#PicoftheWeek; Silhouette

lengthening days
shadow play
dark informed by light

This week it’s not rooftops; it’s not blue skies; it’s not trees, or shine brightly; I am crossing off “Silhoutte” from the picture of the week bingo sheet created by Maria Antonia.

For #2022picoftheweek Maria also offers a “Reader’s Edition”: If you’re not really into photography, but you’re a reader, you can also play the reader’s version. Just post a photo of a book you’re reading that has something to do with the prompt. (Eg: For a book about Valentine’s Day, you can check off the “Tickled Pink” prompt.)⁠

#TankaTuesdayWeekly #PoetryChallenge no. 262 #Themeprompt; Transitions

Whittling Time by D. Avery

Winter long

transmutation

hesitant

Icicle drips

rivulets

steadily pick

whittling pathways to spring

Thank you Colleen Chesebro for this weekly syllabic poetry prompt and to Ken Gierke (Rivrvlogr) for picking the theme. The above is a Whitney, a form new to me, brought to my attention by Kerfe in one of her Tanka Tuesday responses HERE.

In my neck of the woods the signs of winter’s transition to spring are fleeting and subtle yet, but each thaw becomes more accomplished, despite the retaliatory snowfalls.

#SixSentenceStories & #99Words; I’d rather be mundane

The February 21 Carrot Ranch 99-word challenge is to, in 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the phrase, “I’d rather be…” The prompt word from Six Sentence Stories this week is “mundane”, to be used in six and only six sentences. Submit through Saturday for both prompts. The link opens tomorrow at six for Six Sentence Stories. (coincidence?) Both of these lil stories qualify for the Carrot Ranch prompt, but only the first one is a Six. But the second one came first and led to the first which was second and is a six, as well as a 99. 10-4?

Slow Burn by D. Avery

There was work here, but my daughters would rather be working in the city. They worked in the creamery for a little while before leaving, always complained, said the work was boring, mundane. 

Said the same about farm chores, and that, as far as I’m concerned, is blasphemy. 

You find the patterns, the rhythm of any task, do it well and mindfully, you bring that work to a higher level; your work raises you up! That’s how you get your wood cut and stacked, that’s what keeps your fire burning. 

I’m sad my daughters never learned to appreciate that.

My daughters! Would stomp their feet and rail that they’d rather be anywhere but here. And they went, as soon as they could. 

When they visit they plead with me to move away too, live closer to them. I can stomp my feet too! I remind them I was born here. They say they were too. Like I don’t know that!

And they harp on me about my wood stove! At least modernize, they urge. 

No. I don’t do much anymore, but I keep the fire going. For the day they know they’d rather be home than anywhere else.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete Zipper Collection from last week’s challenge.

d’Verse Quadrille #146; Salt

De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is the publican at d’Verse this evening. Quadrille is a poem of 44 words and this one needs to have salt in it.

Salted Earth by D. Avery

bluegreen memories dreamswim 

then wake drymouthed afraid

treading saline grief

both conquerors and conquered 

speak the raspy language of thirst;

desiccated words scatter 

wind-whipped

salt-rimed pages curl

an ocean slips from my eye 

dries 

on the strand 

bluegreen memories are gasping through cracked lips

#PicoftheWeek; Warmth

embers warm
ash gray winter brews
vernal dreams

Here is my picture of the week. “Warmth” from the bingo sheet created by Maria Antonia. I didn’t have much in mind for this week, but this is a reliable scene still. This animal’s exercise is rising, stretching, and turning her other side to the fire before settling back into sleep.

For #2022picoftheweek Maria also offers a “Reader’s Edition”: If you’re not really into photography, but you’re a reader, you can also play the reader’s version. Just post a photo of a book you’re reading that has something to do with the prompt. (Eg: For a book about Valentine’s Day, you can check off the “Tickled Pink” prompt.)⁠

#WWP #249; Recipe & #SSS; Rambunctious

Here’s what happened. First I wrote these 36 words for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt:

Recipe for a classic tale:

Character(s)

beginning, middle, end

Problem— to solve or tragically fail

stir in wily nemesis, maybe loyal friend

let set (hard time alone)

serve character(s) changed and arrived back home.

Then I figured I should follow that recipe, and further figured I could get in under the wire for the Six Sentence Story prompt. With only 36 words this was a bit of a challenge. It’s all a might fudged. The nemesis and loyal friend are to be inferred, and there’s a plot twist. The 6-line 36-word tale was pared down from the longer draft below.

Domesticated Oats

Rambunctious prince undergoes quest

wild to pass his father’s tests

Encounters a woman wholesome and good

tending a small field within a large wood

Ambitious prince now settled down

found something richer than a gold crown

Rambunctious prince requested to settle down

was sent to slay dragons and giants, maybe rescue a princess

his father’s demands would be met before passing the crown.

At the far edge of the forest, a woman with no royal interests

captured the prince with a disarming smile

agreed to teach him to live, fair warned him it’d take a long while.

His quest to settle down far from foiled

his sword now a plough, the prince tills the soil.

He slew his old dragons of ambition and greed

lives happily with his queen with all that they need.

P.S. Is anyone else having a new problem with Word Press? Or am I doing something silly? I can no longer copy/paste text from a document into the text blocks in WP. It comes in as an image.

P.P.S. Here’s what I figured out: Though I didn’t used to have to, it does work to first copy/paste from Word into Text Editor and then copy/paste from there into WordPress. That’s not so bad.

#99Word Stories; Zipper

The February 14, 2022, Carrot Ranch Literary Community prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about zippers. What are the zippers for? What challenges do they present to the story? Go where the prompt leads! Respond at Carrot Ranch by February 19; published next Wednesday at Carrot Ranch.

As always, Kid and Pal have also reacted to the prompt, which you will find corralled at their Ranch Yarns page. They’d be glad to have you drop by.

Open Heart by D. Avery

Little fingers tickled where they brushed white chest hairs.

“Gramps, what’s this zipper?”

“On my memory chest? It keeps them from spilling out.”

“Memories? Memories are up here.” The child tapped the side of his head.

“There? No! That’s for times tables and state capitals and things you don’t really need to remember. Memories are kept close to the heart, never to be forgotten.”

“Zip!” The child ran his finger down the length of the scar. The old man pulled out memories, sharing stories until, sleepily, the boy zipped him back up, with another memory added to his chest.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete Anxiety Collection from last week’s challenge.

d’Verse Prosery Valentine

A Moon, Wrapped by D. Avery

You must be drunk, my man. What is that you ask? That amber colored vessel up there? It is a moon. Wrapped in brown paper, here, is another heavenly body. It’s amber colored too. Until the eclipse.

Understand, everything has gravity. I’m drawn to this bottle. It’s drawn to me. Our orbital dance began eons ago. Bang! Eons, ions, axons…

It’s all about trajectory. Staying the course. The trick is this remaining in orbit, the push and pull of spinning through the space that is one’s life. See, we all have gravity, a gravitational center, we have to keep spinning so we don’t crash! We pull and we push, spinning into control. Eh? Spinning into control.

Every body has tides. The tides that bind. Push and pull… Low tide again. Damn. Another eclipse.

But that? Holding its own, holding us? It is a moon.

At d’Verse, the pub for poets , Björn is hosting today’s Prosery. The challenge is to write a piece of prose that incorporates the given set of words and they have to come in exactly the order given, but may break it up with punctuation. Use no more than 144 words. Today we are to use the line “It is a moon wrapped in brown paper” from Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Valentine .

#WWP #248; Capricious

Weekend Writing Prompt #248: This weekend your challenge is to write a poem or a piece of prose in exactly 55 words using the word “Capricious”.

Grand Delinquent by D. Avery

“I copied all these words from the dictionary. I’m expanding my vocabulary.”

“Impressive.”

“Indubitably.”

“Use another one.”

“Those women over there? Capricious, every one of them.”

“Really? How can you tell?”

“Look! They’re all wearing those short pants. And that guy walking those three dogs? The pugs? Pugnacious.”

“Did you bother reading the definitions?”

“Indefinitely.”

#PicoftheWeek; On the Shelf

winter’s grip

bony fingered reach

points to spring

Here is my picture of the week. From the bingo sheet created by Maria Antonia I am calling this “On the Shelf”. I have been enjoying the sculptures in ice everywhere. Hmm, maybe this is “abstract”.

For #2022picoftheweek Maria also offers a “Reader’s Edition”: If you’re not really into photography, but you’re a reader, you can also play the reader’s version. Just post a photo of a book you’re reading that has something to do with the prompt. (Eg: For a book about Valentine’s Day, you can check off the “Tickled Pink” prompt.)⁠