Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I've just come back from vacation in Maine. Sadly, it was a little less relaxing than usual, what with the horrific heat wave hitting the east coast of the U.S. But despite the heat we had a pretty good time introducing Jelly Bean to the Maine shore.
The view from the bluff
So in honor of the beautiful cabin by the sea, for this week's optional prompt, I invite you to write about a body of water, real or fictional, that holds a special place in your heart. As always, you can opt for fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose. Just remember to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer and one piece per person please.
Next week,We’ll
invite you to find inspiration in one (or all) of the following quotes, by Margaret Atwood, May Sarton, and Rudyard Kipling, respectively:
1. “Gardening
is not a rational act.
2. “A
garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life
itself.”
3. “Gardens
are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.”
Dear Word Weavers, it feels like time for an ekphrastic!
So I went hunting for some wonderful art works out of copyright and available for reproduction. I found the Open Access Collection at the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York). From the many that appealed to me, I selected three which are hopefully varied enough to inspire different tastes in art and different ways of writing.
So this week, your optional prompt is to choose one of these images to inspire your writing.
This one because I have a bit of a thing for owls, and I like the ancient and mysterious look of it:
This one because I think something with a person in it is more likely to suggest a story:
And this one for its scenic beauty (and also because I fell very much in love with the Andes when I visited Peru):
If you would like to learn more about a painting, click on the link above it, at 'this one'.
And if you would like to browse the whole collection and perhaps choose something different to inspire you, click the link on 'Open Access Collection' in the first paragraph above.
Because they are open access, you are allowed to put your chosen image on your blog. Please do that, so your readers can fully appreciate what you write.
Don't forget, the prompt is OPTIONAL! People sometimes apologise for not following it. We want you to have fun, to give you occasion for an adventure in writing and a place to share that writing. If the prompt helps, great, but your writings on other matters are equally welcome.
Our usual guidelines apply: Post to your blog and then link to us via Mister Linky below. One post per person, 369 words maximum, poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not. Please visit other participants and cheer them on (making sure to check back for those who join in later in the week); also talk to us and/or each other in the comments here if you wish.
Next week: We will invite you to write about a body of water, real or fictional, that holds a special place in your heart.
Greetings,
dear poets and storytellers. I hope you are doing as well as you possibly can,
considering the whole world seems to be a bit of a mess. I’ve been in an introspective
and more than slightly frustrated mood for the last few weeks. You see,
I was supposed to be done with certain responsibilities the second week of
March. Now March has come and gone… June is going the same way… So, it seems
that I’ll be still on the hook until July (fingers
crossed, right?).
I feel like I’m too late for everything this year: I’ve yet to start my garden or a new writing project originally scheduled for March. Medical treatments/procedures
that were supposed to be done by the end of this month won’t even start until August
(or September). I can’t
interact on social media or my personal blog for at least another 2 weeks (maybe 3).
So, as you might suspect, I’m a tad irritated and a lot in my own head, thinking thoughts about
time and deadlines and such… which brings me, to the reason behind today’s
optional prompt: I invite you to find inspiration in the following quote,
by C. S. Lewis, “You are never too old to set another
goal or to dream a new dream.”Since I’ve
been chanting these words like a mantra, I wish to see what you and your muse inks out of them.
As usual,
add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant,
please. 369 words maximum. Let your entry be new or old. Write to the prompt or
to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers. Read the shapes of their ink…
and share your thoughts.
next week:We’ll ask you to be inspired by one of these 3 artworks:
1. Repose, 2. Heart of the Andes, and/or 3. Shield with owl figure. If these offers don’t
speak to your muse, we invite you to find something elseHERE.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! As many of you may have figured out, we sometimes trade off on hosting duties. We're pretty good at rolling with unexpected schedule shifts, picking up the ball when it's passed to us. But sometimes hand-off comes with an bit of an odd spin.
If you're a long time follower of Magaly's, you pretty much knew an optional prompt using the words "teeth, hammer, and blooms" was originally hers. They are exceedingly cool words, but it's silly to pretend they are mine.
Now if the words were Donut, Dungeon, and
Jug O' Boom, you'd know right away they'd be mine.
Just like some people have a signature look, some folks have signature words. It's neat to see them pop up like a fingerprint in her work. So yes, for this week, I'm asking you to take the equivalent of Magaly's little black dress and take it for a spin on your own catwalk.
Strut your stuff in either poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. Just remember, one piece per person and keep each piece to 369 words or fewer.
Next week, We will invite you to find inspiration in the following
quote, by C. S. Lewis, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a
new dream.”
Who loves sailing? I've done very little of it, unfortunately, and as passenger rather than crew – but even that little I found exhilarating. But you don't have to write about the experience of sailing today; you might just write about watching boats sail ... or about something which 'sails' metaphorically.
In addition, you might like to write something formal.
Although my natural tendency is to write in free verse, I also enjoy playing with form. How many of you like to do the same?
Most recently I’ve tried (not for the first time) a word acrostic, where you take a phrase or sentence, or a line of poetry – your own or someone else’s – and make each word of it (in the original order) the beginning of a new line in a new poem of your own. There are also letter acrostics, where one uses instead each letter of a word or phrase, in turn, to begin a line of poetry.
(The
acrostic, while qualifying as a form, allows you still to write in free
verse – though you could of course choose to use rhyme and metre if you
wish.)
I offer you the following words from T. S. Eliot’s poem, Ash Wednesday. In this poem he seems to feel obliged to choose between the natural world and some austere version of the Christian heaven. I very much love a section full of longing for the Earthly beauty he feels he must renounce, which includes these lines:
From the wide window towards the granite shore The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying Unbroken wings
Your optional prompt this week is to let these lines inspire you, in whatever way they will, to some writing of your own.
Extra (also optional): If you choose, take the lines quoted, or part thereof, and use either each word, or each first letter of each word, to begin a new line of your new poem. If you choose to write in prose, where line endings and beginnings are not fixed, you could begin each new paragraph acrostically.
Guidelines: We accept poetry or prose, new or old, one post per person, maximum 369 words (excluding title and notes). Post it to your blog. Link to that particular blog post via Mister Linky, below. Please read other participants’ work and leave encouraging comments when you can. You may also communicate with the team and each other in the comments section below.
Next week: We will invite you to write poetry or prose which includes the following 3 words: teeth, hammer, blooms.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I adore the simple pleasure of a nice, hot shower. My husband probably would say that hot is an understatement (he's compared my preferred temperature to that of fires of Mordor).
All I need is a rubber duck
Recently I was on a business trip. Part of the group activities included getting into a tub filled with ice water. Perhaps I would have been less willing to try it if it wasn't outside under the blazing Texas sun. I definitely didn't expect to manage it well enough to last 90 seconds and be curious enough to try it again, if the opportunity presents itself.
So for today's optional prompt, I'd like you to write about a time you surprised yourself. I'm taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer, and one piece per person, please.
Next week, we'll ask you to be inspired by the following wordsfrom T. S. Eliot’s poem, Ash Wednesday:
From the wide window towards the granite shore The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying Unbroken wings
A couple
of weeks ago, an old friend invited me to The Tulip Dig, an event that involves
a bunch of New Yorkers digging up tulip bulbs from certain areas in Park
Avenue. I declined—the stitches from my last surgeries were still fresh (and angry). Also,
playing in dirt (fertilized with
manure) is not the most intelligent of activities when one’s immune
system is not 100% reliable (um…
probably, not even 85%). Anyway, last week, a mutual friend of
the “old friend” called me to ask about my depression, since they were told
that “she (meaning moi) no longer enjoys the things she used to love doing. And everybody knows what that means.”
I’m
not depressed (thank goodness). But after
surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, and more surgeries… my flesh and bones and immune
system and I have never been quite the same. I’ve had to make a lot of changes,
be selective about my priorities, and find fun replacements for many of the things
I used to love (which my body and energy levels no longer accommodate well). I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Time,
circumstances, location… and all sorts of things force us to change how we approach
life and living. Right?
With that
thought in mind, my dear poets and storytellers, for today’s optional prompt,
I invite you to find inspiration in the idea of letting go of something that
used to be wonderful, which no longer fits in your life.
Add
the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please. 369 words maximum. 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 offerings.
next week,
We shall invite to write about a time you surprised yourself.
Different time zones can be tricky to navigate. To get the post published at the midnight between Thursday and Friday, I have to set it to go live at 2pm my time. (This time of year, that is; it varies with the different times of Daylight Savings between here – Australia – and the USA, what with opposite seasons and all.) But to do that, I have to (at this time of year) make the time 14 o'clock in the settings. This week, I forgot and pressed 2. Which means the post appeared many hours early, as our Magaly has just notified me, and for you in the Northern Hemisphere it's a day early! Never mind; if you saw it – Helen certainly did! – please consider it an extra bonus just this once. Well, we hope it's just this once.
*********
I used to drive past a particular dead tree on my way into and out of this town from my small suburb. I always thought it beautiful in its starkness and shape, its slender grace. I always looked out for it, cherishing the quick glimpse.
‘I must photograph it one day,’ I told myself often. But, on that stretch of road, it’s really hard to find a park. Years went by, of appreciating it and not recording it – until one day I had a very strong feeling that I really must do it at last.
I had to wait until I was coming back out of town; no parking at all the other side, and anyway I’d have had to cross the road in that case, in a spot with fast passing traffic and no provision for pedestrians. As it was, I had to drive some distance past the tree, pull onto a narrow nature strip, then walk back.
Next time I drove into town, the tree was gone! WHAT??? Going back home, I slowed to pass the paddock where it used to be, and saw what looked like a pile of neatly felled logs. How could someone cut it down? I asked myself. But perhaps the owner of the land had some other use for it.
Nothing happened; months went by. Finally I slowed one day to take a longer look and saw that the pile of wood was not really so neat. I realised that the tree must have been felled by one of the big storms we’d had shortly before I saw that it was gone. Mystery solved – and beauty still lost! I am SO glad I had such a strong urge to finally stop and take my photos.
This week, for your (optional) prompt, I invite you to be inspired by this dead tree, or any other dead tree you’ve seen or imagined. Or by the idea of beauty in death, or last-minute actions that turn out to be important. Or anything else my story and/or picture suggests to you. Or, you may simply ignore the prompt and write anything at all.
Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not, 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes), one post per person and link to that post below. Please link to us here at your post, please read what the rest of us submit (not forgetting to check back for those who arrive at the end of the week) and leave us some encouraging comments. You are of course welcome to make comments or ask questions here too.
Next week: We will invite you to find inspiration in the idea of letting go of something that used to be wonderful, which no longer fits in your life.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Many of you probably have one (or a few) movies that you could easily identify just by hearing a quote from it. For me, Princess Bride is one of those movies. The thing about that movie is there are so many quotable lines!
So for this week's optional prompt I'm asking you to draw some inspiration from one of these four (or any) quotes:
1. “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
2. “Mostly dead is slightly alive.”
3. “We are men of action, lies do not become us.”
4. “True love is the greatest thing in the world... except for a nice MLT—mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.”
I'll accept poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer, and one entry per person please.
Next week, we'll ask you to be inspired by a dead tree—whether it's one you've seen, seen pictured, or imagined.
How is life treating you in your bit of the universe?
I hope things are as wonderful as they are for me in some ways (my immune system isn’t trying to kill me at the moment), and
not even close to as horrible as they’ve been in other ways (I need more surgeries than prognosticated). It’s all about balance, right?
And, if we’re lucky, also about a wee bit of decorum. I haven’t been all that fortunate
in the decorum part.
My latest
bit of indignity involved puking all over a surgeon and then bursting into uncontrollable
laughter. Which, of course, brought to mind today’s optional prompt: I invite
you to write poetry or prose inspired by a moment of inappropriate laughter.
Need an example? Here are 3: Raucous laughter at a funeral, giggling during a
root canal, explosive cackles when a priest uses the phrase “friendly
intercourse with your classmates might help”.
Please
add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant.
369 words maximum (excluding title). Let your poetry or prose be old or
new, inspired by the prompt or by a topic of your choosing. Visit other contributors.
Read their writings… and comment.
next week,
we’ll invite you to be inspired by one of the following quotes (or any quote) from The Princess Bride: 1. “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says
differently is selling something.” 2. “Mostly dead is slightly alive.” 3.
“We are men of action, lies do not become us.” 4. “True love is the
greatest thing in the world... except for a nice MLT—mutton, lettuce, and tomato
sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.”
