Category Archives: Blogs

PROMPT: Historical Event

Posted on by
1

What historical event fascinates you the most?

It varies over time. For a long time, it was the Second World War and the Holocaust. How do you get the rise of Nazis and the horrors that sprang therefrom? Sadly, I think that question has been answered to my — for lack of a better word— satisfaction.

The execution of Socrates has spurred a great deal of thought.

In terms of what is not so much a historical event, but historical processes, I’m intrigued by the life of Buddha.

Then there are a lot of explorer / adventurer travels.

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Posted on by
2 
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why
   I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
 Under my head till morning; but the rain
   Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
 Upon the glass and listen for reply,
   And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
 For unremembered lads that not again
   Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
   Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
 Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
   I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
 I only know that summer sang in me
   A little while, that in me sings no more.

PROMPT: Should Know

Posted on by
2

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

At the risk of mixed metaphor and cliche: how to walk a mile in another person’s shoes while keeping in mind that no one is the villain of his or her own story.

The Second Coming by W. B. Yeats [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
1 
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
   The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
 Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
   Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
 The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
   The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
 The best lack all conviction, while the worst
   Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
   Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
 The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
   When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
 Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
   A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
 A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
   Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
 Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
   The darkness drops again; but now I know
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep
   Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
   Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

PROMPT: Kid at Heart

Posted on by
3

What does it mean to be a kid at heart?

The capacity to see humor in flatulence, even when it’s your own.

Oh, wait, maybe I’m thinking of a “kid at fart.”

Jack-O-Lantern [Free Verse]

Posted on by
Reply 
Orange orbs
   cut with fearful faces:
 Burning brightly
   - daily & nightly -
 As menacing medicine
   for the cringe-impaired,
 The ones who 
   never get scared --
 unless a banal ball,
   blazing & brainless,
(and in a manner
   all but painless)
 replaced the head
  of their town's barber.

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
She walks in beauty, like the night
   Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
 And all that's best of dark and bright
   Meets in her aspect and her eyes,
 Thus mellow'd to that tender light
   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less
   Had half impair'd the nameless grace
 Which waves in every raven tress
   Or softly lightens o'er her face,
 Where thoughts serenely sweet express
   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow
   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
 The smiles that win, the tints that glow
   But tell of days in goodness spent,--
 A mind at peace with all below,
   A heart whose love is innocent.

PROMPT: Genie

Posted on by
Reply

You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?

1.) After my wishes are granted, cease all wish granting. 2.) Prevent all other genies and wish granting entities (if they exist) from granting any more wishes. 3.) Enjoy the retired genie life.

I’ve seen “Bruce Almighty,” and it seems like a pretty plausible depiction of what would happen if some yahoo went around giving people what they think they want. Carnage and chaos.

PROMPT: Family Member

Posted on by
5

Describe a family member.

Eyes: two; Ears: two; Nose: one, but with two entrances; Legs: two; Arms: Two; Head: one, but mostly symmetrical to a sagittal plane…

I’ll stop there. I don’t want to offer so much detail that an AI renders a fake photo and steals this person’s identity.

DAILY PHOTO: Neon Nights, Kolkata

Posted on by
Reply