Today it is Melissa, from Mom With a Blog, to host this week’s Tanka Tuesday. Here is what she has asked us to do.”Today, let’s focus on Shadorma:“The Shadorma consists of a six-line stanza (or sestet). Each stanza is written as 3-5-3-3-7-5 for a total of 26 syllables with no set rhyme scheme. When writing a Shadorma, I would concentrate on a specific subject. Add a title to the Shadorma.”
With this in mind, let’s write a Shadorma series (two or three, I’ll let you pick) using the paintings in this post. You may use one painting to inspire all your syllabic poetry, or perhaps you’d like to use several. Look at the paintings, their colors, and titles, and see where they take you.”
The paintings that have inspired Melissa are by Alma Thomas, a female painter who became Howard University’s first fine arts graduate, and who was the first black woman granted a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American.
I have chosen this painting because it hit me in the face the moment I saw it.
Alma Thomas, Delightful Song by Red Dahlia, 1976, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Delightful Song by Red Dahlia,
Look at me
Blotting out the sun
Hear me too
Me not you
The colour of your life force
Blood and gold pumping
I am heat
Red, gold new for old
Like a flame
Fire ignite
A wonder ball of pure light
My senses on fire
This is part of Colleens Tanka Tuesday
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