Category: Challenges

Wisteria in silence and sound

Challenges, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry 101 rehab, This and That, Wordles, Writing and Blogging

A scent of Wisteria
if real or fake
borne by warm breezes
over rippling tidewaters.

A ship’s sharp whistle
from deep in the gut,
as sweet music echoes
through silent halls

… a faceless, mute bibliotaph,
who treasures… within his soul…
sounds he cannot experience
except in his penetralia.

© Sometimes, 2017

 

This WORDLE #129, has languished in my notebook for months.    I do love these exercises offered frequently by MINDLOVEMISERY, and enjoy the challenge of making a poem or other form of writing, using at least ten specific words from a list of 12.  This Wordle words are: Wisteria, faceless, penetralia*, sharp, tidewater, fake, breeze, occur, mute, bibliotaph*, step, and guts.

penetralia: held in interior, core, deep, innards, etc… as in deep sometimes private thoughts or memories

bibliotaph: someone who hoards books, a book collector

a glimpse of life…passing by (Daily Post Entry: Blur)

Challenges, Daily Post, Mexico, Nature, Photographs, photography, The Daily Post, This and That, travel

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/out-of-focus/”>Focus</a&gt;

village blur a glimpse of life.JPG

above is a shot taken years ago, in early 1980s, through the window of a van traveling at high speed along a rural road in Yucatan, near the archeological site of Chichén Itza, Mexico.     At first glance it is just a ruined photo, which is often what an amateur photographer gets when shooting on-the-fly from a grimy vehicle window, speeding down a road.    However, on close inspection, the camera apparently focused automatically on the village scene in a clearing beyond the surrounding jungle and captured this candid scene.   (Cropped close-up image below.)   Image by Robert Dreger, ©Sometimes 2017.

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to die in satin…reposted entry from 2016

Challenges, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That, Wordles

This poem I wrote last year seems an appropriate companion with one I published this morning.  I love Wordles, and MLMM always is one of my favorite sites.   Thanks again MLMM!

This is a Wordle for Special Edition “Touch” MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie, August 29, 2016 Challenge.   https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/wordle-special-addition-touch-august-29th-2016/#respond
This is not my usual fare, but here is the short vignette that I wrote using many, if not all, of the Wordle words given for the challenge.

to die in Satin…

Feverish now, thrashing among sodden sheets
grown bristly and coarse, soaked with salty tears
in a tangible horror of torturous linen…
no smoothing touch of pumice could relieve,
to sharply barbed cloth…once satiny to the touch…
The dying man’s angular body wracked with agony,
viscous sweat turning waxy his once swarthy skin
as rigidity overcame and replaced malleability.
“Oh!  Let me die!” he entreated those who
could do nothing else.

©Sometimes, 2016

a penny’s worth of death, a poem MindLoveMisery’s Wordle # 166

Challenges, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That, Wordles

 

Here is my Wordle, using the dozen words provided in the  MindLoveMisery’s  excerise published June 17, 2015.

 

a penny worth of death

A gun, dark and dreadful,
cold steel caressing the unwilling hand
seductive music of silence and pain…
among bloody ravages of the plague
as dancing creatures
defy the promise of the Tarot foretelling the kiss
that comes forth—
levitating, tentatively echoing
the sparking retort of the pistol’s release
of a penny’s worth of death.

©Sometimes, 2017

Fairy on her shoulder…Cee’s Thursday Special Photo Exercise: juxtaposition

Cee's Photography, Challenges, Family & Friends, Photographs, photography, This and That

 

connie smile (3)
Cropped Photo 2

I like the last photo, with the softer tint, and the less contrast.    The crop cut out extraneous details, and zoned in on the woman and the sleeping fairy figure, which is the theme of the picture.    .

This is a fun exercise, Cee!  https://ceenphotography.com/2017/04/28/thursdays-special-juxtaposition-2/#respond

Gall-and-Wormwood: MindLoveMisery’s Wordle#143.

Challenges, inspiration, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That, Wordles

Here’s a Wordle that I’ve been working on.   I like these prompt-forms so much that I write them down in my notebook and work on them when so inclined.    Here’s one I worked on for a long time but haven’t gotten it published on my blog.     The twelve words given are: apple, frigid, pain,  gall-and-wormwood (deep resentment,) dive, cinch, halfway, grime, wind, vintage, pause, and Palinoia ( compulsive repetition of an act until it is performed perfectly.)

Vintage memories pause halfway
on the stalled turntable of
Palinoia’s imaginary grime…
brought on through “gall and wormwood”
that eats my craw and forces me
to dive into the frigid apple wine
that dulls the pain and
quiets the howl of the wind.

(©Sometimes, 2017)

I like to use the Wordle words for poems, although any literary form is acceptable.  Wordles are great fun, and anyone is welcome to join in.    Yves Morrow, the owner of the blog always welcomes contributors to his various and daily prompts…or any visitors, there is some really excellent material found here.     https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/

Tile Art

Art & Artists, Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge, Challenges, inspiration, Nature, photography, This and That, Writing and Blogging

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Here are some pictures that just tugged at me to create while walking through my entry.  They are twelve-inch natural stone tiles.   I never noticed the (featured photo) before, but once the face popped out at me…at least three faces in fact…I knew they were perfect for Cee’s Odd Ball Photo challenge.     The eye just seems to adjust for the scene.

These shots remind me of mountain and desert terrain, the color scheme of the Southwest.      What wonders do YOU see here, boys and girls?   I’d love to hear….

(all photos © Sometimes, 2017)

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tile 1
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tile 3
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tile 4
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Promise in a Poem (Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge entry)

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge, Challenges, Dreams, inspiration, My Place, Nature, Photographs, Poetry, This and That, Writing and Blogging

 

I am unique among my peers
having arisen from the Winter
more or less intact… if a bit bedraggled.
One might say the word—disarray?
to describe broken remnants
and staring, bleary rimless eyes
askew and discolored
arrangement of my limbs and leaves,
disheveled scraps of nascent green
tones, silky serrated edges of hemline.
Better days have been….and will be again
and my modest Winter garments
will have fallen to the ground.
Please don’t judge me—for who among us
can preserve the beauty and newness of Summer
beyond the ravages of rain and snow
and Cold from the relentless winds?
You are invited to return in half a year hence,
and feast upon my resurrected beauty
as new green foliage  and velvety petals
of red and white roses prevail.

© Sometimes, 2017

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: January 22, 2017

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swan song, Wordle # 124, MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie

Cats & Animals, Challenges, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That, Wordles

Here’s a scrap of rhyme from one of my notebooks, Wordle #124, from last October’s prompt in MindLoveMisery’s post.    I would apologize for the delay, but here it is anyway….better late than never.

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/wordle-124-october-10th-2016

week-124

A grey Cygnet has lost its Mum
adrift on a branch of fennel.
A tad of soft nectar escaped from a bloom
inexplicably left by a passing Sparrow…
serves well as emergency forage
against hunger pangs, until Mama’s return
to bandage the Cygnet’s distress.
The sunlight reflects beams of light
which belie the clarity of vitrified matter
embodied in clear bubbles of resin.

© Sometimes, 2017

 

Fading Eyes… a Haiku for Rodovan’s challenge

Challenges, Poetry, This and That

Here is a Haiku I wrote for the Rodovan Writes weekly Haiku poetry prompt challenge.   The prompt for the week is the words– Fade, and Eye.

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge Image 2016

 when eyesight fades, like memories

when my eye sight fades
memory banks are ready
to enter mind’s eye

(Sometimes, 2017)

https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-136-eyefade/

among other things: a new blog

Challenges, re-blogged posts, This and That, Writing and Blogging

https://poetryandfiction2017.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/among-other-things-a-new-blog/

among other things

No I really don’t need another blog.   I am happy with SOMETIMES, which is a conglomerate of  photos, poems, eclectic ramblings…and contributions from other bloggers who have consented to allow their posts to be re-blogged here.

I admit that the temptation to tinker with WordPress blogs is almost over-whelming, always searching for the perfect blog.   I invest each year in a Premium site, which means choosing great colors and various innovations that make a blog…well, unique…in the intended use of the word to mean “one-of-a-kind”—not “unusual,” or (god-forbid) “amazing!.”    Sorry, I am not trying to be the grammar/vocabulary/Nazi….it’s just that I hate the misuse of perfectly good, precise words.

This new blog, which I am naming “AMONG OTHER THINGS,” is not a Premium blog, although if I find myself using it frequently I will upgrade.   Just choosing the colors alone is worth the cost.

Also just last week bought…

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Entities, a dark tale of “what if?” for MindLoveMisery’s Tale Weaver #105

Challenges, Fiction, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That

 

[Here is my entry for MindLoveMisery’s Tale Weaver #105, The Dark Side
The challenge is to write a horror tale, something dark and scary (if possible…asking for “scary” is like asking for “humor.”)  I usually don’t write this kind of thing, but here goes….]

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/02/02/tale-weaver-105-the-dark-side-02-02-17/

Some call them “entities,”
the mysterious forms that appear
out of the dark identities
that linger beyond their time to disappear.

Would they remain if the light fails
when the switch malfunctions
or a passing cloud the bright moon pales
or if we freeze before we give in to compunctions?

Or if our night visitors are figments of imagination,
as we reassure our waking senses,
would the benefit of a new orientation—
like turning our backs to them—compense?

Just  think, how a chilly shiver might give us pause…
if Mr. Poe’s “tapping,” instead of just a black bird,
had been in fact a creature’s pecking claws,
an unspeakable thing from a mired pit, so untoward.

So what if the cloudy caricature figure (our entity,)
solemnly menacing from the dark places beside our bed
would not fade into nothingness at flash of first light…
but take form of the night terror within our head?

© Sometimes, 2017

Scapegrace…MMLM Wordle 137

Challenges, MindLoveMiseryMenagerie, Poetry, This and That, Wordles, Writing and Blogging

(Day 16, 2017)

Rogue Mayor

ever the scapegrace (his position aside)
given no quarter of tolerance
for sudden nicotine cravings…
mealy-mouthed and queasy from years
of parapraxis and gelatinous back-bone…
he longed for a fusion of wit and wisdom
to complement his vast popularity.
Then at last came the day that a spark
took flare and he enacted a non-smoking law
of dubious but far-reaching value.

© Sometimes, 2017

 

week-137

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/wordle-137-january-9th-2016/