Friday Writings #137: At the Last Minute

 

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Today's optional prompt was inspired by a visit to TV Tropes. The one that caught my eye was Last Minute Reprieve. Although TV Tropes says it really isn't used much anymore in a serious way, a related trope The Cavalry definitely is alive and well (and regularly memed by the youth of today). 

So many memes with this clip show how well loved this trope is

So while your take on it does not have to be as dramatic as the Avengers (though who am I to stop you is you want to include lightning bolts, magic hammers, or bedazzled gloves that control reality), today's optional prompt is "at the last minute". I'm taking prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Just remember to keep your pieces 369 words or fewer and one post per person, please.

Next week, Rosemary will be asking for reflections on the advice, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

Friday Writings #136: “begin by doing small things”

How do you begin a new project, get involved in a new cause, or start over after life has forced you to take a break from the kind of living you’ve always done? Do you make a list? Do you leap into things and hope for the best? How do you begin to live differently… when you must?

All those questions have been dancing in my skull. And the more I think about them, the more I believe that, for me, doing a wee bit at the time is the only way to go. With that in mind, dear poets and storytellers, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by a quote that’s starting to feel like a mantra for me and my current needs: “We can begin by doing small things…” ~ Grace Lee Boggs

Required: Add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please. 369 words maximum (excluding title), for prose and for poetry.

Optional: You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, and you may write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing.

Requested (not compulsory but strongly recommended): Visit other writers. Read their contributions. Let them know how you feel about their inked feels.

for next week, our Rommy will ask us to be inspired by the phrase “at the last minute”.

Friday Writings #135: Less is More

 

 

G’day again dear Word Weavers. 

I wrote most of this post ahead of time, but now have come down with the dreaded COVID. As some of you may well know, it isn't fun! But I am doing all the things I should and have good friends to go shopping for me etc. And Magaly has kindly agreed to do the hosting for me here, this time.

In other news, I’ve been revising some of my not-quite-working poems by seeing what I can usefully take out of them. ‘Cut and clean up’ one of my friends calls this method of working on her own poems. (In my case, it might sometimes be more like slash and burn!) 

In the far past I've been known to chop up poems manually, with scissors, for deletions or rearrangements. Luckily it's much easier digitally now.

 

 (Photo mine.)

 

Recently, in some cases I’ve been applying the erasure technique to my own poems, taking rather large chunks out of them; sometimes ending up with quite fragmentary results, which nevertheless work, and work better than the original. There are indeed times when ‘less is more.’

Your optional prompt this week is to take one of your poems or stories and turn it into a new piece of writing by removing some words and/or sections. It could be a series of tweaks or a full-scale erasure; up to you, so long as ‘less is more.' (You might like to leave a link to the original too, or include it in your post.)

Guidelines:

You may write to the prompt or ignore it.
You may share poetry or prose, new or old.
One post per person, please, 369 words maximum (excluding title).
Link to that post in Mister Linky below.
 
Please, if possible, read other people’s posts too and leave them some encouraging comments. Also we welcome comments below if there’s anything you’d like to say to the group or the team.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose inspired by Grace Lee Boggs’s quote, “We can begin by doing small things…”

Friday Writings #134: It's a Dirty Job

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I am slowly but surely recuperating from my brush with COVID-19. Most of the household got sick. Only Darling Youngest remained unaffected. I am super grateful he was able to keep the house afloat and everyone well stocked with tea, water, and soup. 

So in honor of his Herculean efforts, I am using "It's a dirty job but someone has to do it" as this week's optional prompt. What thoughts come up for you when you hear that phrase. As always, I'll take poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your entries to 369 words or fewer and just one entry per person please.

Next week, Rosemary will ask us to take one of our poems or stories and turn it into a new piece of writing by removing some words and/or sections.

Friday Writings #133: Summer Words

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers. How are things in your bit of the universe? I hope they are less infectious than in my corner of the world, since we are in the middle of a COVID spike. My slightly useless immune system and I are staying at home. If we must venture out, we mask and are more paranoid than usual. This is more common in the fall, but it seems summer wants to show that it can be a viral boss too. Oh, well…

…speaking of summer, for today’s optional prompt, I invite us to find inspiration in one of the following quotes:

1. “Do what we can, summer will have its flies” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Deep summer is when laziness finds respectably. ~ Sam Keen

Required: Add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please, 369 words maximum (excluding title), for prose and for poetry.

Optional: You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, and you may write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing.

Requested (not compulsory but strongly recommended): Visit other poets and storytellers. Read their contributions. Share your thoughts with them.

for next week, Rommy will be asking us to write about the phrase “It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.” I won’t do it. You can’t make me. Well, maybe. All right, I’ll do it!

photo by Lionel Gustave, on Unsplash

Friday Writings #132: An Elegant Sufficiency

 

Hello again, dear Word Weavers. How are things in your neck of the woods? Happy Solstice to you all! (Whether it's the Winter or Summer one for you.)

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, Winter has well and truly arrived – and my little cat and I are both inclined to eat for warmth. I see that our bodies are getting somewhat rounder! I am having to remind myself to be a little more careful with both our diets. 

The problems of privilege, I know – remembering parental words about 'the starving children in Africa' who would have been glad of anything I didn't fancy eating all up.

However I also remember my Dad’s oft-stated opinion that one should always get up from the dining table feeling that one could eat just a little more. Healthier, he insisted.

That brought to mind an uncle who used to declare, when asked if he’d like a second helping, that he had had ‘an elegant sufficiency.’ Word nerd that I was, it always struck me as a lovely phrase, almost musical.

So, for this week’s optional prompt, please let your writing be inspired by the phrase ‘an elegant sufficiency.’ You may or may not use the phrase in your writing, as you please; and you need not have it be about food, though you can.

Guidelines:

You may write to the prompt or ignore it.
You may share poetry or prose, new or old.
One post per person, please, 369 words maximum (excluding title).
Link to that post in Mister Linky below.

Please, if possible, read other people’s posts too and leave them some encouraging comments. Also we welcome comments below if there’s anything you’d like to say to the group or the team.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to find inspiration in one of the following quotes:
1. “Do what we can, summer will have its flies” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~ Sam Keen

  The elegant sufficiency – or lavish feast! – I enjoyed
while out to lunch the other day.