Tag: poetry
Roberta Writes – Haiku published on Pure Haiku
Thank you to talented poet, artist and author, Freya Pickard, for publishing my haiku on Pure Haiku.
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Jacaranda Blue on Chewers by Masticadores
Thank you to Nolcha Fox for publishing a favourite poem as a video using one of my favourite paintings as the backdrops.
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Treasuring Poetry – Meet talented poet Paul Cannon
Today, I am delighted to introduce talented poet, Paul Cannon, as my first Treasuring Poetry guest of 2026.
Thanks for hosting, Kaye Lynne Booth.
Hi everyone, welcome back to Treasuring Poetry 2026. My first guest of the year is talented poet, Paul Cannon, who I met through the d’Verse Poets Pub. You can find the latest d’Verse challenge here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/15/its-open-link-night-and-our-live-session-is-just-around-the-corner/. d’Verse hosts three challenges a week and they are all very interesting.
Tell us a bit about Paul Cannon. How and why did you start writing poetry?
My earliest memory of my interest in poetry is my parents encouraging me to listen to them reading poetry to me from the Children’s Book Of Verse. I remember in later primary school having to memorise poems like Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and Southey’s ‘The Inchcape Rock’ along with Patterson’s ‘The Man From Snowy River.’ Poetry captured my imagination.
Later, in high school, we were introduced to many poets and forms from around the world. We were also tasked with writing poetry which I enjoyed. One poet who I continue to read from that time is Robert Frost, I love the way he draws me into observing human behaviour and feelings, and how he observes nature.
After high school I continued to write. The incentive was, naturally, love interests. My girlfriends were always polite about my writing, not least Lyn my wife to be. From the time I married in 83 to the mid nineties I was hit and miss with writing, what brought me back in earnest was my journey into becoming an Anglican priest and the pathway of training to be a spiritual director or companion for those needing a sounding board for personal discernment. This journey opened me up to the poetry of Mary Oliver, R.S. Thomas, Denise Levertov, Blake, Milton, Edwina Gateley, Noel Davis, Rumi, Hafez, Layli and many more. These poets inspired me and I became intentional about my writing at this point.
I didn’t go online with my poems until 2017. I was writing prose on Face Book and switched to WordPress in 2013 and it was through the WordPress community that I was encouraged to take the plunge into poetry after posting some tentative pieces.
Continue reading here: https://writingtoberead.com/2026/01/21/treasuring-poetry-meet-talented-poet-paul-cannon/
Roberta Writes about the grey loerie, d’Verse muchness and Thursday Doors: Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels #d’verse #thursdaydoors #peterpaulrubens
If you are interested in seeing my latest artwork, you can see my post on my website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/a-hartebeest-with-texture-robbiecheadleart/
This poem is for Don’t Hold Your Breath’s Bird of the Week challenge. You can join in here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/green-backed-tit-birds-of-the-week-invitation-lxxxiii/
Grey Loerie or the Grey go-away-bird (freestyle)
Go-away-bird is back
watching carefully
how well I tend his fruit trees
screeching lovingly
from the top of his tree
“kweh! kweh!”
in a load and nasal tone
the last syllable uttered in
a condescending drawl
Soon, his friends will join him
they’ll all joyfully participate in
a tree-top foraging party
all congratulating me
on my successful peach crop
while they enjoy
the fruits of my labour
When they’ve guzzled enough
and their bellies are stuffed
they will have a dust bathe
on the ground nearby
teasing the cat
as she tries to stake her claim
under the blackberry patch
D’verse Quadrille #231
De Jackson here, aka WhimsyGizmo challenges poets to write a poem about muchness. You can join in and/or find out more here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/09/08/quadrille-231-making-much-of-poems/
The Muchness of Spring (Quadrille)
Spring
the season of muchness
colourful flowers are many
and their pollen
much too much
It combines with much dust
to cause much havoc
with much hayfever
It’s muchness is visible
as it sparkles in the sunshine
entering the nose
and causing much sneezing
The trilogy of pictures below are of my bank’s roses. They are very pretty but they do causes muchly sneezes.
Thursday Doors
Dan Antion hosts a weekly Thursday Doors Challenge. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/09/11/still-mooving-at-osv/
There were three reasons I agreed to fly for 16 hours to London and another 16 hours back again in July. 1. Michael came and I wanted to expand his horizons, 2. to visit Flanders in Brussels 3. to see the Peter Paul Rubens paintings at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. Today, I’m sharing my pictures of the third visit. Spectacular paintings that were worth the travelling.
The is my video of one of Rubens artworks called And Workshop
Roberta Writes – Book reviews: The Rat in the Python Fashion by Alex Craigie and Dewdrops on the Soul: Poetry you will love by Dwight Roth #bookreviews
Today, I have reviews of two delightful books for you.
The Rat in the Python Fashion
What Amazon says
If you haven’t heard of a liberty bodice, believe that half-a-crown is something to do with impoverished royalty and never had the experience of slapping a television to stop the grainy black and white picture from rolling, then this series might not be for you. Please give it a go, though – I suspect that most of it will still resonate no matter where you were brought up!
Book 3 looks at fashion and how it’s changed since the end of WWII. From utility coats and twinsets, to schoolboys in short trousers with socks and garters. From the swinging sixties with its long, long hair and short, short skirts, to psychedelia and beyond.
The Rat in the Python is about Baby Boomers who, in the stability following the Second World War, formed a statistical bulge in the population python. It is a personal snapshot of a time that is as mystifying to my children as the Jurassic Era – and just as unrecognisable.
My review
I realised when I came to write this review that this is book 3 and I have skipped out book 2. They don’t have to be read in order so it doesn’t matter, but book 2 should not be missed as this is a terrific series.
This fascinating short read covers fashion in the UK from WWII to the current date. It actually even goes a little bit further back in the beginning with some interesting comments about fashion during the Edwardian era and I am very thankful that I never had to wear a corset. Being long waisted, this would have been really awful for me. Edwardian women did, however, look very sophisticated with their gorgeous hats and long skirted, tight waisted dresses.
With regards to fashion during WWII, this book reinforced a lot of information I had heard from my mother about the lack of buttons, silk stockings and other niceties and how girls found innovative ways of dealing with this problem. To quote: “Women dealt with the latter issue by painting their legs with special product or using gravy browning and getting a friend to draw a line down the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil to resemble the seam.”
This book takes the reader on a journey through the austerity of the post war continuing rationing fashion scene when people dressed very formally but frugally with shirts that had replaceable collars and cuffs and continues to the modern ‘throw away’ society. The current culture in the UK is actually vastly different from here in South Africa where women still dress fairly conservatively and most certainly do not buy cheap clothing that is thrown away rather than washed. Poverty is still a big issue in Africa, but perhaps this is better than the consumeristic habits of the developed world that add so much to plastic and global warming problems. I found the changing trends in this regard discussed in this book to be thought provoking.
The book includes lots of interesting photographs and pictures to demonstrate the fashion statements made and is really a wonderful undertaking to preserve the history of fashion in the UK. An interesting and worthwhile read.
Purchase The Rat in the Python Fashion by Alex Craigie from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0995696675
Dewdrops on the Soul: Poetry you will love by Dwight Roth
What Amazon says
Poetry must speak to the soul if it is to be remembered. The poems in this book are written in readable verse that is easily understood by the reader, yet challenging and thought provoking. Along with the poems are beautiful original color photos taken by the author that are used to enhance the poems. In addition to photos there are also original paintings done by the author.
Poems in this collection are inspired by nature, nostalgia, and reflections on the meaning of life.
The author has published a poetry blog on Word Press since 2016 which you can view at. rothpoetry.wordpress.com
This is a great book to spend time getting lost in as you peruse through the many poems included here.
My review
This is the first collection of poetry and flash fiction I’ve read by Dwight Roth and it was a complete delight.
The poet has a wonderfully positive outlook on life and this reflects in every word he writes. The poems and prose pieces in this book made me feel happy and uplifted and you just can’t beat that feeling. The book also includes some wonderful paintings by the poet, photographs from his childhood and adult life, as well as some innovative handmade creations include what he termed to be a Jackleg guitar. Not a term I have heard before but it seems to fit this wonderfully artistic musical instrument.
I really enjoyed all the poems but a few standout ones for me were as follows: A Call for Change, Dad, Pop’s Garden, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Digital Wolly Worm, Night Train, Dandelion Stars, Trigger, Love and Cherry Delight, Family Memories, Where do you Belong? and Proud Vulnerability.
I highly recommend this beautiful collection and will leave you with the poem I loved the best as I also love and appreciate the beauty of dandelions.
Dandelion Stars
“Aging flower wild and free
Sunny yellow color gone
Silver stars cover its head
reflecting sunlight
Beautiful seeds waiting for the breeze
Like Nature’s poetry
Blowin’ in the Wind across our minds
Beauty for some
Weeds for others
Daylight stars waiting
to be appreciated”
You can purchase Dewdrops on the Soul: Poetry you will love by Dwight Roth from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DT86WRW2
Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing challenge: Light #poetry
Esther’s challenge this week is light. I wrote several poems about light for inclusion in Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, Tanka Prose, & Experimental Tanka and I decided to share my favourite of these poems for Esther’s challenge.
Painter’s challenge (garland tanka)
Anguish reflected
But not absorbed by water
Which also soaks up
Essence of trees and buildings
For serene contemplation
***
Natures pain entrapped
Within deep, inky waters
No amount of tears
Ruffling its exterior
Can change on-going flow
***
Many lives ended
Sinking into death’s embrace
Silent and secret
Water does not pass judgement
Gleaming countenance unchanged
***
Interplay of light
Old Man River stays focused
Moody sky tantrums
Painter tries to replicate
Scene perfected by nature
***
Black, white and silver
Shot through with green and auburn
Captures canal’s soul
Embalming in acrylic
Turbulent natural conflict
***
Anguish reflected
Within deep, inky waters
Silent and secret
Painter tries to replicate
Turbulent natural conflict
Picture caption: Amsterdam Canal. Acrylic painting by Robbie Cheadle
Sunflower Tanka, edited by Robbie Cheadle & Colleen M. Chesebro, is an annual anthology of contemporary tanka, tanka prose, & experimental tanka from a broad mix of new and established poetic voices from across the world.
Our theme, “Into the Light,” draws inspiration from the way a young sunflower bud constantly turns to face the sun. Poets delved into the realms of death, love, and the natural world, capturing their human experiences in the timeless form of syllabic poetry.
Contributors to the first edition of the Sunflower Tanka: Suzanne Brace, Yvette Calleiro, Kay Castenada, Luanne Castle, Robbie Cheadle, Colleen M. Chesebro, E.A. Colquitt, Melissa Davilio, Destiny, Tamiko Dooley, Lisa Fox, Cindy Georgakas, Chris Hall, Franci Hoffman, Marsha Ingrao, Jude Itakali, JulesPaige, Kenneth, MJ Mallon, Brenda Marie, Selma Martin, Michelle Ayon Navajas, Lisa Nelson, D. Wallace Peach, Freya Pickard, Dawn Pisturino, Gwen M. Plano, Jennifer Russo, Aishwarya Saby, Reena Saxena, Merril D. Smith, Nicole Smith, Ivor Steven, Ben Tonkin, Trilce Marsh Vazquez, Cheryl Wood.
Roberta Writes – d’Verse: Poetics: Personifying The Abstract #dVerse #poetry #photography
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am currently undertaking a modernised rewrite of Dante’s Inferno. I now have a working title for this poem – Gaia’s Redemption. Anyhow, Mish’s Tuesday prompt was to write a poem including personification. This prompt was perfect for the first twenty lines of my re-write. In Canto II, I have agreed to undertake a journey through the nine levels of the Sixth Mass Extinction with my spirit elephant guide. I have entered the cave that takes us down into the bowels of the spirit world. If you are interested, you can read an analysis of Canto 2 of Dante’s Inferno here: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/inferno/canto-2
I missed the deadline for Mish’s prompt here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/03/25/poetics-personifying-the-abstract/ so I’m sharing it for Open Link Night here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/03/27/open-link-night-381/
CANTO II
A living, breathing creature, this Precambrian era cave
It’s 2.8-billion-year-old skin wrinkled by wear and time
Access defended by minions; entry limited to the brave
Their glowing forms a marriage of dolomite and lime
The monster silently screamed its uncertainty and rage
Spirit elephant paid it no heed, gliding past unchallenged
I drew in a great breath, plunged forward, ducking under
Wall of spear like stalactites from which moisture dripped
Somewhere deep below, a gong sounded like thunder
Death’s hand upon me, I ventured into the stone crypt 10
***
“Guide, I am concerned your trust in me is misplaced
I don’t know how to achieve your lofty expectations
What if I disappoint you? It will be a humiliating disgrace
I don’t want to face the environmentalists’ accusations”
My Guide did not pause or speak, just shone a soft light
Which illuminated two formations beneath the Hand of God
Symbolising the visual, the first’s gazed through dark eyes
The other gripped a pen between slender white fingers
Understanding came, pictures held power and told no lies
The written word facilitates communication with thinkers 20
My cave is based on the Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Here are some photographs from my recent visit to these caves.
Below is my YouTube short of Somcuba’s Gong inside the Sudwala Caves
Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing prompt: Funny Moments #poetry
Esther’s writing challenge for this week is Funny Moments. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/03/19/writing-prompts-57/
New Blood
What a hoot
There is new blood
In fourth year at Uni
Competition
In the form of a young man
From an opposition university
This youngster and my son
Both chose challenging
Research projects
Both have double supervisors
One of Greg’s
If from Milan, Italy
He thinks this gives him
An edge
Over a double local package
But
The competition
Has four subjects for both
The first and second blocks
Greg had four and three
So, he’s signed up for
An additional course
Naturally the most difficult
On the list of electives
There is nothing like a little
Competition
To stir the blood
And make a young man work
“Well, Mom,” he said
In response to my enquiry
“I’m not going to be upstaged
by a usurper from Pretoria”
Reviews for Sunflower Tanka
Thank you to Barbara Harris Leonhard for this insightful review of Sunflower Tanka: https://extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog/2025/03/24/barbs-wordy-blurbs-sunflower-tanka-by-robbie-cheadle-colleen-m-chesebro/
Thank you to contributor, Chris Hall, for her lovely review of Sunflower Tanka on Facebook here:
Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology Tanka, Tanka Prose, & Experimental Tanka – edited by Robbie Cheadle & Colleen M. Chesebro
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What a gorgeous collection with so many poets who I know, including myself. It is such a beautiful book (well done, Robbie) and I am glad that I got the paperback, as well as the Kindle.
There are almost 140 poems in this wonderful collection. The 36 poets are from all around the globe: from the USA, UK, Mexico, South Africa, Uganda, Guyana, Portugal, Japan, Philippines, India, Australia and Italy. Isn’t it interesting, and even more so the way the various styles are incorporated. The different forms are the well-known 5-line tanka form, the tanka-prose and the rensaku, but also the less known are the experimental tanka, the garland tanka, and the tanka Puente, all good though.
I have read from cover to cover and picked around as well. Now, just to say, this has been a lovely experience – it’s ‘In the Light’!
Roberta Writes – d’Verse: sep-a-rate, a song parody #songparody #dverse
Melissa‘s challenge is slightly complex this week. She proposed a few artworks by the same artist as picture prompts and asked poets to write a poem expressing the thoughts the picture of their choice evoked. After writing the poem, she suggested we read up about the artist and see if it changed our feelings in respect of our chosen artwork. You can read about the artworks and join the prompt here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/02/18/sep%c2%b7a%c2%b7rate/
I chose this artwork:
My song parody below is intended to be humorous and take the ‘mick’ out of some of the pretentiousness and snobbishness in some art circles. It doesn’t necessary reflect my views on art as I do produce some non-realistic, surrealist work myself.
Why can’t artists choose to create objects of beauty?
Why can’t artists choose to create objects of beauty?
Still life paintings so realistic they almost smell fruity
Why add to the ugliness in this world?
Depicting on paper the endless hatred that unfurls
***
Just look at it
Misery articulated in every line
Flying in the face of all teachings of the Divine
***
You might say I picked a poor example
But did I?
What’s the purpose of a banana taped to a board? Note 1
An over privileged buys it for a price few could afford
How pretentious to call that mockery art
***
I wouldn’t pay a single cent for that
In fact, if it was a gift, I’d send it back
I’d view it as an insult to my sensibilities
Why can’t artists focus on depicting happiness and joy?
***
You’d think purchasers would want to view art with pleasure
Something delightful to brighten up their day
But no, they prefer to wallow in the hideous
Or even worse the clearly sad and piteous
***
Of the banana, I’m not a fan
But it’s better than a painted beer can Note 2
Really, what has art come to?
I’d much rather look at artworks produced by kindergarteners
***
Squiggly line drawings – I ask you what sort of art is that?
It’s this sort of mediocracy that allows AI to compete
AI artworks easily as good as those of modern art elite
Why can’t artists focus on depicting happiness and joy?
***
The attributes of a good piece of art should be well-known
You shouldn’t have to look at splodges and try to guess
Exactly what the intent was behind the colourful mess
An artwork’s content should clearly show what it is
***
As soon as an artist picks up his pencil and starts to work
Viewers should gasp in wonder at the work in progress
That rarely happens with much of the art that does the rounds
Looking at it turns the viewers smiles to frowns
***
A good example is modern surrealist art
What on earth is its purpose to a viewer
It makes me want to poke out my eyes with a skewer
There are even times when art completely disappears
***
Disappears … What is non-art? Why use the word art
In connection with an object that is something else entirely
I can see a photograph is a photograph without any enquiry
Surely everyone can see a stone’s a stone
***
Artists go to school to learn techniques and styles
Just as clothes designers must learn all about textiles
Why do they throw everything they learned away?
I think their attempts to be different lead them astray
***
There is nothing better than a beautiful landscape
There is no need the natural world to reshape
But create a realistic picture and you’re criticised
Why can’t artist focus on depicting happiness and joy?
Note 1: The banana line is based on this article https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/that-viral-banana-duct-taped-to-a-wall-it-just-sold-for-6-2-million-180985523/
Note 2: The beer can line refers to this article: https://abcnews.go.com/International/beer-artwork-accidentally-trashed-museum-worker/story?id=114588747#:~:text=A%20museum%20in%20the%20Netherlands%20has%20recovered%20an,of%20them%20during%20his%20shift%2C%20museum%20officials%20said.
Reading up about the artist didn’t change my dislike of his work, although in saying that I did find this face painting compelling in a dark way. In fact, it made me wonder even more why he is famous. So, my song above remains unchanged. Do you recognise the rhythm and flow? I’ll give you a hint – I went to see My Fair Lady on Sunday evening and the music is still stuck in my head.
roberta-writes.com 