Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, d’Verse & CFFC & Thursday Doors

This week’s challenge by Melissa, is to write a Double Ennead poem on the theme of gratitude. The syllabic count for a Double Ennead poem is 3 x 3 verses of 6/5/11/6/5.

You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2025/11/25/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-40-double-ennead-11-25-2025/

delicate silver threads

woven skillfully

into a deadly trap for flying insects

flies a favourite meal

of reviled spiders

***

annoying mosquitoes

trapped in sticky thread

succulent dinner for female arachnide

malaria vector

out of commission

***

carrying diseases

from within sewers

cockroaches contaminate human foodstuffs

favourite snack for spiders

which keep numbers down

Colleen has shared an update on 🌻 2025 Sunflower Tanka Anthology 🌻 and the cover. You can read about it here: https://tankatuesday.com/2025/11/30/cover-reveal-the-2025-sunflower-tanka-anthology/

Grace’s prompt is to write a Spanish Lira poem. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/11/27/poetry-form-spanish-lira/

Absent Heat

usual summer heat absent

continuous rainfall order of the day

change in weather most welcome

November can be scorching

this year grey cloud is keeping hot sun at bay

I am late with last week’s CFFC and Thursday Doors post so I’m including it here with this week’s CFFC post.

The four photographs below are of the wharf at Westminster Bridge in London. This is where tourists leave for tours of the River Thames. You can see the London Eye in the background. These are for Dan’s Travel Hubs challenge which you can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/12/01/travel-hubs-cffc/

Last week’s CFFC challenge was Places where people work. I have a selection of doors from my trip to London.

The slideshow below is of the entrance and door of a bank in Westminster, London. I thought the door was beautiful.

Picture caption: Entrance to The Institute of Civil Engineers in London
Picture caption: Entrance to The Royal Courts of Justice, London

60 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, d’Verse & CFFC & Thursday Doors

  1. Great post Robbie, I am so fascinated by spiders and their webs, they don’t worry me (until they get to be over a certain size and hairy 😂)
    A beautiful cover for the Sunflower Anthology, I appreciate your artistic talents 🥰
    London, being my home town, is always interesting to see photographed, as everyday sights are so often missed aren’t they…. One of my jobs was at Waterloo and I saw the London eye out of the window everyday and used the boat from Westminster back to Tower Hill to commute … 💞

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  2. Good job on the challenges, Robbie. I love the poetry and I’m now even happier with our ongoing decision to relocate spiders instead of killing them. I love the line “malaria vector out of commission.” Go Spidy!

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  3. I certainly agree with your take on arachnids Robbie, I love and admire spiders we let them be so they can do just as you say, and who doesn’t have gratitude for their artful gossamer?

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  4. Great challenge responses, Robbie. I appreciate what spiders do for us too and some of their webs are a work of art.

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  5. The door in Westminster is quite impressive, wow… it seems huge! And lovely poems, the Double Ennead about spiders and spider webs is great! Wonderful challenge contributions, Robbie!

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  6. I love the poems about the spiders Webb so true we have plenty to be grateful to spiders for.

    the photos of my beloved Home City are lovely too. Also your d’verse poem …a great mix to dive in to 💜💜💜

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