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.





Robbie, I’d say that your tanaga reminds us that even our most anxious thoughts can pass, like clouds leaving the sky open again. I love this.
~David
P.S. I added you to the appropriate Mister Linky.
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Thank you, David 🤗💛. Life is so busy 😘
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🤗
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Great mind-opening poetry and lovely photos, Roberta!
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I appreciate you, Tim 🥰
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😍
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Gorgeous post Robbie, poetry and photos are so lovely. My wisteria had gone mad this year, virtually doubled 💞
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How marvelous. It’s such a wonderful flower.
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A wonderful post, Robbie! I love the movement from “ordinary boats” to the luminous words “dipped in molten gold.” The boats themselves have not changed, and yet the setting sun changes everything about the way we see them. You have me thinking about transformation. Not becoming something entirely different, but being revealed differently because the light has shifted.
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Hi Rebecca, perceptive as always. Huge hugs
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🤗🤗🤗
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Well done Robbie. I especially liked the tanka verse and boat painting. Only four challenges in one post? 😁
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🥰, I decided to split the challenges and do another post of Saturday 🤣
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Showoff! 😁
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Lovely post, Robbie. I particularly like that the tanka and the image of boats poured from molten gold. Lovely photos, too.
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Thank you, Merril. That’s what it looks like to me – poured gold 💚
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You’re welcome, Robbie! 💙
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Gorgeous photos and I love your response to the prompts. Those “reflections (do) shimmer in bronze.”
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Hi Melissa, I always enjoy your prompts and try to write for them. My life just seems to get busier and busier. Im sure you can relate 🤗
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I love “Transformation”! It’s a perfect little gem of a poem.
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Thank you, Liz 🥰
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For a non-beachgoer, you sure did get a beautiful picture! Don’t you love wisteria? Its short blooming season makes it even more precious. I enjoyed your poems, especially the Tanaga.
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Hi Priscilla, the Tanaga is what I call a diary poem. Sort of life journaling. When I go to the beach during the day, the salt, spray and humidity combination make my skin itchy. Night time is better.
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The Egon Schiele, Harbor of Trieste (1907) painting is gorgeous, and great photos and beautiful evocative poems.
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Hi Thomas, it is a beautiful scene. I hadn’t seen that painting before I saw this challenge. I am pleased to learn of it.
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A beautiful post, Robbie. Love the tanka interpretation of the boats. Beautiful wisteria!
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Thank you, Dwight. The wisteria has exploded so there’ll be more photographs 😁
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:>)
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Lovely poetry Robbie! The beach scenes are stunning. Glad you got the wysteria vine to produce! Gorgeous!
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I was pleased about the wisteria. Thanks, Terri 💞
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Lovely poems dear friend. And congrats on the flowers in your garden.
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love the pics and the poems esp ‘Learnings’ where that last line turns the poem on its head —-
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Hi Roberta
We love Schiele and your little poems.
Thanks for sharing
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Especially love your tanaga Robbie!
Your photographs are so beautifully captured too.
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Nice poems and lovely pictures.
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All excellent, Robbie! Your wisteria is going well, most pleasing. 💜
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Excellent photos as always. Thoughts as anxious slaves is a (sadly) perfect image. (K)
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There is a lot of beauty in the hard work and industry of yesteryear. You spotlight that perfectly.
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