#TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE ‘The Warrior’ #Cantabria #HotelChiqui

This Tanka is for Colleen Chesebro’s challenge. This week’s challenge is to include #Synonymsonly of Honour and Grow.

The Warrior

On raised rock he stands,

Watching over land and sea,

Tubal’s descendent,

Testament to times long past,

Weathered stone proclaims glory.

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You can find this stone statue of a pre-Roman, Iberian warrior, at the end of the Sardinero Beach in Santander, Spain, standing by the Hotel Chiqui, where I recently stayed with my mother, who was born in Cantabria.

The monument is right behind my head in this picture!

   

A tiny little bit of history: According to legend, Tubal, who appears in Genesis, travelled west towards what is Spain today and settled there, giving it its present geographic and historic name, Iberia.

The Iberians were said to have merged with the Celts, who were the previous inhabitants of the region, leading to Celtiberian tribes, who fought fiercely against the Roman invasions during the first century BC. 

This monument might be based on a first century warrior called Corocotta.

According to Roman accounts, a large reward was offered for his capture, and Corocotta himself came forward to claim it! Augustus was so impressed that he reportedly gave him the money and allowed him to leave s a free man. 

The plaque at the foot of the monument, attributed to Horace, reads something like ‘The people of Cantabria cannot be chained’. 

Cantabria is a beautiful region to visit and there are frequent ferries to and from Portsmouth, UK. It also has an International airport.  

What can I say? It’s one of my favourite places, but don’t take my word for it, check it out yourselves!

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Would you like to take part? The rules are simple.

Use synonyms of Colleen’s two-word prompt, this week, joy and fury, write blog post using one of the following poetic forms: haiku, tanka, Haibun, cinquaine or senryu. 

Add a picture if you like. Pingback to Colleen’s blog post.