Yesterday morning, I awoke to a pink-iced sky over the snowy mountains.
Pink-iced animal cookies
As a child, my favorite cookies were pink-iced animal cookies. I don’t remember what brand and I don’t think they make them anymore. They weren’t like the regular animal crackers that came in the red circus box–which I liked to bite the heads off of.
Pink-iced sky
I hadn’t thought about those cookies for years–until yesterday. I opened my blinds at around 7:15 AM and the sky over the mountains had that same soft pink color as the icing. The mountains are west of me, so I was surprised to see that color in the morning. And it quickly faded away to bluish-gray over the snow-covered mountains.
Pink-iced tanka
I turned 62 this week in the middle of a snowstorm. And I visited my parents the week before. So I’ve been thinking about the strength and beauty of the mountains–and aging. So in honor of all that, I’ve written a tanka poem. Although I used to think a tanka has to have a certain number of syllables per line, I now understand that it’s a five-line poem–short, long, short, long, long. (But please let me know if that’s not correct!)
Wild storm comes to rest.
Snow has returned to the mountains
reflecting a pink-iced sky.
Morning light, ephemeral confection,
Spreads wonder over white-blanketed peaks.
Poetry Friday
Many thanks to today’s host for Poetry Friday, Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference.
Check out her blog and see what other poets have to share today–and join in if you want!
As always, thanks for stopping by.
xoxo
Happy Birthday! Your morning view is beautiful. 5 degrees?!? Brrr! I can picture those pink-iced cookies. (Did you know that Trader Joe’s makes gluten-free Peppermint Joe-Joe’s? Very tasty!)
Thanks! It was really cold! Maybe that helped create that amazing color. I’ll check out those cookies next time I go to Trader Joe’s.
I don’t remember those pink-iced animal crackers, but love that your sunrise view took to back to a lovely childhood memory.
Thanks! Both the beauty of the moment and that connection surprised me.
Happy birthday! Brr…5 degrees is cold. We haven’t reached that here yet. You poem captures those delicate colors of sunrise–that ephemeral confection.
Thanks, Kay–Happily that really cold only stuck around for a few days–at least so far!
Oh, your poem and photos are just lovely! Happy Birthday!
Thanks!
Hi Susan, Happy Belated Birthday!
Lovely poem and view. Sorry your temps have dipped so low, though ours are probably headed that way. BTW an interview and prompt from Margarita Engle suggests that tanka poems may have about 30 syllables or less.
Thanks!
Hi Michelle,
One great thing about being in Colorado is that even though it was really cold for a couple of days, a few days later, it’s back into the 60s and 70s. I’ll check out Engle’s interview if I can find it. I looked in a few different places and Writer’s Digest said syllable count wasn’t so important–I’m always learning!