This
meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Computer issues led her
to bow out for a while. The meme was too much fun to let go, and now
Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a
movable feast.
Essentially
the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice
of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we
do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a
poem, or treating them with ignore... We can use some or all of the
prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.
Some
of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on
their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible
joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
Huge thanks to River for providing the prompts last month. The prompts will be here again this month and are provided by Sean Jeating.
This week's prompts are first, the words that should have been posted last week,:
- funeral,
- moon,
- splendiferously,
- sun,
- coffin,
- afraid,
- biased,
- crows,
- nutrition,
- worms
- art,
- awe,
- love,
- moonlit,
- sleeping
and/or
- beauty,
- breathless,
- dreamscape,
- face,
- oxygen
Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Pebble Grey as the colour of the month. If you can also incorporate it into your stories she (and I) will be grateful.
Have fun.
The internet has expanded our world splendiferously. Everything under the sun is up for discussion. We are connected to the internet through the same browser but we take away very different things. One of us has trouble sleeping, and spends his days and nights afraid.
ReplyDeleteYou:
The funerals of those killed at Sandy Hook were fakes. The coffins were empty and the mourners highly paid actors.
The moon landing was an elaborate hoax.
The earth is flat.
Obama was born in Kenya.
Covid vaccines contain tracking chips.
Birds aren’t real. Those crows you see in the garden are not seeking nutrition from worms. They are surveillance drones sending information back to the government.
Migrants are eating dogs, they are eating cats. It is not being biased to want them all sent back to where they came from (illegally).
Me:
Where do your ideas get their oxygen? How can you face any day believing them?
I can see a lot that is wrong with the world, but live in awe and wonder at the beauty it also contains.
Nature is the best artist and her galleries are superb. Her art leaves me breathless and I love it. Night or day, summer or winter she creates dreamscapes. Moonlit dreamscapes, sun bathed dreamscapes. How I wish that we looked after her better.
Excellent Sue - how on earth younger generations are going to know what's going in their lives I worry about ... but the best choice is nature and the realisation that it is true and will always help and heal us.
DeleteLove the phrase 'where do your ideas get their oxygen?' - good one ... clever interpretation of the words ... cheers Hilary
Phew! Once again, you see me amazed. For lack of a superlative to be invented: Brilliant, Sue.
DeleteExcellent work Sue, I have only just now written down the words and will have to think on them a while.
DeleteAs usual, Sue, you let us know of our inadequacy. You are brilliant!
DeleteExellent use of all the words. I hope your side wins.
DeleteDelightfully done!
DeleteWonderful use of all the prompts! (And I confess that the "birds aren't real" movement amuses me at the same time it horrifies me. It's just so perfectly ridiculous... and yet so perfectly designed to worm its way into people's anxieties.)
DeleteElephant's Child: You are so right. Nature is the best artist, we should treat her better.
DeleteHave a lovely day.
Hi EC and Sean ... I've chosen last week's words for some reason ... two tales:
ReplyDeleteSplendiferously the sun shone … after the moon had risen we could see the funeral pebble grey coffin hidden in the tangled forest.
We're afraid of starving: those murderous biased crows are digging for our worms … they won't leave the fields – how do we get rid of them … we need our nutrition. Them or Us. The birds can see in the pebble grey mist … we cannot – how unfair life has turned out in this Anthropocene era.
Cheers - I'll be over to read everyone's ... Hilary
Hilary Melton-Butcher: Dark and a tad frightening. I do love crows though and hope I will always welcome them. They are such intelligent, family minded birds.
DeleteInstead of live and let live: It's them or us!
DeleteNow I'd like to learn your reason for these tales, Hilary.
Hi EC - thanks ... yes the murmuring of crows, or cackles ... all creatures great and small are wonderful.
DeleteHi Sean - who knows ... thankfully the blogger world seems to have some idea - I can reliably tell you ... others in the real world cannot comprehend. Blogging has expanded my brain ... on the other hand at the moment I'm in the Plantagenet era ... probably nearly lock stock and barrel. The little grey cells they a-wander ...
Cheers to you both - Hilary
A little troubling, Hilary, with a decided ring of truth to it.
DeleteCrows are nice when it's only a few of them. When they darken the skies with their wings it's time to make a big noise.
DeleteAs much as I like crows, I can imagine I would not like them eating my crops, or the worms I need.
DeleteNicely done!
First Set:
ReplyDeleteZhuangzi was dying, and his disciples wanted to bury him splendiferously. Spake Zhuangzi: "Heaven and earth are my coffin. Sun and moon are my jade rings, the stars my pearls and gems, and the whole creation escorts me. Thus, I shall have a splendid funeral. What else would you add?" Spake the disciples: "We are afraid, crows and kites might eat the master." Spake Zhuangzi: "Unburied I serve crows and kites as nutrition, buried worms and ants. To take from the one to give to the other: why being such biased?
Sean Jeating: I am glad that you alerted me that blogger had banished you to spam. Zhuangzi was a wise man. A very wise man.
DeleteI agree, Zhuangzi is wise and hope his disciples heed his wishes.
DeleteInteresting to read about Zhuangzi - I need to look into him and his philosophies. I see he has a book ... thanks for introducing him to us - cheers Hilary
DeleteWell done, Sean. Excellent take on your own prompts.
DeleteWell, he migth allow his disciples a ceremony for their peace of mind. Well written.
DeleteDear all: Thank you.
DeleteI am glad Zhuangzi's philosophy did not turn you off.
When pondering about this month's prompts I remembered my humble attempt to translate "Der Tod des Dschuang Dsï", published in Dschuang Dsï - Südliches Blütenland, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, p. 294], and as my own death is getting closer I did not resist. ;-)
His philosophy is mine. I've left instructions to be given to science for research and any cremains left for the family used for a good purpose.
DeleteToday's prompts:
ReplyDeleteWhilst thou art sleeping
A moonlit dreamscape your face
Watching you in awe
Your beauty makes me breathless
Your love is my oxygen
Stunning ... could be a loving part of the story I'm reading - which is dark too ... Plantagenet era ... very clever - and very evocative ... thank you! Cheers Hilary
DeleteSean Jeating: Beautiful. Which love so often is.
DeleteAaah!
DeleteOhh, I like!
DeleteA love poem worth the writing!
DeleteEl funeral finalizó y el ataúd salió del templo, seguido de los amigos y familiares del difunto.
ReplyDeleteEl sol lucía espléndidamente en todo el camino hasta llegar al cementerio.
La comitiva pasaba por un lado de un escampado y allí había un gato muerto que era devorado por un grupo de cuervos.Algo asustado, desvié la vista desvié la vista hacia otro lado.
Por fin llegamos al cementerio y allí su cuerpo fue depositado, debajo de una gran lápida. No tardaría muchos años en que esté cuerpo desapareciera, devorado por los gusanos. Esa era la base de su nutrición.
Sesgado por la luz del sol, que me deslumbraba la vista, regresé de nuevo a casa.
VENTANA DE FOTO:
DeleteThe funeral ended and the coffin left the temple, followed by the friends and family of the deceased.
The sun was shining splendidly all the way to the cemetery.
The procession was passing by one side of a clearing and there was a dead cat that was being eaten by a group of crows. Somewhat scared, I looked away and looked away.
Finally we arrived at the cemetery and there his body was deposited, under a large tombstone. It would not take many years for this body to disappear, devoured by worms. That was the basis of their nutrition.
Biased by the sunlight, which dazzled my vision, I returned home again.
Well done. I am so pleased that you have joined us again.
The way of all flesh. The sun is witness.
DeleteYou surprised me, Antonia. ;-)
It's life isn't it ... where we'll all go unless we end up as dust ... the earth will know ... well done - Hilary
DeleteExcellent job - and true too!
DeleteWell written - ant I learned a few new words, always good. Thanks- only I wonder is the repetition of "desvié la vista" deliberate or an error?
DeleteExcellent use of the words.
DeleteI'll see what I can come up with.
ReplyDeletemessymimi: I have immense confidence in you.
Deletemessymimi: And my confidence wasn't misplaced.
DeleteYou did well indeed.
DeleteMimi, if you weren't already unsurpassable, I'd say you were on the verge. ;-)
DeleteThank you all. For any who want the link, it is over here.
DeleteGreat selection for this month!
ReplyDeleteAlex J. Cavanaugh: Sean has done us proud hasn't he?
DeleteOkay, where's my thinking cap?
ReplyDeleteRiver: I am really looking forward to your story.
DeleteGood tales EC. I always enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteMargaret D: I do too.
DeleteI'm afraid crows are biased against worms for their lack of nutrition.
ReplyDeleteand pebble grey color.
DeleteWell done Mike ... at times they can be grey-headed ... I really need to learn to be succinct. Cheers HIlary
DeleteMike: I do admire your succinctness.
Delete;-)
DeleteNicely done
DeleteI'm in awe of the art in the park where I will love sleeping under the moonlit sky.
ReplyDeleteSuccinct again ... cheers Hilary
DeleteI bow to the master ... twice.
DeleteMike: Short and very sweet.
DeleteMike, this second entry borders on loquaciousness. ;-)
DeleteSleeping under the moonlight sounds delightful.
DeleteSean, or garrulousness, glibness, grandiloquence, logorrhea, long-windedness, and prolixity?
DeleteI had them all in mind, dear Mike, but then an inner voice whispered: "Sean, avoid redundance, avoid redundance, avoid redundance, ..."
DeleteOne could be forgiven for thinking that we are FACING the FUNERAL for democracy in the United States. As the MOON rises SPLENDIFEROUSLY over a deeply troubled republic, the SUN seems to be setting on an experiment that has largely stood the test of time. The PEBBLE GREY countenance of citizens who are now AFRAID, their DREAMSCAPE ruptured, sullen, resentful and fearful as they witness the COFFIN of pluralism and secularism being hauled away, is a study in BEAUTY gone awry, the BREATHLESS gasp of an electorate starved for OXYGEN, SLEEPING away the MOONLIT night of impending terror. What happened to LOVE of country? Where is the AWE in which institutions were held? The CROWS of doom are descending on the carcasses of freedom, justice and the American way. The WORMS of decay are twitching and coiling, BIASED in their desire to recycle and start anew. Distinguished generals who have served their country are raising the alarm. Incipient fascism requires NUTRITION. The American electorate seems ready to deliver it to the forces of evil. Political Armageddon is nigh.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope you're not right in your excellent use of the words.
DeleteDavid M. Gascoigne: From the other side of the world I watch in horror. Not least because some people here are happy to ride the same train.
DeleteExcellent, David. I wouldn't be worried about the orange-haired moron if he didn't have so many dangerously idiotic followers, but also a lot of obscenely rich people who see him as a useful idiot.
DeleteIt is a sad and scary time. Many only vote their belly, if it's full, they vote for the one in power, if empty, they vote for the alternate, no matter how bad.
DeleteOh my gosh, David, so well done and unfortunately filled with so many truths.
DeleteSandra sandracox.blogspot.com
Hi David - you've expressed it well ... too true ... I'd love to know the media had got off the political bandwagon ... it's enough and we've still got a while to go ... difficult times ... cheers Hilary
DeleteThat's quite a paragraph David. Sad and scary but I'm sad to say fear is on political agendas. They stoke fear like a furnace, their lies are driving us. I turned the news off because I already know who I am voting for and I refuse to live in fear. Thank you EC for this very lively meme. Though I am still not a participant, I do enjoy visiting and reading all your stories put together with a few words. I hope everyone has a wonderful day.
DeleteTrying to get into writing again. Here's a chapter of Susan's story.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte (MotherOwl): I have read and enjoyed it. Thank you.
DeleteFuneral is appropiate for Halloween time :D
ReplyDeleteKinga K.: It is.
DeleteEstimada amiga, una vez más siento no poder participar por la carga de trabajo que tengo, que no me permite ni relajarme un instante; de todas formas aprovecho para desearte lo mejor y enviarte un cordial saludo.
ReplyDeleteManuel wrote: Dear friend, once again I am sorry that I cannot participate due to the workload I have, which does not allow me to relax for a moment; In any case, I take this opportunity to wish you the best and send you a cordial greeting.
DeleteThank you. I hope your busyness subsides and you are able to play again in the coming weeks.
Interesting reading through everyone's stories.
ReplyDeleteAuthors with Advice: Thank you. It is interesting isn't it?
DeleteDropping by to say "hi" and that I love your poignant entry. Oh the insanity that abounds via the internet. Thankfully, much love does too. But yikes.
ReplyDeleteRawknrobyn: The conspiracy theories fascinate me - and do my head in too. Hooray for beauty and love.
DeleteI guess I'm late again but thanks for the prompts. They are very provoking. My take on the prompts is hereFiction: Miss Never & The Mortician's Craving. It's not a horror as I don't write or read them but the words certainly seem to lend toward it.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day
lissa: I enjoyed your story - but your protagonist definitely deserves a pay rise.
Delete