Weekly Writing Prompt #15
Week of 14th December 2015
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(5) Words: | GHOST| ROUGH | DUST | STRANGE | TURN |
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Poetry Suggestions
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Haiku (5 – 7 – 5)
Tanka (5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 7)
Shadorma (3 – 5 – 3 – 3 – 7 – 5)
six lines – no rhymes – multiple stanzas [your choice] – just follow meter
Nonet (9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1) progression downward of syllables
Cinquain (2 – 4 – 6 – 8 – 2) five line poem on any theme with the earlier mentioned syllable pattern
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Fictional Suggestions
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Flash Fiction (500 – 300 words)
Any Genre: Mystery – Sci-Fi – Fantasy – Horror – Literary
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SUGGESTIONS FOR FLASH FICTION
***You have room for one main character
***You have room for one scene
***Get to main conflict of scene in first sentence
***You have room for a single plot
***You have room for a single, simple theme
***SHOW anything related to the main conflict
***TELL the backstory; don’t “show” it
***Save the twist until the end
***Eliminate all but essential words
These are not set in gold
Use your best judgement
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Pingback: Second day of Christmas: Prompted to Write | JanniStyles1
I wrote a haiku and a fiction piece, thanks for the prompts! Here is my challenge completed: https://jannistyles1.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/second-day-of-christmas-prompted-to-write/
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I always love your prompt words–these are magnificent!
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I try to feel certain I have discovered the best set of 5 words but it feels good to get support for the choices. You are always so generous in your support. Thank you!
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Most welcome.
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Pingback: Bird of Paradise Ghost | Lazulitopia
Here you go, thanks!
https://lazulitopia.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/bird-of-paradise-ghost/
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Pingback: Microfiction: Diamonds in space | Jane Dougherty Writes
Your prompt has prompted my poetry prompt this week! Here is my piece of microfiction
https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/microfiction-diamonds-in-space/
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Pingback: Starry night | Jane Dougherty Writes
Here’s a poem inspired by your word prompt.
https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/starry-night/
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Pingback: Haiku – Haunted | A Certain Point of View
I’ve written a cascade of three haiku, all using the prompts. Wonderful words this week 🙂 https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/haiku-haunted/
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Pingback: Haunt the Dark #15 | the secret keeper
Pingback: A Ghost Story – Choka – December 21, 2015 | Bastet and Sekhmet's Library
Pingback: Stone of the Philosopher (fragment 9) | Elusive Trope
Here is my offering — I have to admit I left out the word “turn”, it was in there but in a last minute edit I ended up dropping it out by mistake. so i guess one just will have to image the character turning the pages of the parchments. 🙂
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/12/21/stone-of-the-philosopher-fragment-9/
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It’s ok. I will be reading it later this weekend. Ran out of time today.
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It has taken a while. (And no, I haven’t spent all this time working on this though. 😉 ) Whatever here it is at last for better or worse. At least I am now unstuck and can move on to more of your posts. 🙂
GUNFIGHT – A VILLANELLE
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
The drifter and the gambler face to face.
Today may be the day they die.
Each stolid footstep in the dust by and by
Will disappear, gone, leaving not a trace.
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Rough words were spoken: a taunt; a lie;
A raise; a call; a smuggled ace.
Today may be the day they die.
An open grave this town, och aye,
And for some a last resting place;
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Strange images traverse their minds, succubi;
Tumbleweed cartwheels, apes galaxies in space.
Today may be the day they die.
Real becomes real now, illusions fly;
Subjective fancies give up the chase.
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Today may be the day they die.
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Wow!!! I need time to respond. Your words echo brilliantly. 🙂
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You are very kind. I managed to post the wrong draft version. See below. 🙂 And I have started an e-mail.
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I did get. Need to read. I saved so I would not lose track of it.
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I have returned to the last comment you made when I stopped being able to respond. Not well. Will write email.
Now, I just want to say how impressed I am you found such a brilliant way your poem. I know there is a specific name for the style. Not remembering at the moment. A round with obviously repeated lines. It makes for more substantive meaning. I love the repetition. Reminiscent of Poe, nevermore.
I am trying to expand the freedom of my verse. Though recently was drawn back to writing a Haiku triplet. It is a great feeling to be unstuck. Only in the past few days have I had a sudden burst of ideas flowing through my mind. I scribble down phrases while waiting in parking lots while Shawn shops & I enjoy the music & heat of a car’s engine running. Along with me is my trusted Pax 2. I vape a # of tokes & let the world spin around whileI write down whatever The Muse is whispering in my mind. Poems even find their way onto the notebooks page. Just this afternoon after meeting with my new PCP, [looooong story], got high & jotted down a poem as I hallunicnated the car was moving when in actuality it was in park. The secret was in the bud.
Tonight this is as much as I am able to respond to. I will work slowly toward the more current comments. Maybe I will catch up in this parallel reality. Oh, yes, did I mention I feel we woke on Wednesday morning last week in another universe. Somewhere, our other selves are living without Brexit & DJT aka the Dumpster. We are enjoying the new world being created on that side. Here, it is developing in the Third Reich with a President who plans on living in NYC as his White House. He doesn’t want to live there. And his present wife & son never really plan on living there. Frankly, I think she has left him & is allowing him to save face until hopefully he will be impeached & Pence will be lost at sea & end up on this rather strange island. Will explain that last remark some other time.
Have a great weekend. I am off from Doctors ofcs until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It was meant to be free from last Thursday 10th until the Thursday after Turkey Day. We are having a Roasting Chicken & the works. I still have trouble with my appetite so I am going to try a touch of everything. Shawn prepares. All our favorites. I am even going to try pumpkin pie this year. Never have I let pass these lips a mouth full of pumpkin pie.
Have an assortment of new tech toys. I do love them so. We have been doing a lot of un-birthday-Christmas-Hanakkah presents. It’s helping us get through the election results. HC won popular vote but the electoral college speaks. It sucks. He has no mandate but he is placing Nazis to head up his executive branch. No concession to the people who did not give his job. HE is not our president & never will be. Impeachment is heading his way, just a matter of time. Then there is Pence. He’s got to go. I could live with Paul Ryan, speaker of the house & a repub. Two years & it will all change b/c the voters will see the damage they have done.
More later. Want to work poem I wrote today.
Great poem. I will have to study it & see if it clicks inside some pure inspiration. Would I be able to compose my own version of this creative style. Not sure if I am able to at this time.
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Yes it is not good to see the neonazis The Trump is appointing to manage his Farterland.
If you *do* decide to try your hand at the villanelle form, check out this:
http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/villanelle.htm
As they rightly say there
“A classic form of poetry, the villanelle has a strict form of 19 lines within five triplets and a repeating refrain. These poems are very song-like and are fun to both read and write once you know the rules behind them.”
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I am going to send myself an email with the link for the villanelle. Study the style further. I use to compose songs & lyrics in my 20s but eventually, I preferred the words to composing the music. I love music but physically I had to stop playing the guitar & other instruments. Caused too much pain.
“We don’t need no fucking Nazis.” Replace the word Nazis & what film contains the beginning of this line. I want to say Al Pacino in Scarface. Hazard a guess.
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I can’t think of a film, but there’s always this of course:
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Well played. Pink Floyd of course. I love them & Another Brick in the Wall. David Gilmour is one of if not the best guitarist. I know Eric Clapton & Jimi Hendriz. DG’s playing makes me drift into space. Only discovered him after we entered the new millennium. Lost time. Needed time away after initial late connection & recently returned to listening. Memory connections have lost their power. Once again beautiful to hear.
Even so, there is still something more to the line. Just not sure.
So far I found the quote: “We don’t need no stinking badges.” Now, what is the film? Investigating further.
It is a misquote from the Humphrey Bogart film: “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” 1948… The misquote of the line — “We don’t need no stinking badges!” — started with Micky Dolenz in a 1967 episode of The Monkees TV series, but Mel Brooks got it wrong, too, in 1974’s Blazing Saddles.
It should read: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”
Perfect rhyming in the circle of time.
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i love this. Shawn gave me an un-present for the holidays of Amazon Prime Music. At present I have made 4 going on 5 playlists. One is a collection of all the Great Pink Floyd music I love. It didn’t cost a thing. I have my tricks. This is one of them. We Don’t Need No Education.
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Shawn told me today the candidate Jill Stein for the Green Party is going for a recount. There were some extremely bizarre results where DJT beat out HC by 1.5% of the vote. When HC already an excessive lead but suddenly DJT took the pivotal state when it was originally projected to go to HC. In my wildest dreams, think big. Millions of votes are appearing & HC lead in popular votes is increasing. A vote count could, knock on wood, actually overturn the election. HC is staying in the background but money is pouring in to pay for the expensive recount. Wouldn’t it just be too much to hope for. President-elect changing hands before the inaugural ceremony. I think the system was hacked. The states I am referring to went overwhelmingly to Obama in the previous elections. Something is rotten in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and I believe Pennsylvania. Not certain about Penn. But wouldn’t it be a shocker to the alt-right & the rest of the neonazis. Oh, please let this alter history back toward the more productive direction. Otherwise, once again we continue to be screwed.
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Fingers crossed.
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OOPS! I managed to post an earlier draft which missed out one of the five seed words. 😳
Here is the final version.
GUNFIGHT – A VILLANELLE
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
The drifter and the gambler face to face.
Today may be the day they die.
Each stolid footstep in the dust by and by
Will disappear, gone, leaving not a trace.
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Rough words were spoken: a taunt; a lie;
A raise; a call; the turn of a smuggled ace.
Today may be the day they die.
An open grave this town, och aye,
And for some a last resting place;
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Strange images traverse their minds, succubi;
Tumbleweed cartwheels, apes galaxies in space.
Today may be the day they die.
Real becomes real now, illusions fly;
Subjective fancies give up the chase.
A ghost town under a blistering sky.
Today may be the day they die.
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Just as glowing. inspired. hanging with the Muses. Living in a place on the edge. Tension & life. Good & Evil. Chancing to get through and make it not be the day they die. Or are we all ghosts awaiting our awakening to be real. Death has passed. No more hidden aces. I love the repeated rounds. Great lines. Reminds me of the OK Corral & High Noon & the Dead Man’s Hand [Wild Bill Hickok was holding this hand when he was murdered. Two pair – Black Eights & Black Aces & a “hole” card. If memory serves me Wild Bill didn’t stand a chance. He was shot in the back. the murderer was a coward.
Your writing of poetry is remarkable. The heart of your soul shines in each word concisely chosen. The “i” rhyme peeled beautifully.
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I have always had a great fondness for westerns and their archetypal symbolism. As ever, you comments are very generous. Thank you.
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No a big Western Fan but their are the gems that call me. Recently, discovered one of our ROKU channels (Amazon Prime) just added UNFORGIVEN. The best western ever with Clint Eastwood & Gene Hackman. I don’t speak lightly giving it Best Western. I loved Clint’s Spaghetti Westerns, too. If you haven’t seen it, I will add, I do believe it got Best Oscar for Best Picture of the Year. Don’t even ask when. Too far back & late to remember but my kind of trivia.
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I have always loved “Unforgiven” since it came out, apart from the scene with the beating Not the only time I’ve had a problem with Gene Hackman either. He can be very effective as an evil man. It got 4 Oscars, plus 5 more nominations.
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Agree, hated the beating. But GH’s character received the justice he had coming. It’s a film & I think one is allowed to vent out one’s need for satisfaction. Fantasy release. Add to the list: Tarentino’s “Django Unchained.” Brilliant. Wasn’t going to watch. Not a huge fan of Jamie Foxx but he was off the wall GREAT in this one. And Christoph Waltz his sidekick. A must see. You probably have already. Am I correct? Also, Leo DiCaprio – a son-of-a-bitch way down deep true bad guy. Wait for it. NO SPOILERS.
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Yes Brian showed it one evening last time I was at his. And I agree it is a good one. Well it *is* Tarentino and he certainly hasn’t lost his edge.
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Not even. I am a true fan. Long before Pulp Fiction.
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Pulp Fiction is one I’ve seen several times. Must rewatch the two Kill Bill films soon too.
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