Friday Writings #194: 14 Words For Love

 

 

 

 Hello, dear Word Weavers. How are you all? I hope you are loving your life!

Back in January 2016 a woman called Jodi Barnes started a facebook group inviting people to write of love in fourteen words. She chose that number because Valentine's Day is the 14th of February. 

 I was lucky enough to be on her friends list, so I received the initial invitation. For a light-worker / healer / witch like me, the idea of adding to the love energy in the world was irresistible! 

New and potential members are advised:

[The group] creates opportunities to express kindness, empathy, gratitude, compassion, hope, peace and forgiveness to one another through the written word.

The rules? Post a 14-word poem, aphorism or micro story to share with others. We believe that love for humanity can exceed politics, religion, income, race and gender identity differences. Simply, let the love begin!

I don't remember what the group was first called, but in January 2017 Jodi changed the name to 14 Words For Love. 

 

 

It's a private group, meaning people can find it and ask to join, but until you're accepted as a member you can't see what anyone has written and shared. 

 

I don't post there all the time – nor even a lot – but it's a nice thing to go back to every so often and, as well as sharing one's own thoughts, see what others have contributed.  

If you're on facebook, and the idea appeals to you, you might like to search it and join. Meanwhile, I offer the opportunity to do the same thing right here and now.

For your optional prompt this week, please give me 14 loving words, or words about love – any kind of love, for anyone or anything.  (14 words excluding title and notes, that is.) If that doesn't give you enough scope for everything you'd like to say (and because this is not the actual facebook group, so we don't have to be bound by all its rules) you may create several stanzas of 14 words each.

Guidelines: 
Poetry or prose, new or old, on prompt or off. If you're going off prompt, you may as usual use 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes). One post per person. Link your post (not your whole blog) to Mister Linky below. Please link back to here on your post; and also visit and read other participants, and let them know you did so by leaving a comment. You can also talk to the team and each other in the comments here.

Next week, we will invite you to revisit one of our old prompts. Maybe one you missed, but wish you hadn’t. If you can’t choose, here are 3 favorites of mine:

1. Friday Writings #30: Beloved Books

2. Friday Writings #101: I Couldn’t Have Done It Without You

3. Friday Writings #147: What soothes you?

Please include your chosen prompt in your post. 

Friday Writings #193: Tell Me Something Good

 

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! The last few weeks have been a series of ups and downs. I don't want to go into the details (some stories are not mine to tell), but I will say that right now things have settled down to be, if not positive, at least somewhat hopeful. 

So for this week's optional prompt, I am requesting that you tell me something good. Poetry and prose are welcome, as are fiction and non-fiction. Just please keep your submissions to 369 words or fewer and one piece per person.

Next week's optional prompt, will ask you to share 14 loving words, or words about love – any kind of love, for anyone or anything.  If that doesn't give you enough scope for everything you'd like to say, you may create several stanzas of 14 words each.

Friday Writings #192: Delulu

“I stalk certain words... I catch them in mid-flight, as they buzz past, I trap them, clean them, peel them, I set myself in front of the dish, they have a crystalline texture to me, vibrant, ivory, vegetable, oily, like fruit, like algae, like agates, like olives... I stir them, I shake them, I drink them, I gulp them down, I mash them, I garnish them... I leave them in my poem like stalactites, like slivers of polished wood, like coals, like pickings from a shipwreck, gifts from the waves... Everything exists in the word.” ~ Pablo Neruda

This is one of my favorite quotes. I love what it says about language, about the relationship(s) between words and feelings and imagination and us… The first word I fell in love with was “defenestration”—so vivid, so specific, so different from “skibidi”, which according to a super delulu friend of mine is the coolest word in the world. But you know what they say, there’s no accounting for taste. Just kidding. Maybe… *cough*

Anyway, whether you like skibidi or not, language evolution is an interesting topic to stir or shake or gulp or even garnish our writings with. So, with that in mind, my dear poets and storytellers, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose which explores (or includes) the following words: delulu, lewk, broligarchy.

As always, 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. You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose. You may write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other lovers of words. Read their contributions. Fill their comments with your favorite words on their words.

next week, we will invite you to “tell us something good”. We know the world is full of a lot of bad, at the moment. So, any good (even if tiny) would be great to read about. 

Friday Writings #191: Small But Beautiful

  

Hello again, dear Weavers of Words.

Recently our local art gallery had an exhibition of spiders (who are also weavers) – a particular kind of spider called Maratus or Peacock Spiders, which are very tiny, about the size of a grain of rice. They were photographed by Maria Fernanda Cardoso using special techniques to magnify them greatly, showing their incredible beauty. They also dance! That is, the colourful males do, to attract the females. 

Google explains: 

The photographer most known for capturing images of Maratus spiders, also known as peacock spiders, is Maria Fernanda Cardoso. Her photographic series, titled "Spiders of Paradise," focuses on these tiny, vibrantly colored Australian spiders. The series is part of a larger exploration of the intersection between art, science, and nature, showcasing the unique beauty and sophisticated behaviors of these creatures. 

Cardoso's work is not just about photography; it also incorporates video and installation, further highlighting the Maratus spiders' mating rituals and overall place in the natural world. Her collaboration with Geoff Thompson, a scientific imager at the Queensland Museum, has resulted in detailed, magnified photographs of the spiders, revealing intricate details of their anatomy. 

These spiders were also featured nationally on a recent TV episode of Gardening Australia (Friday 8 August) where a young naturalist explored them. If anyone has access to our ABC iView, you can probably still catch that program for a while.

Here are a couple of my own photos of the Cardoso photos, taken at Tweed Regional Art Gallery (where it is allowed so long as one doesn’t use flash). 

 

 

 

For your optional prompt this week, I’m asking you to write about something small but beautiful. (You may choose to write of these spiders, if you like – even in these particular photos, which would make your piece ekphrastic.) Alternatively (or simultaneously) you might like to present us with a piece of writing which is itself very small and also beautiful.

Guidelines: 
Old or new writings, poetry or prose, on prompt or not – your choice.
369 words maximum (excluding title and notes).
One post per person, and link to it at Mister Linky, below.
Please look at what others submit and leave them some encouraging comments.


A suggested form –

I’ve just caught up with the fact that there is now a thing called flash poetry. Some writers use it as the new name for prose poetry in general. Others insist that it is a distinct kind of prose poetry, and must be characterised by ‘flashiness’: emotional intensity, immediacy, sharply vivid imagery, the capturing of a moment rather than a narrative. 

It need not be as short as a piece of flash fiction or such verse forms as haiku and tanka. But brevity and conciseness are features. And it is set out as prose, not in lines of verse.  Here, used with permission, is a brand-new example by my dear friend and soul-sister, Texas poet, muso and artist Connie Williams, whom I met on my poetry tour of Texas in 2006:

Here is my wish list:
A Santa Clause wish list to the magical man himself, like Daddy: I’m gonna be a gold girl now list, tell me it’s not too late list, I want my piano tuned and regulated, I want to play Debussy with my passion Clair de Lune and have the moon rippling across my living room. I’ll pull back the curtains and only the shadows will hide the beams as my fingers follow the notes already imprinted on my mind  
I want a big PC computer and printer full of life to dig my fingers in and pull out my brains hidden inside my heart, to throw it doesn’t matter to the wind and bury all the mistakes on the white papers begging on their folded knees to be filled with my stories  

And tickets, tickets to all the places I have never gone and the one I want to go back to that has everything already. It was put together on sight. Who would have guessed. My last words are borrowed, this: If I could put time in a bottle. 
I am listening hopefully.  All aboard. 

– © Connie Williams 2025

(Note: 'gold girl' is intentional. I thought it was a typo, but Connie told me: 'Good girl is trite. Gold girl is new, fresh, original.') 

 
Of course you may use any form you like (or none) for what you share with us here. But this week you might like to try writing it as a flash poem. I think that would actually fit well with our optional subject prompt.

And always, our final suggestion, whether we say so or not, is:
 Have fun!

Next Week: We shall invite you to write poetry or prose which explores (or includes) the following words: delulu, lewk, broligarchy.

Friday Writings #190: Summerween!

 

Hello, word artists and admirers! As a tea person, I've learned to adore all the seasonal changes throughout the year. I'm loving the sound of cicadas as I walk my corgi and the late summer vibes that have settled into my part of the U.S. But I'd also be lying if I didn't say that a part of me isn't dreaming of cooler weather and Halloween in the fall. So why not appreciate both at once?

Say hello to Summerween! It was first mentioned on a cartoon called Gravity Falls, but has started taking off in popularity in recent years. Summerween is all about blending summer things with spooky vibes. You could make an argument that summer camp slasher movies were doing Summerween way before Gravity Falls. But I'd argue that Japan led the pack, celebrating summer spookiness since before the Edo Era (about 400 years ago).

I was unprepared for the amount of horror beach music that exists

--and how much fun they are!

So for today's optional prompt, I am suggesting getting into the Summerween spirit, writing something with both spooky and summery themes. I'm taking fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose. Just be sure to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer, and one entry per person, please.

Next week, our optional prompt shall ask you to write on something small but beautiful.

 

Friday Writings #189: The Most Important Step

 

“The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it? It’s the next one. Always the next step…” ~ Brandon Sanderson

Some years ago, when I first read those words, in Branden Sanderson’s Oathbringer, my answer to that question was, “The first step”. But after having to start over again and again and again… I agree with the character in the book. First steps are vital—if we don’t start, nothing ever happens—but what really makes a difference is taking the next step, the one that says, This is me moving foward. 

So, my dear poets and storytellers, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose which explores the same question: What’s the most important step a person can take? 

photo by Harris Vo, on Unsplash

Add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please. 369 words maximum (excluding title). You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers, and take the next step: Let your words show them how their words make you feel. 

next week, we’ll invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by Summerween (or scary things that happen in the summer). 

Friday Writings #188: Telling Scars

 

“Scars are stories, written on the body.” 
~ Kathryn Harrison

The other day, while waiting to see one of my doctors, two boys got into an argument over which of them had the most impressive scars. They were both scarred on the face and neck (that I could see) and trying to figure out which would make the best superhero, by reason of scar placement. I had been having a rotten day—my body was in pain—but the scar/superhero debate made it all better. The boys look so animated, so happy, so willing to just be. 

Few things make me happier than seeing people making the best of the bad life has served them. And because I wish to cultivate that feeling, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to find a scar on your body (or in your mind/heart), and write poetry or prose inspired by it (how it happened, how it makes you feel, what it means to you...). If you don’t have any scars (hey, it could happen!), then find inspiration in the concept of scars. 

Please, add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant. 369 words maximum (excluding title). You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other contributors. Comment on their words. 

next week, we will invite you to write poetry or prose which explores the following question: What’s the most important step a person can take?

Friday Writings #187: Celebration

 

 

Hello again, dear Word Weavers –

As a citizen of the world, how are you holding up?

These are such difficult times to be alive! Most of all, of course, for those who are directly suffering the terrible effects of both wars and climate change – but also for all those of us who watch in horror. For writers, there’s the extra complication of whether we have a duty to comment in protest, or whether instead we need to remind our readers of all the beauty and good in the world. 

I rather believe it’s a bit of both. But in contemplating the horrors, I have most often been struck dumb. On the few occasions I’ve been able to write something – particularly on the military operations – I have wondered if it’s too inflammatory to share, if it would only exacerbate everything. 



Then I bethink myself that the teachings of Jesus (although I am far from an orthodox Christian) really are the ultimate answer: Love is the only workable way to live; if we could all embody that in our dealings with each other, what a wonderful world it would be! It may be that we'd do better to write poems and stories which add to the love and joy in the world. How good if that could have a collective effect on the overall energy! Even if it raises the spirits of a few individuals – including ourselves – isn’t that well worth doing?

I don’t really know any final, definitive answer to these questions. But I do think that writing poems which celebrate life, and all or any of its components, is a thing worth doing.

So, your optional prompt this week is to write in celebration of a person, a place, a thing, whatever ...

Extra: Optional form prompt. If you care to use this, it may be combined with the prompt I’ve just given you, or with anything you choose to write off prompt … or, of course, you need not use it at all. For those who would like to (and especially Priscilla, who requested it recently) let’s try a Sapphic ode. [Instructions at the link.] They can be tricky, using what is nowadays an unusual pattern of heavy and light stresses – but that can result in finding new ways to say things. (Perhaps this pattern is more common in Greek than English, but I'm not a Greek speaker so I don't know. Can anyone tell me?) Your ode can be any number of verses. Because I find the form challenging, my own this time is only one.

Bonus (a little gift – some extra reading you might enjoy. I did!): From musician and writer Nick Cave’s ‘Red Hand Files’ where he answers questions from his public, Issue #330 talks about the inspiration for his song lyrics. 

Guidelines: One post per person, 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes), post it on your blog, use Mister Linky below to link to the particular post (not your blog as a whole) and hopefully read, enjoy and make encouraging comments on others’ work.

Next week: We will invite you to find a scar on your body (or in your mind/heart), and write poetry or prose inspired by it (how it happened, how it makes you feel, what it means to you...). If you don’t have any scars (hey, it could happen!), then find inspiration in the concept of scars.

 

Friday Writings #186: Survive Out of Spite

 

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! One of the more awesome things in this world is a friend who gets you. Several months ago, I was in a bit of a funk. OK, it was more than a bit if I'm being honest. A good friend, who knows me pretty well, sent me a wee gift.

While this did not completely dispel my funk, it did make me laugh. And in the second that I laughed, I could see the first steps that led away from my funk a little more clearly. All I needed to do was start taking them. 

So in honor of this most excellent gift, I am offering "Survive out of spite" as the optional prompt of the week. Feel free to interpret it in a way that is most interesting to you. I am taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just please be sure to 1) keep it to 369 words or fewer and 2) one entry per person, please.

Tune in next week, when we shall ask you to write a poem of celebration, whether of a person, a thing, an event… Optional extra: do it in the form of a Sapphic ode.

Friday Writings #185: Don’t be Afraid to Start Over

 

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! There are plenty of scary things in this world. (Way, way too many.) One thing that doesn't have to be scary is starting over. Sure it can be a little frustrating, a little embarrassing even. But there's one thing that we have now that we didn't have the first time around. Experience. We're a lot smarter about the things to avoid now and with a little luck will be able to see the right way forward a lot more clearly.

This week's optional prompt is to find inspiration in the following quote: “Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.” I'm taking prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your word count to 369 or fewer and one entry per person, please.

Next week, the optional prompt will be, "Survive out of spite".

Friday Writings #184: Let's Go Formal

 

 
Hello, dear Word Weavers –

I hope you are surviving the cold or the heat, whichever you are having at the moment. (Nights here are very cold.)

Meanwhile, you may have noticed that we haven’t been offering you much in the way of poetic forms as prompts. We haven’t wanted to be unfair to the ‘Storytellers’ here, as in our group title, which seems to imply prose writers.

However I’m re-thinking that.

a) We can tell stories in verse too, and often do.
b) Most of what people share here tends to be poetry anyway.
c) The prompts are always optional. If someone wishes to regale us with a prose piece – or some free verse – when we're asking for a formal poem, that will be perfectly fine. (You may also twist or subvert any prompt. They are meant to inspire you, not restrict you.)
d) The occasional formal prompt doesn’t mean that’s the only kind we’re ever going offer.
e) Although I love free verse, I also like to play with form sometimes, and I’m betting I’m not the only one. In fact, I know I’m not. Some of you consistently work in form in response to our prompts. (Smiling at you especially, songwriter Nick.)

This week I offer you a range of well-known forms to choose from.

Your (optional) prompt this week is to write a limerick, a ballad, or a sonnet – or to write on the subject of formality without necessarily doing so in formal verse (or even any kind of verse). If you choose to write a sonnet, the particular kind is up to you (Shakespearian, Petrarchian, Clarian, Curtal, American ...) but please do let us know.

I'm expecting you'll be quite familiar with all these forms, but if you would like to refresh your memory, look here: 

Limerick. 

Ballad.  

Sonnet.  

Requirements: One post per person; 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes); on prompt or not / verse or prose / new or old; post to your blog and add the url for that particular post to the Mister Linky below; please read what others share and leave some encouraging feedback.

You are also very welcome to leave comments here for the admin team, if you wish to or need to.  E.g. let us know how you feel about being asked to write formal poems.

 

Oh dear, my treasured book of Border Ballads doesn't look very treasured, does it? 
But you must understand I have had it since 1956.

 

Bonus: After I'd finished this post (or so I thought) this link turned up in my facebook feed. It leads to two amazing sonnets, masterfully translated from Spanish by one of my fb friends. Not that I know Spanish, but the English is a treat to read – a revelation of what can be done with the sonnet form. Since we are looking at sonnets today, among other things, I couldn't resist sharing them with you. (There are several other wonderful poems there too, by other people, which have nothing at all to do with any of this, but are very much worth a read. Enjoy!) 

Next week: We will invite you to find inspiration in the following quote: “Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.”

Friday Writings #183: A Perfect Afternoon

 Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Sorry this is coming out a little late. I had a bit of a stomach ache last night which messed with my plans.

LOL, while yesterday was a little less than a good time, today's prompt is all about them--specifically perfect afternoons. What makes a perfect afternoon to me can depend on my mood (reading on the couch while snuggling with Jelly Bean, a lively conversation with my husband as we split a pitcher of iced tea, playing video games with my kids) so I imagine you all have some different takes on what one feels like to you. 

So for today's optional prompt, I'd like you to write about a perfect afternoon, either one you've had or would like to have. As always, I'll take fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose. But please remember to keep it to 369 words or fewer and one piece per person. 

Next week, we'll be asking you to to go formal: Write a limerick, a ballad or a sonnet – or to write on the subject of formality.

Friday Writings #182: Anger As (healthy) Fuel

I’m so angry. 

In the past, I would use my anger as energy to fuel my running. Running a few miles felt delicious, when I was so mad I could spit (or kick someone nasty in the teeth). But my achy body and I can’t run very fast or for very long these days, so I can’t turn my anger into speed. I’ve been looking for other options, for different way to turn my anger into something healthy. Since I want ideas from real people (I actually like), I’m here using our platform for personal research purposes. Despicable, I know. But what can I say? Anger makes me extra selfish ( and greedy for good poems and stories).   

So, my dear poets and storytellers, for today’s optional prompt, I invite to write poetry or prose which explores anger as healthy fuel. 

Please, add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant. 369 words maximum (excluding title). You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers. Comment on their words. 

next week, we’ll invite you to write about a perfect afternoon—either one you had or would like to have. 

via

Friday Writings #181: Music for the Muse

 
 

 

Hello, dear Word Weavers –

This week I’m returning to the theme of poetry being inspired by, or commenting on, another art form. During this April's NaPoWriMo we were often asked to focus not only on visual art, but music as well, in some specific way in which it had impacted our life. Or we were asked to let a piece of music influence the poem in some way, e.g. by sound or rhythm. I found that referencing the music was often enriching to the writing.

We were usually asked to relate how a specific piece had impacted our everyday life. Musing on that just now, I found myself thinking of how I thrill whenever, as I'm walking around town, I hear a busker break into some tune I know and love.

So, as your prompt this week, I invite you to think of a piece of music which affects you emotionally  whenever you happen to hear it played – whether it warms your heart or brings back different reactions – and tell us what this particular piece has meant to you in your life. 

Guidelines: Link your ONE piece on Mister Linky, below. 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes). Old or new writing, poetry or prose, on prompt or not. Enjoy each other's responses!

Next week, we'll invite you to explore anger as healthy fuel.

 

 

 © Rosemary Nissen-Wade 2018

 

(One of my friends likes reminders of angelic music in her back yard.)

 

Friday Writings #180: Stubborn About the Small Things

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers. 

I hope you and your muse are doing as well as possible. Later today, my muse and I will be having another procedure. All right, I will be having the procedure, but my muse will be there for the ride (if I’m lucky). Surgeries don’t bother me a whole lot, but the waiting… the cold rooms… the needles… all the damn forms… annoy me more than anyone might think. I’m okay with the big things—the actual surgery and the recovery time—but everything that must happen first seriously gets on my nerves. 

With that in mind, for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write about something very small (a thing, a concept, a belief…) that you are very stubborn about. 

Please, add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant. 369 words maximum (excluding title). You may share old or new pieces of poetry or prose, write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers. Comment on their words.

next week, we’ll invite you to think of a piece of music which warms your heart whenever you happen to hear it played, and tell us what this particular piece has meant to you in your life.