Thank you for Kaye Lynne Book for hosting this post about carpenter bees.
Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, d’Verse, CFFC & Thursday Doors, The Flower Hour & Sunday Stills
Today, I’m participating in six challenges. I think that is a record for me. Between the new job, my parents and their medical and other needs, and my painting, I run out of time every single week. I do write three articles a week for LatinosUSA and two a month for Writing to be Read and those are of my own crafting, so I don’t feel to bad about not posting personal blog posts as often. There are only so many hours in a week. I have also been experimenting with cakes for my parent’s wedding anniversary celebration next week. My new firm closes on 15 December. I am very excited as I think I’ll be able to create a gingerbread house this year. I need about a week pre-Christmas to do that.
Anyhow, on with this week’s poems and photographs. PS, I am having trouble with WP which is flipping all my portrait photographs landscape if I use a slideshow or gallery format. Is anyone else having this problem?
Tanka Tuesday
Yvette asked poet’s to write about heritage. Sometimes I feel as if our modern society is sadly lacking is respect for elders and manners. The muse brought this poem which is an American cinquain. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/09/15/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-82-celebrating-heritage-9-15-26/
Inheritance
often
I tell my sons
‘manners maketh the man’
keep your social inheritence
intact
d’Verse
Kim’s beautiful challenge is Adagio for Strings. I had a tough week trying to solve some complex accounting problems. The muse was stubborn and only brought this when I listened to the beautiful music Kim provided for inspiration. Bad muse!
You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/09/15/poetics-adagio-for-strings/
Thank you for the music but …
music rises
like flames
licking at the edges
of my tired mind
trying
to strike a spark
that could smoulder
burst into flame
fanned by the winds
of enthusiastic
consumption
but
I’m too tired
the spark splutters
then dies
I just can’t
ride the waves
tonight
The Flower Hour & Sunday Stills
Terri’s Sunday Still’s challenge is orange, you can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/13/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-orange-you-glad-its-apricot/
Terri’s The Flower Hour challenge can be found here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/08/the-flower-hour-47-can-you-ever-get-enough-sunflowers/
Our clivias put on a magnificent show this year.
CFFC & Thursday Doors
These two challenges, hosted by Dan Antion, just went together this week.
Dan has a new Rascal book out so you can read all about it while you are visiting here: http://nofacilities.com/2026/09/17/rascals-research-begins/
Dan’s CFFC theme is where/when/how we shop. I decided to take you on a shopping tour of a few places in Brussels, Bruges, Bath, and Borough Market, UK (but not shopped at as I don’t like shopping). You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/09/14/where-what-when-we-shop-cffc/
Bruges and Brussels
Amsterdam
Bath, UK
Borough Market, London
Roberta Writes – d’Verse, Bird of the Week, Tanka Tuesday, Thursday Doors, The Flower Hour
d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, and Bird of the Week
Melissa’s challenge word for Quadrille Monday was xonolith. I incorporated it into my Bird of the Week poem, a chain shadorma (with some difficulty due to syllabic count and word count). You can join in d’Verse here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/09/07/quadrille-255-x-marks-the-spot/. Melissa is also the host of Tanka Tuesday where she challenged poets to write a seasonal pi-ku. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/09/08/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-81-pi-ku-9-8-26/. I added mine to the end of my bird poem.
You can join in Bird of the Week here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/javan-pond-heron-birds-of-the-week-clxxxv/
Cape Robin-chat (shadorma chain with pi-ku)
xenolith
within flycatcher
family
bright breasted
Cape robin-chat hops about
tail angled upwards
***
I observed
songbird foraging
in a tree
plucking bark
from long suffering branches
home to many birds
***
squawking its
harsh, trisyllabic
alarm call
WA-dur-da
it departed speedily
tail stiff with distress
***
spring influx
birds
fill my garden
Well, that was enough poetic suffering, oops I mean creativity, for this week. Now on to some photographs …
Thursday Doors
These are some doors photographs from my trip to Paris in April. These photographs are of the Pont des Arts, Institut de France is located at one entry point of the bridge in Paris which crosses the River Seine. You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/09/10/bbq-dam-lock-tour/
The Flower Hour
More beautiful wisteria photographs from this past week. They are starting to go off now so this will be the last of them. The purple irises benefited from the rain early this week and are plentiful and vivid.
You can join in The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/08/the-flower-hour-47-can-you-ever-get-enough-sunflowers/
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Famous books and authors – Jack Finney and Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Artforms and Artists from Around the World – Welcome Home by Dwight Roth and a review
Today I am delighted to host talented artist and poet, Dwight Roth, with a beautiful artwork and my review of one of his excellent children’s books.
Roberta Writes: d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, W3, Sunday Stills & The Flower Hour
This poem is for last week’s d’Verse challenge hosted by Melissa Lemay. You can read other poet’s contributions here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/08/25/35510/
it is also for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday challenge from last week which you can see here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/08/25/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-79-color-as-a-metaphor-8-25-26/
Transformation (tanka)
ordinary boats
undergo transformation
dipped in molten gold
poured from slowly setting sun
reflections shimmer in bronze
W3
This is my poem for last week’s W3 challenge hosted by Michelle Ayon Navajas. You can view the challenge here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/08/26/w3-prompt-226-weave-written-weekly/
Learnings (Tanaga)
I’ve learned to watch skies and clouds
dissolving obstructive shrouds
that obscure contentment’s waves
turning thoughts to anxious slaves
Sunday Stills
Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge is beach scenes. You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/30/sunday-stills-its-national-beach-day-lets-go-to-the-beach/
Terri’s challenge is beach views. At first I couldn’t think of any beach pictures as I’m not a beach lover, but then I remembered the ones I took in January at St Lucia when I went to Cape Vidal at night to see the loggerhead turtle.
The Flower Hour
These wisteria flowers are my contribution to Terri’s The Flower Hour which you can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/01/the-flower-hour-46-floral-abcs-featuring-pq-and-r/
Last year I got no flowers at all. So this late July I started tending the vine. I watered it and fed it with fertiliser. This spring I have been rewarded with several lovely flowers.
Roberta Writes – Reblog: SCD: August Poetry Day
Thank you to Marsha Ingrao for featuring my poem, To Paint is to Live and my painting, Waterfall, for her August SCD Poetry Day alongside a wonderful poem by Selma Martin.
Roberta Writes – W3 and Esther Chilton’s writing Challenge, Sunday Stills and CFFC
I am late this week with my W3 and Esther Chilton’s writing challenge combined contribution. This is partly due to the fact that my W3 poem did not meet all the stated requirements in the way requested. I bent the rules so I am publishing this with a reference to the W3 inspiration source but I’m not linking to the challenge.
You can view other poets contributions to W3 here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/08/19/w3-prompt-225-weave-written-weekly/
You can view other contributions to Esther Chilton’s writing challenge from last week, fire, here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2026/08/19/word-prompts-4/
The Candle (freestyle poem)
The stubby candle stood
in a puddle of its own wax
For 92 years its flame had burned
Occasionally
during times of illness
it had burned low
but always
it had been steadfast
pulsing with the rhythm
of her life’s blood
During the good years
it had danced and leaped
during the bad years
it had twisted and bent
accommodating
the turbulent winds
But, it never went out
On and on it burned
sustained for the last fifteen years
by well intentioned doctors
who provided life sustaining drugs
Gazing into its glowing heart
it seemed to mock her
whispering her lossses
the traitorous husband
long returned to the earth
and the name of her home
her sanctuary
the place she’d holed up
to lick her wounds
and regain her sense of self worth
Now it was gone
sold, and the proceeds used
to sustain her unwanted life
in this place of the old and dying
Those same well intentioned doctors
whose drugs kept her heart beating
withheld the much needed pain relief
not wanting to further damage
her aged and declining body
as if it mattered at her age
She wished on them arthritis
and a long and painfilled old age
She could stop the medications
the end would come quicker
but the risks were high
The idea of an intact mind
inhabiting a completely broken body
lying in a bed in frail care
completely dependent on others
held her back
So she gazed with resentment
at that damned flame
wishing it extinguished
Sunday Stills and CFFC
Sunday Stills is all about mini beasts this week and CFFC is about things we watch. I watch mini-beasts so I put the two challenges together. You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/23/sunday-stills-animal-of-the-month-dog-and-butterfly/ and here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/08/24/where-what-when-we-watch-cffc/
A variety of bugs in the garden:
Warning, spiders ahead!
Roberta Writes – Reblog: In Touch with Nature – The Vulnerable Southern Ground Hornbill
Thanks for hosting, Kaye Lynne Booth.
Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, The Flower Hour, and Sunday Stills
Tanka Tuesday
Yvette’s Tanka Tuesday challenge is Tread with Trepidation. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/08/18/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-78-tread-with-trepidation-8-18-26/
This is what the muse brought!
Walking on Egg Shells (American cinquain chain)
I try
to understand
how thought processes work
when they differ so much from mine
I fail
***
My mind
can’t unravel
reluctance to face change
accept and adapt to its flow
move on
***
So I
speak with caution
couch words in cotton wool
walk on proverbial eggshells
slow down
Sunday Stills
Terri has been having a scary time with the wild fires. You can read her story here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/16/sunday-stills-tears-and-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes/
We haven’t had wildfires in Johanneburg but I have had scary experiences with wildfires during my lifetime so Terri’s story is close to my heart. I didn’t think I had any photographs to contribute for this topic but then I remembered a couple of photographs I took when we travelled out of Joburg early in the morning a few week ago. The sky was full of pollution from the winter fires people light to keep warm. The pollution in Joburg has become so bad we are planning to retire to the coast. I’m worried about the health effects as we all suffer with coughs, burning eyes and other air pollution nasties.
I had a crazy week and ended up working until 9pm on Thursday which through my week off. I also had to take Dad to the hospital for lung functioning tests. The doctor says there is no deterioration but he’s turned into an old man and is shuffling around using a walking stick. No-one seems to have an answer for his problems. I think its long Covid.
The Flower Hour
These are the blossoms in my spring garden. I didn’t do the alphabet challenge. You can join in The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/18/the-flower-hour-44-floral-abcs-focusing-on-the-letters-m-n-o/
Reminder: Sunflower Tanka Anthology submissions are open until 31 August
Submissions to the Sunflower Tanka syllabic poetry anthology are open until Monday, 31 August.
Colleen and I look forward to reading your submissions. I am starting to work on the anthology tomorrow.
You can read more here: https://sunflowertankaanthology.com/2026/08/12/submissions-are-still-open/
