Friday Writings #114: Keeping secrets

 

Hello again, dear Wordsmiths.

How many of you are keeping secrets? I guess we all have some, whether large or small.

Having published my memoir, which reveals one of mine, known to almost no-one even among my closest friends – it's disconcerting that not very many people, so far, have bought the book.

How ironic! What an anti-climax! My deepest secret, kept private for decades … and no-one wants to know. Couldn’t get it on the 7 o’clock news if I tried, not even if I paid them. Clearly, I need to learn the secrets of marketing in the digital age.

It made me wonder – what have other people experienced after divulging their secrets? Shock, fascination, horror, sympathy … indifference?

And what happens if we tell someone else’s secret? When is that gossip? Does it constitute betrayal? Is it sometimes a good, or even a necessity?

So your prompt this week is ‘telling secrets.’ If you don’t want to disclose an actual secret, perhaps you could address the topic in a more general way.

Or you might consider different kinds of personal secrets: ‘The secret recipe handed down from my grandmother.’ ‘The secret to growing healthy roses.’ ‘The secret of my success.’

Then, too, we've just had Valentine's Day. Nowadays Valentines are often signed, but traditionally it was the time for expressing a secret love. Part of the fun was trying to guess whom a Valentine was from. So you might like to write about a secret love, or create a poem which is in itself a Valentine.

And, need I add – your poems and stories can be fictional!

Guidelines:

You’re free to write to the prompt or to ignore it and give us something else.
We accept poetry or prose, new or old.

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

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

 Next week, the wise and wonderful Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose inspired by the following quote: “Through discipline comes freedom.”