Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I'm filling in for Magaly this week. Her choice of optional topic was to write a letter to our bodies. My body could certainly use a little encouragement, post-COVID (I swear my legs did not feel this heavy a couple of months ago). But in general, I think it's a good idea to check in with our bodies and give it what it needs (whether it's another set of leg lifts or a well-earned recovery day).
You can choose to contemplate the marvels of your body or share some writing on whatever has captured your attention this week. I shall be happy to see either poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. Just please keep your entries to 369 words or fewer and remember that it's just one post per person.
Next week, Magaly shall take over for me and my optional prompt, what makes you scream (out of fear, frustration, joy, anger, etc.).
I recently took part in a book launch for Tight Bindings, Sarah Temporal's first poetry book. She's a local poet and friend who has done much for poets here by creating both regular performance occasions under the title 'Poets Out Loud' and a mentoring program for young, emerging poets. Sarah has also won awards at national and regional poetry slams. Here is a photo of her onstage at the launch, and one of the cover of her book.
Typical of her generosity and inclusiveness, she invited five friends, whom she described as having been on her journey with her, to open the program at her launch by reading a poem each from her new book. I was one of them, and chose a beautiful love poem set in nature.
Tight Bindings includes poems about the birth of her daughter, reminiscences of her father, excursions into nature, her husband's double lung transplant (due to cystic fibrosis) and a new take on several fairy tales, notably Rapunzel. The overall theme concerns breaking free of our various kinds of 'tight bindings.'
The launch was incorporated into a Poets Out Loud event, so the second part of the evening was a slam with that theme: bound and/or free. Which put into my mind the idea of also using it here.
So, yes, your optional prompt this time is to write about being bound and/or breaking free.
You know the drill –
Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not, 369 words maximum (excluding title). Post to your blog, and link to that one post only, on Mister Linky below.
We encourage you to read and comment on other people's linked writings too, and to leave a comment below if you have anything you'd like to say to the team, the group, or anyone in the group.
Next week, our Magaly will invite us to write a letter (in poetry or prose) to our bodies.
I’m
not scared of much these days. This might be a peculiar thought coming from the
mind of someone who has lived with obsessive compulsive disorder for as long as
she can remember. But it’s still the truth. I don’t think of the things that
trigger my compulsions as “scary”. They are disgusting, inconvenient, and can
be debilitating, but not exactly frightening. As a child though, I was terrified of the dark;
or, more precisely, of finding someone I cared about hurt or dead… in the dark.
Weirdly specifically, isn’t it? I think fears are like that—personal.
And since
getting personal about fears (alive or conquered) isn’t the most fun
thing anyone (okay, I) can think of doing on my own, for this week’s
optional prompt, our dearest and totally awesome Rommy asked me to invite you to create poetry
or prose inspired by things that aren’t so scary (anymore).
Please,
add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant.
369 words maximum (excluding title), for prose and for poetry. You may
share old or new pieces of poetry or prose. You may write to the prompt or to a
topic of your choosing. Do visit other poets and storytellers. Read their
contributions. Comment on the things (people?) they no longer find so scary.
for next week, Rosemary will invite us to write on being bound and/or
breaking free.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Ms. Magaly had an unexpected situation pop up, one that required her attention. So today you shall have to make do with me.
The optional prompt she had in mind for this week involved titles. Perhaps these titles are all neatly lined up on one of her shelves at home. Maybe this is her summer reading so far. Perhaps these were the titles of books she threw at someone who was being annoying while she was walking through Central Park. (Lies. Magaly would never mistreat books that way. Also one is the title of a short story, not a book.) In any case, here are the titles she suggests for inspiration this week:
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
What is the mysterious origin of this title list? We many never know...
You know the drill: Prose or poetry is just fine, as is fiction or non-fiction. Just remember, please keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer and just one piece per person.
Next week, Magaly shall return, to cover my optional prompt, things that aren't so scary (anymore).
How are you and those around you surviving weather extremes, the increasing cost of living, the latest strains of COVID, the terrible news from war zones…?
I am glad to report that I'm recovered from my recent COVID, and I think I probably got out of it lightly. I got onto anti-virals quickly, thanks to the advice of a friend who then fetched them for me from the doctor; no doubt that helped. I did a lot of sleeping! When I was awake, I just did the bare minimum to care for myself and my little cat Poppi, and let everything else go. I must say, I enjoyed doing next to nothing. By now I am feeling good and my life is pretty much back to normal, but I am trying not to get quite so busy as I was.
Regarding war news, I have friends who confess to feeling a version of survivor guilt, questioning why people elsewhere are going through widespread horror and suffering whilst we here, whatever our personal problems, are relatively well off. They feel undeserving.
I don’t personally feel that. Appalled as I am by those terrible events, I think that being caught up in them or not is an accident of either luck or fate, however we want to think of it, but anyway beyond our agency and not a matter of deserving or undeserving.
I can’t help having been born here rather than there, any more than people in the war zones could help being born there rather than here. To think, ‘I don’t deserve to be so well off while others are suffering’ carries an implication that some people do deserve to suffer – a thought I don’t like to entertain.
True, certain individuals or groups may bear a terrible responsibility for setting such things in motion, but the majority of people caught up in them just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yet we who watch from further away can’t help but wish we could do something to fix the situation – wave a magic wand, go on protest marches in the streets, write to our government ministers.... Perhaps the irrational guilt comes as a result of feeling powerless.
I think, too, of things we were taught as children: ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right.’ ‘It takes two to quarrel but one can always end it.’ And, growing up in an officially Christian country, even a non-religious family like mine couldn’t be unaware of the advice of Jesus: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’
What kind of a world might we have if we followed that advice? If we extended it even further than people, to all living things? Oh, if only! It seems impossible, of course; against human nature. How can we love those who injure us? Tell it to the people in the war zones! How are they to love those who murder their families, destroy their homes? And yet, if we really could all love our neighbours, surely the wars would never have happened?
Then again, if the freedom to think for oneself is an ideal, then a range of different opinions on any subject must not only be tolerated but celebrated.
I guess we all have to figure it out for ourselves as best we can. I like the idea of living one’s life in a spirit of inquiry. If I were to be in an ongoing inquiry into, ‘How can I be loving in this situation?’ or, ‘What would loving my neighbour look like in practice?’ that might remove value judgments as to whether certain actions or ideas are ’good’ or ‘bad’ and hopefully all considerations of who deserves what. I can’t say I DO live like that – but as a result of these reflections it presents itself as something to aspire to.
Prompt: This week I invite you to reflect on the saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ and let those reflections inspire your writing.
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.
Part of the fun is to see what others write. Please have a look, and leave encouraging comments where you can. (Don’t forget that some people post towards the end of the week, so if you have another look later you may find new treasures.)
We also welcome any comments you care to leave here, below.
Next week, Magaly
will invite us to find inspiration in one of the following titles:
1. I
Have No Mouth & I Must Scream 2. One
Hundred Years of Solitude 3. Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies 4. Something
Wicked This Way Comes 5. The
Unbearable Lightness of Being
