Friday Writings #28: Heartening and Unselfish

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers. How are you and muse doing these days? Well, I hope; or, at least, as well as anyone can be considering the state of the world. Speaking of the state of the world, last week, Rosemary asked us “How are you coping with this time of war, plague, natural disasters, and the deep disturbance many people are cast into by all the stress? How are those around you managing? Horror and anxiety are natural reactions. We need, more than ever, to be kind to ourselves and each other.” The whole thing stayed with me, especially the last bit… which inspired the topic for today’s optional prompt.

I agree with Rosemary, “We need, more than ever, to be kind to ourselves and each other.” With that thought in mind, I invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by something heartening and unselfish a stranger did for you or for someone else. The news is full of nightmarish events. Let’s try to balance things out. Write about something encouraging, a nice gesture, something that made you feel good about a fellow being human, even if for just a moment.

If the prompt doesn’t speak to you, share a piece of your choosing. Let it be new or old, short or longish (prose pieces should be 369 words or fewer). Share the direct link to your post. One link per participant. After you add your words, remember to visit other writers, read their words, let them know how they made you feel.

housekeeping: some of our members have been experiencing problems with Blogger, which keeps them from adding their names/emails to their comments. If this is happening to you—if Blogger is forcing you to comment as “Anonymous”—please introduce yourself at the beginning of your comment (i.e., This is Magaly) or add it the end.

for next week, Rommy will ask us to write poetry or prose about the small rituals or daily routines that make up our lives.

photo by Matt Collamer, on Unsplash
(No, this isn’t déjà vu. I just thought that the picture was too perfect not to share again). 

Friday Writings #27: Watching and Witnessing

Hello, dear wordsmiths. How are you just now?

How are you coping with this time of war, plague, natural disasters, and the deep disturbance many people are cast into by all the stress? How are those around you managing? Horror and anxiety are natural reactions. We need, more than ever, to be kind to ourselves and each other.

 

 

I see that we at P&SU are encouraging each other, in our writings and comments, to keep our spirits up despite the terrible things we confront daily. That is certainly preferable to sinking into despair – which only makes everything worse, and is seldom useful.

However, I’ve recently been reminded of the need for at least some members of the human race to keep watch – to bear witness to what is happening, and to the ways in which these events affect people. And I realised that poets and storytellers are among those who bear witness. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of our functions.

Keeping watch also means watching over. Our writing is a way we can do that, too: documenting human experience, to both acknowledge it and learn from it, can be one way of caring for each other, both individually and as a race.

We can do it by commentary on specific times and events. Or we can even do it in writing personal stuff about our own experiences and reactions – because each of us is a part of humanity, and expresses what it is to be human. 

We speak as ourselves, each particular individual, and also as plural voices making up a huge collective.

And what do we need to record to make this a human witnessing? Not only the events and experiences, not only our thoughts about them – but above all, I think, our feelings. They can be the hardest things to describe. Sometimes all we seem capable of is a wordless cry. Nevertheless, we can and shall find the words – it’s what we do.

Do we think there will be people – or even other intelligent beings – who in the future will want and need the record of this witnessing? We can’t know. Things look dire, but so they have in past centuries and here we still are, we and the planet. Nothing’s impossible.

How can I be sure that my particular words, of all those being written, will last to reach others in that hypothetical future? I can’t. (I could well suppose it unlikely.)

I think we need to carry on as if, in case – which includes, of course, everything that might help bring about survival: survival with lessons learned, survival and development.

Anyway, regardless of our unknown future, we have the here and now. This matters too. Indeed it’s all that we, who are here now, actually have. Let’s not waste it. Let's raise our voices!

Your prompt for this week (if you would like one) is to bear witness to these times we are living in, and how it feels to be living in them. How does it affect you, and/or how do you observe it affecting others?

Or, you may share anything else you like, on any topic, prose or verse, old or new.

One entry per person, please; prose to be no more than 369 words (excluding title). 

Link, below, to your post, say hello (and more if you wish) here, and please encourage others by reading and commenting on their posts.

And, speaking of human kindness ...

Next week Magaly will invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by something heartening and unselfish a stranger did for you or for someone else.

  

Image of man holding sign by  Matt Collam on Unsplash.

Friday Writings #26: Curiouser and Curiouser

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I’ve been picking up some YA books and revisiting some of my childhood favorites as comfort reading lately. I’ve just finished up a delightful book of biographies written as a series of poems for each entry, Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math by Jeannine Atkins. The next stop will likely be Wonderland.

What do Alice and the women I read about have in common?

Curiosity, of course!

So for those of you who’d like a prompt, may I suggest “Stay curious”? You don’t have to use the phrase, but feel free to interpret it in any way you’d like. I’m accepting poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep all prose entries to 369 words or fewer and one piece per person please and thank you.

Looking ahead to next week, Rosemary will ask you what you would say in order to bear witness to these times we are living in, and how it feels to be living in them.

Friday Writings #25: Let’s Rewrite

The other day, when Rommy graciously hosted my “Upcycled Words” feature, since I was being not-so-gently smacked around by a ruthless cold, I spent some time searching for previously discarded prose or poetry or thoughts, to reuse in a piece of higher quality than the original. The task took me all the way back to the first poem I ever wrote, which was undeniably terrible. I remember the incident and feelings that inspired the piece; and after several re-readings, I could see how my once poetry-hating muse tried (unsuccessfully) to share said situation and feelings in a poetic way. But the result was… dreadful.

I spent most of the day in bed, feverish and headachy, thinking about that appalling piece of writing… and what it might look/feel like if I rewrote it. That last bit is what inspired today’s optional prompt. If you wish to accept it—and I hope you do, my dearest poets and storytellers—I would like you to take a poem or story you wrote many years ago (preferably, one that wasn’t exactly awesome), and rewrite it. Please post both the original and the edited versions.

If your muse isn’t in a rewriting mood, do link a piece of your choosing. Let it be new or old, fiction or nonfiction, short or longish (prose pieces should be 369 words or fewer). Add the direct link to your post; one link per participant. After you share your words, visit other writers and see what their muses have chosen to delight us with. 

next week, Rommy will invite us to share poetry or prose inspired by the phrase, “stay curious”.

photo by hannah grace, on Unsplash