Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

These were the instructions for this week’s Dungeon Prompt:

This week, let’s step out of our blogging boxes and shake things up. If you normally write poetry try writing prose. Or if you normally write freestyle poetry, try writing a sonnet. If you normally write in the first person, write in the third person instead. If you normally write about other people, write about yourself. If you normally write a hundred words, try writing eight hundred. If you normally write over a thousand words, try writing a haiku (without a thousand words of explanation).

I had no doubt which form of writing is out of my comfort zone; it is writing poetry.  I thought about it for a short time and then concluded that this might be the week that I didn’t participate in Dungeon Prompts.  When I shared that conclusion with my blogging friend Cheryl-Lynn at Traces of the Soul, she suggested I write a Tanka.

I had heard of Tanka before, but didn’t know anything about it.  I soon discovered it is similar to a haiku but has two extra lines.  The traditional form is 5-7-5-7-7.  Modern tanka writers don’t always follow that form however.  I decided to give it a try and this is the tanka I came up with.

First draft

first tanka poem
so out of my comfort zone
poetry not me
photos, life stories, learnings
that is my gift to offer

After finishing the poem, I asked Cheryl-Lynn for feedback.  She reminded me it doesn’t have to be 5-7-5-7-7 and made some suggestions.  After considering her feedback and adding some changes of my own, my tanka became:

Final draft

writing tanka
out of my comfort zone
first maybe last
photos, stories, my learnings
these are my gifts to offer

I love it!  Thanks for your help Cheryl-Lynn.

The photo at the top of this post is from the Netherlands.  Groei means Growth.  So the model is Comfort Zone, Growth Zone, Terror Zone.  Writing poetry is definitely within my Growth Zone.  Whether or not I choose to develop that skill is up to me!