world. Soon I will start the 'breathing in' where I focus in on the creativity, writing and rewriting for me, to let things flourish and grow. I will keep the tanka project going until I reach 44, which is my age, twice as many as I'm at now, and also a number I love because I love repeating numbers. At that point I don't think it will die, just maybe breathe in. When I am busy sending my work out into the world I sometimes start to believe that a rejection means it's not good. It sometimes gets to you, especially when someone keeps hold of it for months on end only to reject it. All that time when you could have nurtured the thing and instead it was held by someone who didn't even love it. I can't judge myself or my work by other's standards (apart from the standards of my boss at the library where I now work

More lovely people have shared their tankas on the tanka project - please do join in if you're up for writing a tanka yourself. The syllable structure is 5/7/5/7/7, you should have a turn in the poem around the middle, but that can just involve thinking of something a wee bit slant. Give it a go and join in. This was Tina's first go (and it's amazing). I love this tanka from Tina McFarlane. It's her first one! #Repost @mcfarlane_tina (@get_repost) ・・・ #Twitter #tanka #poetry #freedom #tankaproject #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #tankalife #inspiration #poetryofinstagram #instapoetry #igpoetry #instapoetry, #poetsofig A post shared by Tanka Project (@tanka_project) on Oct 26, 2017 at 4:37am PDT I was first drawn to Jamarow's tanka below because of the fantastic handwriting - I wish I could do that! But the words of it too - if Shakespeare wrote tankas instead of sonnets... I wish my handwriting was as gorgeous as this, and I love the

I'm throwing order to the winds to get this one in for Halloween, #22 will follow shortly. This is my first experiment in Scots poetry, which I shouldn't really be writing because I can't speak it, but there are some truly awesome words, some of which really need to get wider use! Particularly 'oorie' - that's just glorious. Some of the words are defined below the tankain detail, but really the word oorie is a poem in itself. Basic translation: It seems always cold/and the low lying mist is miserable and eerie/feet are always totally caked in mud/when the ghosties come through./They have tales that need to be told. Specially glorious words: clartit - related to clarty - muddy, clartit means totally caked in mud dayfelly - a low lying mist in a hollow or depression oorie - dismal, gloomy, miserable looking, hanging from the cold, cold and cheerless, depressive, lonely and sad, feeling of the supernatural, eerie, uneasy. I reckon we need to get