Friday Writings #124: Word List

Greetings, poets and storytellers. I hope your is day as lovely as you need it to be. And if you aren’t, then I wish your troubles don’t last too long. And if the difficulties linger, then may you and your muse turn the experience into something glorious.

Speaking of glorious, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose which includes 3 (or all) of the following words: consume, heartless, inflamed, peculiar, teeth.

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. Comment on their glorious words.

for next week, our awesome Rommy will be asking us to write about (or use) one of our favorite words.

Friday Writings #123: April

 

 

Dear Word Weavers (someone called me that recently and I loved it) –

It's April again! Who else remembers that song from the original 'Moulin Rouge' movie? Or we might think of April in Portugal, April in Paris, April Fools … not to mention April showers, and all those poems about Spring.

Though here DownUnder, we’re well into Autumn and our showers this year have often been heavy and prolonged.

For me and many others, including some of you, April is poetry month when we all write a poem every day, at least one, either privately or in participation with others doing likewise, and read even more poetry than usual. Every year I get to a point in April when I think I must have been crazy to do this. Yet every year I come back and do it again!

This year I decided to combine the NaPoWriMo (aka GloPoWriMo) prompts, which I’m doing for the first time, with the Poem A Day ones at Poetic Asides. It works quite well most of the time, as the NaPo prompts are very specific and the PAD ones quite broad.

Both sites specify that the prompts are optional, and that people are welcome to follow them ‘quietly at home’ without participating with the others who are doing them. I’m not participating at the Poetic Asides site this year – it was only after we were a little way into April that I made the decision to include those prompts – and unfortunately I’ve only had time to participate minimally at NaPoWriMo, but the posts there will remain accessible, so I can go back and read later and explore at leisure all the online poetic resources they alert us to as well.

So anyway, you guessed it, the optional prompt this week is April. You can allow that to inspire you in any way you like – or, if you are writing a poem a day this April, we’ll accept any one of them as fitting the prompt too – which is what I'm doing myself rather than try to write anything extra just now. 

And of course feel free to give us something entirely unrelated to April if you prefer.

Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, one piece per person, 369 words maximum (excluding title). Please link, below, to that particular post in your blog.  If possible, also read other people’s posts and  leave an encouraging comment.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose which includes 3 (or all) of the following words: consume, heartless, inflamed, peculiar, teeth.

Friday Writings #122: Comfort Reads

 

Hello, word artists and admirers! While I love discovering new books, there’s nothing like indulging in a re-read of a well-loved book. I have several I like to pick up, depending on what I’m doing, where I am or what mood I’m in. For instance, when vacationing in Maine, I may reach for We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Shining. Lately I’ve had the itch to pick up Wee Free Men again, after recommending it to Darling Eldest. It’s too soon to know if it will also be one of his favorite re-reads, but he’s enjoying the ride so far.

So for this week’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose about a book you’ve read more than once. I’m taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your entries to 369 words or fewer, and one entry per person please.

Next week, Rosemary will ask you to write about April.

Friday Writings #121: Youth Is Nature, Age Is Art

 

“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

I received a birthday card with that quote written in bold, colorful, stylish letters. After reading it, I thought, I didn’t know art had to hurt this much. Really, it seems that the older I get, the more things tear, stiffen, swell, and ache. Remember your late teens and early twenties? Me neither, but I’ve heard that my gut and bones didn’t hurt so much back then. Ah, sweet memories. Then again, I remember how much I used to stress about worthless things and people, when I was that age, so I guess it’s a tradeoff—a lot of pain for a bit of wisdom (or, at least, that’s what I will tell myself next time my neuropathy makes self-eye-gouging seem like a good idea).

For today’s optional prompt, my dear poets and storytellers, I invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by the thoughts and feelings that brew to mind when you read that “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”

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 words, and share what they brew out of your mind.

for next week, Rommy will invite us to write poetry or prose about a book we’ve read more than once.

photo by Rod Long on, Unsplash

Friday Writings #120: A Touch of Formality

 

Hello, dear Wordsmiths, and happy writing to you! I'd like to take us somewhere a little different today.

I have had the notion that, since we widened our scope to include storytellers as well as poets, we couldn't offer any form prompts, but only subjects. Easy enough to suggest poetic forms, in all their rich proliferation – but how can one ask for a particular form of prose in only 369 words? OK, very short stories would work, but that about exhausts the possibilities. Things like plays, essays and articles need longer development.

Then I bethought me that all our regular participants are both poets and prose writers; I don’t think there’s anyone who writes only prose. In fact, poetry predominates. Indeed, many of us do employ various poetic forms when following the subject prompts.

And then I also realised that there are three forms which combine poetry and prose: the prose poem, the haibun, and tanka prose.

So, for this week’s prompt, I invite you to use one of those three to write on any subject you like.

Guidelines:

As always,  the prompt is optional. You may use it or ignore it as you wish – or you might choose to write on formality, as your subject, rather than in a particular form.

Another option you're welcome to take, if it appeals to you, would be to use either or both of the images below – both quite formal, in different ways – for inspiration.

Word limit: 369 (excluding title and BRIEF notes).

Link ONE post per person on Mister Linky: the particular post, not your whole blog.

If you can, enjoy what other people share this time, and leave an encouraging comment – not forgetting to return for those who post later in  the week.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose inspired by the following quote: “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

 

Two different approaches to form in digital art:
1. Amanda  2. Bang a Gong   © Phillip Barker 2016
(Used with permission; please do not reproduce or re-use –
except on your blog, with due accreditation, if you decide
to use either both as inspiration.)