This photograph was the prompt for Tanka Tuesday, but I thought of that time I went kayaking in Norway.

The poem is a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire, an Irish poetic form, that calls for 3 syllables per line, 4 lines per stanza, 2^nd and 4^th line rhyme.

Bald eagles –
Two of them at play –
One settled
At the top
Of a bare limb on a tree,
To scan sky and lake

In a field
The heron stood still –
So still that
The bikers
Rode right past; I held my breath
Hoping he would stay

Hummingbirds
Zoom in and around;
The bee balm’s
Spiky red
blossoms silently beckon
In color and scents

Noisy crows
Always interrupt
As if they
Have something
Important to tell other
Crows. So. Very. Rude.

Four A.M.
My window open
The sky dark
The world still
I hear the call — Whoo- who-Whooo–
Of the Great Horned Owl

I wish that
I gathered the sights
And sounds of
All these birds
In some better storage than
Failing memory

Tanka Tuesday Prompt: write a syllabic poem and incorporate synonyms for the words Quiet and Seek. I chose to do a Shadorma which has 6 lines and follows this syllable count: 3-5-3-3-7-5

A year ago I didn’t know either of those words. Here are the definitions

• Ekphrastic — a written response to a visual work of art
• Etheree — syllabic poetry that has 10 lines, with the syllable count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 –Mine is a Reverse Etheree because the syllable count goes 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Tanka Tuesday prompt asks us to write an Ekphrastic Poem in response to this work of art: Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight, 1875 by Berthe Morisot

And here’s my reverse etheree:

The world is a parade past my window
Strolling, walking, marching, riding past
Some in groups, trios, pairs, alone
Chatting, whistling, silent
An unsteady nonrush
I watch quietly
Inside my home
Unobserved
And sip
Tea