For Sammi’s weekend writing prompt.
Breeze
Rushing by,
Ever-changing
Vitality —
Is it gone,
To fade with
Yesteryears?
Change
Décima: Future Uses
Even though Ronovan Writes no longer hosts a décima challenge, from time to time I still like to write in that form. Today I used “future” as my jumping-off point, and the MVB and FOWC one-word prompts helped to inspire the rest of the poem.
It turns out that this is only tangentially related to “future” — this is the future that doing all that stuff in high school was supposed to prepare me for and make better. For a long time, I’ve felt like I’ve wasted all of that, and what I hadn’t wasted all by myself was stolen from me. 😦 😦 😦 But maybe that wasn’t wasted. Lou’s comment on my sijo made me rethink, just a bit. I’d never actually thought, “Maybe it wasn’t wasted!”
I write all that as a way of saying, I didn’t have to force this somewhat-optimistic ending today.
My academic achievements
Could not prepare me for real
Difficulty, nor help to heal,
For the pain of waste is intense.
Did that hard work have recompense?
Not in the way one likely guessed
But it was wise to do my best.
A certain success foreshadowed,
But forced down a different road,
Worked hard to pass another test.
I liked calculus and was pretty good at it — but I always hated real-life change.
The Way Ahead
This poem was inspired by the images for these 2 prompts: MLMM’s Photo Challenge #417 and Sadje’s WDYS #137. I wrote it, a curtal sonnet, a few days ago and was not entirely happy with it so almost forgot to post it before the next WDYS is released!
The way ahead could be vast as the sky, Its limits only bound by my belief -- Yet how closed-off it feels, making me cry, Unable to find a path to relief. How much is self-imposed, a needless thief? Suspending disbelief for but a day Might help me find a sky that is not gray -- And in those clouds some brand-new shapes are found. Then on the Earth I'll stand and look around, And hear a voice point out, "This is the way"-- How sweet the sound!
Photo Credit: Darrell Whiley
Photo Credit: Keith Hardy @ Unsplash
Something Other
This week’s word for 6-sentence stories, which I am not procrastinating on this time, is “fluid.” Also for FOWC: Array and MVB: Catalog. I have never tried to write anything remotely science-fiction, so tell me if you understand my story or not! 😅
Martin desperately wanted a new life — that’s why he had come to the NeoVita Corporation’s office: so that they could construct one for him, to his liking.
He browsed wide-eyed through the enormous, digitized catalog, its array of countless options for his perfect life nearly overwhelming for his finite mind to handle.
Would he want to possess the life of this famous movie star, or that record-setting athlete, or how about having her music career or his political power? He could have any of this, even more than one, as the NeoVita technicians would be able to make his perfectly-curated life flow fluidly.
“It’s just too difficult to choose,” Martin told the technician, continuing, “All I know is, I’ve got to have something other than my current life!”
Taking a long moment to think, the technician answered, “I know the perfect option for you” — and after Martin disappeared, his wife and three children mourned him, with gaping holes in their hearts.
Not About Hats
I can wear several hats, but none of them fits very well.
There are some that people say look good on me, but I don’t really like them.
There’s one that I’m used to wearing, only now realizing it’s not quite comfortable (though I should have known from the beginning).
One of my hats has a ribbon.
My life is made up of hope-ribbons, shredded into confetti.
Let’s throw it in the air and have a party!
A 6-sentence story using the word confetti, combined with today’s SoCS: hat and the MVB prompt: Several. Glad to have finally written something, even if it’s a tiny little story that’s not actually about hats at all.
You Only Die Once
A sijo for Ronovan Writes’ current challenge, about rebirth or change, also incorporating the idea of perfection from last week.
Reincarnation: Living a life here on Earth, even human,
Over and over, until one’s soul reaches perfection —
Doesn’t that sound like a particularly special Hell?
I Once Witnessed the Birth of a Butterfly
This new butterfly has the grace, of a drunk ballerina:
Suddenly finding wings attached to its back, fragile unfolding,
Twenty minutes of struggling – then comes the moment of flight
For Ronovan Writes’s Sijo challenge this week (as you can tell from the picture 🙂 ). This poem is not about our little chrysalis that has inspired 3+ poems already, but it’s based on the memory from a year or 2 ago of actually witnessing the beautiful “birth” of a butterfly — a butterfly butterfly-ing for the first time. ❤ Wasn’t going to share this tonight, but why not?
Continued Inspiration
In the previous post, I mentioned other poems inspired by the chrysalis from earlier this week. Here are 2 of them (I wrote a third, but it didn’t turn out).
“Am I a Caterpillar?”
If I turn to goo
Hope it’s intermediate –
The next stage better
“Nonet: Into a Butterfly”
Caterpillar, along a leaf, eats
Does it know what it is doing?
It cares not for appearance
But only what it is:
Deep down it must know
Of Imago,
Awaiting
Lovely
Change.
The Stream of Consciousness Speaks
Too long have I been waiting, for a new beginning,
A blank slate, to rewrite life — or at least magically
Give myself the ability to change completely.
I see two major ways I could have taken.
No way to overwrite what has already happened,
Nor to go back, to change my own shortsighted mind —
I look around, and now one way is what I find.
To the Chrysalis Hanging Outside
You are waiting now. How long you will be hanging In limbo is unknown, But as you have been primed from birth, You must become a butterfly, grown. What a strange feeling it must be, Turning into nutrient goo -- Does it seem like devolving? Perhaps you are wondering in the waiting, What will come of this? What will come of this? I have seen the amazing happen, It remains for you to abide: The imago* is inside.
I researched a little bit about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Click here. Shared with NaPoWriMo day 20, off-prompt.
* The butterfly’s form inside of the pupa is actually called the imago, which I think is AWESOME! It reminds me of the Imago Dei that each person has.
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