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.
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.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I know you were expecting
Magaly this week, but she needed a substitute (and I wanted an excuse to get an
extra large helping of mangĂș the next time I go to visit her), so we're switching hosting duties.
So, I’ve been part of a local writer’s group for over a year
now, and recently we got a new member, Darling Eldest. He’s taking his time
getting to know everyone and especially enjoying the free write sessions. In
the last free write session the mod that week presented us with a big challenge—write
a short story in just five sentences.
When we discussed it later, Darling Eldest told me was
pretty impressed by the pieces that were shared out loud and how well they were
done. I told him that those five sentence stories had the power of lots of
writing practice behind them. Everyone there who shared a story had spent lots
of time honing their craft in all sorts of ways. And sometimes even very rigid
exercises like the one we tried can provide just the framework we need to
challenge our skills and fire up our imagination.
So to keep with Magaly’s intention for our optional prompt
this week, I shall ask you to consider the following quote: “Through discipline
comes freedom.” I’m taking fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry. Just
remember, one entry per person and please keep it to 369 words or fewer. Next week, Magaly will be taking over my prompt which will
ask you to write about someone who made an impression on you as a child (for
good or ill).
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I’ve been picking up some
YA books and revisiting some of my childhood favorites as comfort reading
lately. I’ve just finished up a delightful book of biographies written as a series
of poems for each entry, Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math by Jeannine
Atkins. The next stop will likely be Wonderland.
What do Alice and the women I read about have in common?
Curiosity, of course!
So for those of you who’d like a prompt, may I suggest “Stay
curious”? You don’t have to use the phrase, but feel free to interpret it in
any way you’d like. I’m accepting poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction.
Just be sure to keep all prose entries to 369 words or fewer and one piece per
person please and thank you.
Looking ahead to next week, Rosemary will ask you what you would say in order to bear witness to these times we are living in, and how it feels to be living in them.
Don’t we love them! They are our most basic tools of trade. Perhaps, dear wordsmiths, the most wonderful thing about them is that there are so many different ways we can use them.
The town of Murwillumbah where I live (in New South Wales, Australia) is home to Poets Out Loud, a series of performance opportunities initiated and managed by poet Sarah Temporal (whom I’ve featured in our previous incarnation at Poets United). One of its initiatives is the Youth Slam, where Sarah and others coach school-age poets in how to present their work live, culminating in a competition.
Because of the pandemic, they’ve been held on video this year. The 2020 winner, 18-year-old Pancho Symes, is a young man
who clearly loves to have fun with words elaborate and fantastical. He recites his humorous, almost nonsensical poem, The Confederacy of Ants,
as if it were utterly serious – which is part of the charm. It’s full of
multi-syllable words, intricate phrases and marvellous rhymes, and it
tells a story too.
If you’re on facebook, do find the Poets Out Loud page (at this link) and then find the video introducing Pancho. Or if you’ve an hour to spare, enjoy the whole Youth Slam here at the Poets Out Loud website. I promise you, it’s a joy and a revelation. Or you can find individual entrants on YouTube.
I’m also impressed by the runner-up, 16-year-old Georgia Smith, who presented, with gut-wrenching fervour, a powerful piece on relationship violence. The vivid originality is here also, and the clever rhymes – but these words are direct, strong, and mostly one-syllable. Two terrific poems, so very different, each suiting the words to the theme. And, if you decide to enjoy the whole hour, there’s a variety of other poetic choices in just this one small geographical area and one brief space of time.
This is what I love about our P&SU community, too: always such a rich variety of styles, moods, forms, subject matter … so many different ways, not only of using language but of exploring it to find its utmost expressive possibilities.
I’m primarily a poet so I tend to focus on poetry, but the limitless ways of using words apply as much to prose – from the powerfully spare sentences of Hemingway to the richly complex style of Lawrence Durrell, from the careful details of plot, personality and social observation in Austen to the wide-open Joycean ‘stream of consciousness’.
If there are limits, we – the whole collective of poets and storytellers all over the world, throughout all of human time – haven’t found them yet. We keep on finding ways to 'make it new'.
Exciting, eh?
Feel free to excite us (or soothe, inspire, amaze, arouse, agitate, alarm, delight, surprise, chill or warm, etc.) with your writings – old or new, poetry or prose, in any style, on any topic. If it’s prose, please keep it within 369 words, excluding title. Then share it with the rest of us via Mr Linky, which will stay open for a week. Happy reading, folks! And don’t forget to check back for participants linking towards the end of the week.
Meanwhile, next Wednesday, Magaly will invite us to write new poetry or prose where the
central theme revolves around one or more of the following five words: 1.
Allyship (n. active support for the rights of a
minority or marginalized group without being a member of it), 2.
Blursday (n. a day of the week that is
indistinguishable from any other), 3. Covidiot (n. a person who disobeys guidelines designed
to prevent the spread of Covid-19), 4. Doomscrolling (n. the action of compulsively scrolling through social
media or news feeds which relate bad news), 5. Virtue-signalling(n. the public
expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good
character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue).
And it yellow’d the strings of thy tangled hair,
That shook in the wind of night.
The moon made thy lips pale, beloved;
The wind made thy bosom chill;
The night did shed
On thy dear head
Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie
Where the bitter breath of the naked sky
Might visit thee at will.
-from Lines: The Cold Earth Slept Below by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(read the full poem here)
Welcome to Weekly Scribblings! Starting today, we will be dedicating Wednesdays to words that inspire prose and poetry. As January sets in, I am reminded of poems by Shelley which reflect passion, beauty, imagination, love, creativity, political liberty and nature.
I thought it befitting to carry forth a bit of Toad culture, which we all love so much! After having a heartfelt conversation with our beloved Kerry O'Connor and seeking her blessings, it has been decided that once, after every few months, I, Sanaa Rizvi, your kind hostess will bring you a word list to tease the senses.
The rules are simple. For this Weekly Scribblings edition, I want you to pick any three words from the given word list that fit the mood/theme of your prose or poem and write on a topic of your choice. Also, if you opt to write prose, (i.e. stories, essays, articles) then please keep it to 369 words or fewer.
Good luck composing your masterpieces. I look forward to reading what you come up with. Also, enjoy this music video "This is what you came for," by Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna. Have fun! đ
