ilinkcs

@ilinkcs.bsky.social

106 Followers 54 Following

Itinerant autodidact & stoic seeking the truth, struggling with what obscures it

this week’s prompt: safe write a tanka using prompt & include hashtag #TankaThursday #TankaPoem #micropoetry … Tanka resources to develop your practice: Tanka Society of America: www.tankasocietyofamerica.org
tanka: The Lone Wolf’s Path forgive me my return once more to the lone wolf's path your freedom’s now assured ~ tidy your home make ready your bed soon will rest a more civilized head paired with Artwork based on an illustration by Barry Moser for the cover of “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London; published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (May 17, 2011). He has won numerous accolades for his work, including the prestigious National Book Award for Design and Illustration and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. He is both an author and an artist. Image for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner. Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/07)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: BYE, EMBARRASS, SPASM, CRAVEN, EAVESDROP, DALLIANCE use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Poem: Calling Card bugling boastful blast sounding from the forest glade stag elk's calling card … paired with pic of a male elk during the fall mating season in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, United States. Source http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/shoshone/districts/wapiti.htm courtesy wiki commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bull_elk_bugling_during_the_fall_mating_season.jpg … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/07)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: SHINE use any form of the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Entrance to a secluded private garden, rising stairs under an arboreal shrubbery canopy, caught in the moment of bright sunshine as hidden clouds move in. image ©ilinkcs (2026/07)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: EXIT, FLASH, CONUNDRUM, VIVID, PASTEL, CATASTROPHE use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
poem: on being un-brave its never the first time once a cheater, always a cheater … never be the only time … above a photograph taken at the old Victory Theater on Louis Botha avenue. The image is of a couple in a theater in the foreground, eyes locked in unison away from the stag, while in the background, a single lonely person looks to find her seat in the dark brought a thought to mind & inspired the haiku. I felt an analogy: a couple ‘looking away’ juxtaposed with the lonely figure ‘finding her place’, saw the cheating couple acting out their illusory lives, even as the manipulated other partner, under the weight of manipulation & gaslighting struggled to find their place, their seat in the drama, even as self-respect drained out. Its possible for the cheater to turn away from that behavior, but requires self-awareness, courage & a humility rarely found. Image & text ©ilinkcs (2026/07)
A microbiology‑based photographic work exhibited at Taipei Fine Arts Museum in late 2023, created by incubating bacteria on analog photographic film — a literal fusion of bacteriology and image-making. Gives impression of an alien landscape enclosing a deep blue lake. Work copyright artist, all rights reserved, a low res copy not suitable for commercial exploitation.
Poem titled: Regret, astray Regret is the hollow sound of an echoing empty apartment. On the kitchen island a white envelope slightly smudged blue-black ink, a name in cursive. I step outside, past the looped hose to the shaded tree we planted a lifetime ago. I sit and I read. Birds sing, flowers bloom and bees flit. Regret does not undo choices, and the same will never be the same again. ... A poem about the moment a partner who has gone astray discovers that their subterfuge was in vain, and their significant other has stepped away with finality. … backgrounded by a photo of a secluded garden. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/07)
tanka weekly #poetry challenge July 9, 2026 this week’s prompt: visitor write a tanka using prompt & include hashtag #TankaThursday #TankaPoem #micropoetry #tanka resources to develop your practice: Tanka Society of America: www.tankasocietyofamerica.org
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: MIRROR, COCO, BEBOP, SCINTILLATING, JAR, RUSE use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: BRING use the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
tanka weekly #poetry challenge July 2, 2026 this week’s prompt: market write a tanka using prompt & include hashtag #TankaThursday #TankaPoem #micropoetry #tanka resources to develop your practice: Tanka Society of America: www.tankasocietyofamerica.org
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: SECRET, LOOK, TOGETHER, DECENT, MISFIT, SWEETHEART use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome
Poem: Dawning to Sunsetting those who look up rarely carry the circling dread dawning to sunsetting ~ of where to place their feet or lay down their weary heads … paired with a photograph of a sleeping homeless person in Johannesburg’s inner city area; photograph 23 August 2018. below is the text Homelessness is a social condition, not a crime … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
mining some ink? spill it #prompts June 26, 2026 Weekend #Prompt - DANCE (any form of the word) sixword~tenword~tanka~haiku ** please! No AI ** **no AI words photos or art** post with the hashtag: #inkMine
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: FUNNY, LUCENT, CRYSTAL, SHINY, GLOOMY, SHADOW use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Poem: The past holds the future hostage a ransom paid in the present is mortgaged to the past When one foot's in the future and the other's in the past ~ the present has no agency and life becomes liminal … Live in the moment, not with one foot in the past and the other on an ever receding future. … The artwork is by Hannalie Taute ©, & is titled “Fees van die Aangenaaides,” (2024) I chose it not the artist's intent but because it captured a most interesting transition point in a couple’s life ~ the wedding day. Awakening that morning is a present already consigned to the past. The ceremony progresses to a new present, one to be constructed in partnership, lived day by day. It heralds a visualised future into which all the couples’ hopes and dreams have been projected. In bringing together two disparate families, a series of secondary projections have been made by those people, all of whom are going to influence the proto-family that will emerge from the union. There will be no alignment here, at best an alignment of the couples’ vision & the setting firm boundaries to allow its evolution over time. It will be up to them to manage. The image is a sepia photo of three couples on their wedding day, faces overlaid by an embroidered mask, their smiles stretched too wide, their eyes fixed in ecstatic unease. The immediate past is lingering there. Future unseen. The faces pasted on represent, at this moment an amalgamation of past and present, hopes and fears, showing the uncertainty (mask) hiding the faces being shown at the present. The delta between the face we show to the world, and the one sitting behind our eyes, is where you find yourself. Aligning those two faces is the most important thing you will do in the hard work of living an authentic life. … For the Artist, The work exposes the tension beneath social ritual: the way belonging demands performance, how joy must sometimes be rehearsed. Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: BREAKDOWN use the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Poem: babbling on a breakdown ensues not because no one speaks up ~ none are listening deeply The image is “The Reception of a New Member in the Society of Antiquaries”, a famous 1782 pen, ink, and watercolour piece by British caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson. The artwork humorously depicts a newly elected Fellow being inducted by the society's President at their historic Somerset House location in London. As the induction proceeds, whirlpools of conversation continue as attention is anywhere except where the induction takes place. The artwork is ©The Antiquarian Society, a low res copy not suitable for commercial exploitation. https://www.sal.org.uk/collections/explore-our-collections/collections-highlights/the-reception-of-a-new-member-in-the-society-of-antiquaries/ Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
Ordinary words, used daily, define the nature of our relationships. They teach those around us -what kind of person we are, -how they should view us, -treat us. Ordinary words have the power to build people or diminish them. They telegraph status, social hierarchy, & power dynamics Not merely the words used: also those not used, the spaces between them, & what all this represents. When the ordinary words given to others are denied you, what does that say to everyone about you? When words of thanks are delayed and voiced separately away from where their expression is appropriate; they appear not to be merited - what does that say of the value attached? We, who are leaders have a duty to set boundaries and enforce them. We, who are the substance have a duty of care over our peers to call out perps and assume leadership when leadership is absent. And in the home, to keep in mind verbal disrespect is insidious & abusive.
Poem: Unironical Ocean don't anthropomorphize the restless ocean weeps and sighs not unironically there is nor sense nor presence in the ocean’s rhythmic swell paired with a photo of the Atlantic rolling into the beach on an overcast day. … Anthropomorphism is fine for emotive fund raising, memes and for understanding needs. Yet the real world is hard, dangerous, and cruel. The Stoic knows that their philosophy is more than a patina, it is the credo that helps them rise above their biology, the biology of nature. It is all that stands between them and their animal Nature. A stoic does not compromise their belief, they embrace it as the center of their moral and ethical life, and it is the underpinning of a civilized life. … For contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
Poem: text too long to reproduce with a crop from an Artwork by Winslow Homer, “Two girls in a boat” transparency reduced by 92%. The sense of 2 people on a tranquil stretch of water, drifting away into their own thoughts makes the image apposite, independent of gender ~ the sense is what is important here. You can find the original in Wiki Commons © here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing,_Two_Girls_in_a_Rowboat,_1876%E2%80%9380_(CH_18174513).jpg It’s a lovely image, well worth visiting. If you are near the Smithonian, the original is in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum section. Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
This artwork, "Napoleon Bonaparte" by Benjamin Robert Haydon, was part of a series of 23 beginning with Napoleon Musing After Sunset (1829, for Thomas Kearsey) and including this one, Napoleon Musing at St Helena for Sir Robert Peel. It is a companion to his portrait(s) of Wellington overlooking the field at Waterloo. this crop portrays Napoleon at sunset gazing out over the Ocean from a rocky promontory. The Ocean is already dark and the light fades away. original image ©https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleon_Bonaparte_by_Benjamin_Robert_Haydon.jpg Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
Poem: Pandora’s regret Pandora, her restless fingers ignoring instructions ~ opened the jar. Evil sprayed out until at the last a whimsical reason to live crept out from under the rim … Pandora was the first woman, as imagined by the ancient Greeks, akin to the Eve of the Bible. Both are also harbingers of authors of Original Sin, in Pandora’s case her curiosity releasing the evils of the world upon the human race. The last imp in the jar, was of course Hope. We have yet to decide if that is a good thing (reasons to be hopeful) or bad (misplaced hope). Odilon Redon's 1914 version of a naked Pandora surrounded by flowers, is of a primaeval Eve in the Garden of Eden. Such innocence, "naked and without alarm" in the words of an earlier French poet, portrays Pandora more as victim of a conflict outside her comprehension than as willful woman. The artwork is oil on canvas, 143.5 cm (56.4 in); width: 62.2 cm (24.4 in) and you will find it at the Met MOMA in NYC. ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora#/media/File:Pandora_MET_DT2160.jpg Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/04)
Poem: against the storm when chaos overwhelms be the rock opposing it firm against the storm The image is a clip from Andreas Achenbach artwork "Storm at Sea off the Norwegian Coast" (1837). The deliberate lighting emphasizes the surge against the withstanding rocks, heightening a feeling of the storm's agitation; the impact of a depicted force of nature. He repeatedly painted detailed seascapes of this kind: they are skillfully staged. It was not until two years after the painting’s creation that Achenbach actually traveled to Norway. There is a message here for the Stoic. You can understand the nature of a thing if you pay attention to the forces that bring them about. In this case, not just the painting, but what it took to create it. The painting is oil on canvas, and you can find it in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt at the "Städelsches Kunstinstitut" Collection in the Modern Art (1800–1945) Department. Licensing for use is by way of Wiki Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Storm_at_Sea_off_the_Norwegian_Coast_%28SM_875%29.png Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/06)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: HAPPEN use any form of the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
A snip from "Quiet Hours“ by filmmaker Paul Szynol. Before Donald Hall died in June 2018 the 89-year-old American poet laureate let Szynol into his home in New Hampshire. "Quiet Hours" is a conversation with Hall on death, loss, and memory in one's senescence. The image shows a portion of Donald Hall's profile to the right looking intently towards an unseen light source. Opposite is a quote "Old Age is a ceremony of Losses" Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of a snip from the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner by way of https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/571141/donald-hall/ … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Poem: booked the afternoon a quiet afternoon a languorous rapture wrapt in a storyline … The image is an Artwork by Winslow Homer “Sunlight & Shadow” (1872) [Public Domain] It depicts a young upper-class woman dressed in a pastel green gown, reading peacefully in a woven hammock in a dappled, sunlit garden. [https://publicdomainimagelibrary.com/products/homer-winslow-1836-1910-sunlight-shadow-1872] Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/04)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: LANGUOROUS, SIN, FOLLY, LAZY, EGREGIOUS, MELODY use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMin
Poem: the twilight of life the distance between Summer & Winter, evening and night the twilight of Autumn - its lived in the architecture the framework of a life The image is of the heads of Clifton, Cape Town in evening’s twilight above the beach. Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: MANGO, BEDLAM, MISHMASH, MOTLEY, GOBBLEDYGOOK, FIASCO use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: Remembering Anna he looked at me, coldly the stranger had sat, unannounced he wanted all of her ~ somehow he'd seen her soul silently carved out the rest … The image is of Anna Akhmatova & her lover Modigliani, seated at a small round table in his studio, painted by him. The accompanying poem “The Guest” is not about him, but it is autobiographical; and it inspired the tanka. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: Bee me, fealty tiny defender impaled on a swollen joint a bee's tale fealty of a Queen's drone protector of hive & home … Fealty, unlike loyalty has a time-cap on it. It is sworn as an act of duty to the ruling monarch of the day, and so its focus is on the protection of the Realm. Many rulers have mistaken fealty for loyalty, to their cost. … Image is of bees readying to protect a hive against an intruder. It has a Star Wars quality to it! ©Owner, Perfect Bee Academy [https://www.perfectbee.com/academy] Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: be me, Gaia’s soul there is a soul in the body of our world and it is us collectively and apart responsibly accountable … The two images are - on the left, a photo of Earth taken from Apollo 17 - next to a painting by Michael Maier taken from his Atalanta Fugiens. It is Emblem 2, titled “Mother Earth”. The image is o a woman with the globe of the Earth around her body, nourishing an infant held in her left arm at her breast. With her right hand she gestures to the ground below, where a goat on the left suckles a child and a wolf on the right suckles two children. This symbolizes the earth as the maternal provider. In Maier’s worldview, "Mother Earth" is not just dirt or mud; it represents the ultimate "first matter" and the fertile, receptive nature necessary for spiritual and physical transmutation. He is referring to Alchemical processes, but we can read it as a dawning understanding of the concept of Gaia. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owners [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Maier_-_Atalanta_Fugiens_-_Mother_Earth.jpg] Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: Two sides of the same coin no-one’s lonely with gold coins in the pocket Grandpa winked & said if its there belongs to me our Grandma's tart retort … Image is of 4 gold coins floating in a pastel yellow bubble. … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Poem: Saturday’s shopping crawl Saturday morning bookshop, charity shop coffee, company, cake The image is in Melville, Johannesburg, corner 4th Ave & 7th Str. The De La Crème has been there for as long as I remember, and I have a long memory. Running up the avenue are little shops to be browsed and enjoyed. Little shops with big hearts. Interspersed are little eateries, delis coffee shops which come and go. The Del La Crème is a Bakery & Restaurant. That, post shopping crawl, is where I end up with coffee & cake and a guilty feeling that the next physical is going to be interesting. Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: shade I remember their colors how they changed through the seasons the shifting shades of evening rainbows their evanescent pastel hues … Image is from a photo snapped in June 2019 as day drifts to evening, Nikon D3100 1/50sec, f/16, ISO 100, focal length 55mm. … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: PERTURB use any form of the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: The Milk Way sun trapped on the flat Milky Way patterns windowpanes no moon no city lights am I awake or dreaming? my sentient center weeping? … The backdrop image is a crop of the milky way on a moonless night sky over Black Rock Desert, Nevada taken on 7/22/2007. It is a 54 second exposure taken with a tripod mounted Canon EOS 5D digital camera with a 16 mm lens, wide open at f2.8 and ISO 800. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#/media/File:Milky_Way_Night_Sky_Black_Rock_Desert_Nevada.jpg … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
A Dedication to My Wife (1957) To whom I owe the leaping delight That quickens my senses in our wakingtime And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime, the breathing in unison. Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other Who think the same thoughts without need of speech, And babble the same speech without need of meaning… No peevish winter wind shall chill No sullen tropic sun shall wither The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only But this dedication is for others to read: These are private words addressed to you in public. ... with the last two lines bordered in red
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: bedtime crickets chirrup the sun slips into her bed the moon silvers down the homeless wait till late for gardens with latch-less gates … The backdrop image is from a photo, the silver/grey on a cloudy night of moonlight filtering through and down to the ground, taken from an aircraft window/ … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: daydreaming birds on the grapevine on a lazy hazy day under a tuscan sun there's a Peregrine circling not a day for daydreaming … Image is from Wiki Commons, “Diving on a flock of common starling in Rome” ©Andrea Poggi, some rights reserved (CC BY) - https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/243839915 … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: A cup of tea Look at the sunshine! He peeks into her broken heart My God! How you look! we're searching everywhere for you ~ come, sit, here's a cup of tea above a photo of a ceramic tea set on a wooden painted tray. The setting is Ardmore Farm in the KZN Highlands.
What’s on my mind today are Suppers with friends with opinions with Status at stake and pride (of course). ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive‘ ~ Sit Walter Scott, in his poem “Marmion” Marmion weaves a love triangle with a re-telling of the Battle Of Floden field, which sounds Romantic (and reads that way) until you realize that men & their horses died terrible deaths that fateful day in Northumberland. The poem describes a familiar pattern, how lies and deceitful behaviours stack up on one another, and pride and envy and all those other abstractions of our lives mask the truth until misplaced loyalty undoes us completely. It happens in our relationships, in our working life and, especially, in politics. In the poem, the fireflies wish to escape, The Moths long to get in. That’s Society, for you, in a nutshell. … The backdrop image is a Blued abstraction of thunderclouds forming, with the sun’s clean light still touching the tips of the closing clouds. Below the text is a clip from a photo of fireflies in a bottle, and of a garden (or forest, if you are feeling romantic!) seen through the glass in the darkening evening. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05) …
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: Take time a nest torn asunder a terrible thing has happened as we know may do ~ do not confuse loud with strong do not confuse fast with smart … The backdrop is marbled gray. Below the poem is the text “Real strength is almost always quiet Loud people make a lot of noise Quiet people think, and wait, and move and then move only once “ … Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: Ancient fears the mind is roaming into caves of ancient fears and silent thunder ~ from the cold of the night only sunlight brings respite … The image is a portion of an artwork by Oteng Kearatsiwi “Also long gone now” (Oil on Belgian linen). Kearatsiwi’s work aligns with a growing cohort of Southern African painters who merge figurative portraiture with geometric abstraction. The grayscale face intersected by color‑blocked planes (notably the orange triangle) suggests an exploration of fractured identity, memory and disappearance, & the tension between realism and constructed form. These were what resonated me when I looked at the artwork, and sent me along the thoughts expressed in the poem, in particular the loss of cultural identity and the communal memory of their elders which occurs when people move from the land to the city. It is a real loss, only realized when it is almost too late to tap into the well left behind. The themes relate strongly with the Oasis framing of RMB Latitudes 2026, which foregrounds resilience, renewal, and creative survival in unlikely places. … What’s was on my mind Sunday, looking at the painting, was cultural identity and the unknown loss of it when we shift from the land to the city. Does it come back to us in our dreams? What are the dreams that arise when the ancient past returns from the collective subconsciousness? When the ancient past returns with shade of forgotten ancestors, how are they received in minds unprepared for that clash of identity? It stayed with me for some time after.
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekly Prompt: AMUSE UNREAL CAVORT SHODDY JANKY SOUNDWAVE use the prompt words, or their evocation in an original write please credit art & photos combo prompts welcome post with the hashtag #inkMine
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: moonlit spark fire and flame unveils the spark of lovers' desire moonlight in the glade blues and blacks and greys caress the human stage … The artwork is by Nildo (a Lusophone modernist printmaker active 1970s–1990s) titled "Amantes" in 1985 it is a Limited‑edition print, 143/200, signed and is inscribed in Portuguese Collection: Formerly Albie Sachs Collection (South Africa) Sachs consistently collected works that foregrounded tenderness, solidarity, and the dignity of ordinary people. Amantes — two intertwined figures rendered in cool blues and greens — embodies the ethics of care that shaped Sachs’s legal and artistic worldview. The handwritten Portuguese inscription with dedication suggests the print was originally gifted to Sachs directly before entering his collection. about the Lusophone Symbolism of the work ~ The crescent moon and owl‑like figure behind the lovers are common motifs in Brazilian and Portuguese folk‑modernist printmaking, symbolizing: nocturnal intimacy, protection, & the presence of ancestral or spiritual watchers. Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
National Tanka Month: 25 May 2026 tanka poem: Dissonance shells broken and scattered litter the turtle's yellowed nest children swirl their spades their mother holds her heavy belly and dreams of her unborn child
text: What’s on my mind today is singing the disciplined singing of a choir. For 6 years I sang in the School Choir. We were a Boarding school, Services daily & twice on Sundays. The choir was alive (music does that to you) the congregation shuffled & the pastor did his best. Choir singing has two interesting components: first off singing in unison, which is a thing about the ears as much as the voice. Here one has an awareness of the others singing around you, and you monitor it because you want to be sure you’re in sync with everyone else, and you’re not even aware of it unless you lose the rhythm. The conductor will hear it, of course he will!, but you will know it before his eyes flash and you feel the shame of it. Every fibre of your body will be trained to that singing, not by the conductor but by yourself, because the pride of it becomes so important to your identity. And then of course, there are the harmonizations, where different sections of the choir sing around the main theme, and yours goes to a new level of complexity. Your listening to the other members of your section to keep in sync there. You are also listening to the other sections, because now there is a syncopation: as their voices come in and leave the soundscape, and you are syncing with them too. It’s exhilarating. Its lessons stay with you for all of your life. The sense of being in a common enterprise. Of sublimating your identity into a common cause, of achieving a vision and giving it, to yourself, to the choir, and finally to the audience of the moment. In that order. It may seem strange that the audience was the least important: yet the professional pride and common commitment was, is the most important element. I learned another lesson, later in life. I learned to place the last first, because value chains demand it. I finally realized that we treat end users as an audience. That’s the most important lesson of all. text ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: Awake My Soul! Awake my Soul! choir rings out in harmony congregation shuffles the pastor thinks of supper the gods debate eternity … The photo is a snip from the cover of a vinyl LP, “Lighten our Darkness” sung by the 60 voice choir of St Andrews School in 1964, a live recording in the School Chapel. The snip is part of the Treble & Alto sections, reaching behind, unseen are the rest of the choir. Behind the conductor, if you were in the choir not watching him, you would see the School’s congregation and the pastor. One of the boys is a much younger me, already an Alto on my way to the Tenors, 18 or so months later. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
tanka poem: words matter listen closely now without judgment, hear what is said words always matter ~ do not lose clarity, decode the vocabulary of distance
Tanka poem for National Tanka month, 2025: anthropological lies once was a river here green sward, moss & willow shade ~ red clay baking, empty sky the climate changed the water dried anthropological lies … below which is a portion of an installation by Chrisél Attewell’s in her solo exhibition HEAT WAVES, held at Berman Contemporary (Berman Gallery), Johannesburg in 2024. Attewell’s practice is grounded in South African landscapes, using soil, stones, glass, sand, salt, water, and fire as primary materials. Her work positions people not as observers of nature but as earthly beings embedded within ecological systems. The exhibition focussed on: - Environmental stress — drought, heat, flooding, and climate volatility, and - Embodied experience — the psychological and emotional “heat” of living in a changing world Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
Tanka poem for National Tanka Month: Guilty Tears we spoke with our hearts as Winter bowed out to Spring renewing our vows Summer has passed, Autumn nears watching me, my guilty tears … The photo is a snip from a late Autumn Sunday in 2016, at the Zoo Lake in Johannesburg. A jigsaw puzzle day, the picture complete, waiting only for the fragmenting blades. … Artwork for contemplation only; a low-res copy of the original, unsuitable for commercial use, ©owner Words & image ©ilinkcs (2026/05)
over an image of spilling ink, this design states: Weekend Prompt: VALUE use any form of the prompt word in a sixword, tenword, tanka or haiku please credit art & photos