Writers’ Pantry #53: The Bicentenary of Anne Brontë’s Birth

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers. I hope you and your muse are having a good day. If not, well… then let us make each other’s day a bit better through words.

One of the gazillion literary trivia sites I follow informed me that today is Anne Brontë’s birthday. Yep, if she had still been with us, she would’ve been turning 200 (and very likely be suspected of vampirism). When I was done reading about her accomplishments—novels, a book of poems with her sisters—I realized that I have never read anything by her. I shall remedy that soon. I just have to decide if I want to start with Agnes Grey or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Have you read them? If so, which would you recommend I read first?

In the meantime, here are some of the lady’s words:

“The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine, or than any one can who has not felt how roughly they may be pulled without breaking.” ~ from Agnes Grey

“Oh, Youth may listen patiently,
While sad Experience tells her tale,
But Doubt sits smiling in his eye,
For ardent Hope will still prevail!”
~ from “Views of Life”

And because today is also the second anniversary of Mary Oliver’s death, here are a few lines from our beloved Mary (which brighten my day whenever loss shrouds it in gloom):

“maybe death
isn’t darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us”
~ from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

Now, the Writers’ Pantry is open for word yumminess. Add your poetry or prose, new or old, short or long(is), jolly or growly; the choice is always yours. If you choose to delight us with your prose, let the word count be 369 words or fewer.

Please remember to add the direct link to your contribution, not just the link to your blog. That way we can find your post easily, especially if it takes us a few days to visit you. Take a moment to visit other participants, and let them know what their words do for you. As always, Mr. Linky will remain open for a week.

- for our next Weekly Scribblings, Rommy would like us to create new poetry or prose using one (or as many as we want) of the poetic terms she selected out of Bruce Hamana Sosei’s book, 100 Beautiful Words in The Way of Tea, which we can find in this link.

Let us write. Let us read. Let us grow and grow (with words).

Anne Brontë (at age 13) sketched by her sister, Charlotte Brontë

Weekly Scribblings #52: Something About Mary

Hello, dear wordsmiths. It was good to have our little holiday over Christmas and New Year – very refreshing – and it’s good to be back!

One of the things I did in the break was lots and lots of reading. And one of the things I read, cover to cover, was Dream Work by Mary Oliver – many people’s favourite poet, and definitely one of my favourites. I don’t think there could be a Mary Oliver poem I would dislike, just not possible! 

This is one I like especially:

Prompt:

I invite you to choose a line or phrase from this poem and use it to inspire a new piece of your own writing.

You don’t have to use those actual words in your piece, though you certainly may. 

Reminders:

As always, we welcome both poetry and short prose. Prose is limited to 369 words max, and may be either fiction or non-fiction. 

Do tell us, in a note on your blog post, which of Oliver's words inspired this piece of writing. (Even if you quote from them – to save us having to check back.)

We’d love you to link back here in your post, and to leave us a quick comment below. 

Please visit other participants to read their work and leave an encouraging comment.

This Mister Linky will stay open for one week. 

Material shared here is presented for study and review. Poems, photos, and other writings and images remain the property of the copyright owners, usually the authors. (Older material may be out of copyright).

Writers’ Pantry #52: Year’s Beginning

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Welcome to the first pantry of the new year. As much as I’d love to cleanly shake off all the dreck from 2020, I know that things don’t work that way. It’s like when you go to finally organize a drawer, closet, basement that got way out of hand. When you move stuff around, it all looks worse than when you first started. But clean-up is necessary and so are those first shaky steps. Hopefully the break gave us all a chance to catch our breath so we can go one with what needs doing.

This Wednesday, Rosemary will ask us to write something based on a line or phrase from the poem “Landscape” by Mary Oliver.

The pantry is now open for business. Share your words old and new, fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose. Just be sure to keep your prose to 369 words or fewer. I know we all get a bit busy from time to time and it's so easy to forget when there's a lot going on (*gestures at the mad state of the world*), but it really is a huge help to us when folks stick to the guidelines as much as possible (for instance, adding the link or the title of the prompt you are responding to somewhere in the post) . Thanks, and happy writing!

Weekly Scribblings #51: Looking Back and Writing Forward

Welcome back, my dearest poets and storytellers! Did you enjoy your break? Did you take a break? Since I did a considerable amount of lurking around your cyber-homes, I know many of you just kept the words brewing into being—don’t feel too bad, I couldn’t take a real break either. I spent the last days of December 2020 and the first days of January 2021 reading (Soulless by Gail Carriger, Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur, Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer…) and rewriting my own work (I took a page out of Chrissa’s book, and decided that 2021 would be a year for “finishing drafts”).

Did you read anything interesting while we were on “break”? Have you made any writing plans for 2021? Go ahead, tell us… we are listening (and reading, of course).  

Now, while the topic of looking back and writing forward is still dancing in our minds, let me invite you to revisit our 2020 Weekly Scribblings selection, and write new poetry or prose using one of our old prompts. Please add the title (and link, if you can) of your chosen prompt to your post. Don’t feel like searching? No problem. Here are some choices:

1. Weekly Scribblings #43: Found Poems and Erasures
2. Weekly Scribblings #40: Walking Away
3. Weekly Scribblings #35: The Joy of Rest 
4. Weekly Scribblings #31: What Makes You Smile?
5. Weekly Scribblings #28: Seeing Things
6. Weekly Scribblings #25: Well, That Was Unexpected
7. Weekly Scribblings #22: It Takes a Bit of Discipline
8. Weekly Scribblings #10: Early Bird or Night Owl?
9. Weekly Scribblings #9: Contagion

Again, welcome back, and I hope that 2021 is a year of healing and growing for all.

This prompt will remain open for a week. One link per participant, please. If you go for prose, the word count should be 369 words or fewer. Let us write (and read)!

photo by Toa Heftiba, on Unsplash
“Inhale the present, exhale the past and the future.” ― Leticia Rae
(and write what happens in between)