I don’t often join the Poetry Sisters challenge, but I felt this month’s was within my reach: a tanku which is a tanka in conversation with a haiku. I recently attended a workshop, Write Bites with Georgia Heard and Ralph Fletcher. Georgia’s writing prompt was to write about a word. One suggestion she had was to have a conversation with the word. That draft led me to create a tanku around one of my two words for this year.
Believe
What do I believe?
Remove my rear view finder
Need a reminder–
blinders to understanding,
“I don’t believe you heard me.”I say to the wind;
It says, “I believe in you.
That’s true, you will see.”Margaret Simon, 2025
Reflections on the Teche 
There’s lots in your poem… we don’t always see what’s there, and perhaps need to give ourselves space/perseverance/patience to discover it.
What an intriguing partner to have this conversation with, thanks Margaret!
What a wonderful way to ponder your OLW, Margaret. I’m signed up for Write Bites, too and realized yesterday that I had marked the wrong date on my calendar. Ugh! I’ll be watching the replay today!
I’m so glad you are in the class, so we can meet somewhat face to face.
Hi Margaret,
GH & RF are a dynamic duo. I will tuck away this particular nugget from your time with them, to engage a word, in convo.
“Believe” spoke to you in an intriguing way & I believe in this poem. And, You.
I hope this reply reaches you. I posted early this morning and my brain confused you and Jone. Yikes! I’ve done that before but not so publicly. Thanks for hosting today and forgiving me my mix up.
Ooh, I like this idea – conversing with our belief is a great way to interrogating our understanding of it. Perhaps you’ll feel it’s within you to use your other nudge word for next month’s Poetry Sisters challenge!
Margaret, what a sweet conversation you had here. I love the rhyming of finder, reminder, & blinders.
I love all of the “I” sounds in this poem and that you connected it to your OLW. 🙂
Taking care to look again is wise, indeed, Margaret. And, I, too, like that you are speaking with your OLW, terrific introspection!
What a delightful poem! There’s a bit of surprise built into the lines with the repetition of the word believe. I like how it rhymes with “me and see.”
I love the idea of talking to the wind, Margaret–and how playful your poem is in sound, while still talking about serious questions.
Oh, this is a conversation we all should be having. Thank you for making it lovely — and accessible!
I believe all the stars aligned to make this one happen, Margaret. 🙂