Welcome to the Imaginary Garden, a place for sharing poetry.
I found this recitation by Steve Earle a refreshing and hopeful reflection on how change is inevitable, and that we will survive and even thrive. Hope you like it, too. Please link up a poem today, old or new. We want to read it!
FASHION ME YOUR WORDS TO FOLD ~ (An Identity) Ergo...
[images from google dot com And pinterest]
Today we are revisiting [or visiting] Peanuts a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones... the characters' interactions form a tangle of relationships.
THE CHALLENGE:
Peruse the Peanuts cartoons shown [click for larger views], ponder them in a fresh new light, studying each character, until, you think you have found yourself in one of them, OR the nearest possiblity of yourself, at the time of your reading here at Toads.
IF by chance YOU are not there, choose a cartoon you know, which you think defines you, now.
Write a new poem, based on your rediscovery of self, accordingly. Add an image of the cartoon you have choosen for your inspiration. If you are using a cartoon that is not listed. Give us a link to it's source and tell us a tiny something in a note about it.
Limit your words to NOT MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED.
Have fun, looking forward to reading some great writes
“I think; therefore I am” - René Descartes -“Cogito, ergo sum.”
Greetings to all friends and poets. I continue, with this challenge, to give more focus to the skill of using literary devices , with particular interest in those developed during the modern and post-modern time-frame.
Metafiction is a narrative technique and a genre of fiction, wherein a fictional work (novel, film, play, poem, etc.) self-consciously draws attention to being a work of imagination, rather than a work of non-fiction. Metafiction poses critical questions about the relation between fiction and reality, usually by applying irony and self-reflection. As a genre, metafiction is comparable to presentational theatre, which continually reminds the audience that they are viewing a play; metafiction continually reminds the reader to be aware that he or she is reading a fictional work. [Continue reading HERE] It became prominent in the 1960s with the publication of such novels as Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
Instead of making this idea seem very difficult to contemplate, I hope that we can have some fun with it. Take a good look at the means by which we write poetry (and why we do it) and approach it from a slightly different angle. Truth be told, anything goes.
Greetings to all poets, wanderers, those who have lost and found their way...
Do you have thoughts to share, ideas you wish to release into the wild or a world view to express? You have come to the right place. It is the day you get to choose, your theme and intention in writing. Please link up your poem, old or new, and hang around with some of the finest poets in the blogosphere.
Greetings to all!
Today is the day we put the "mini' back into the Sunday Mini-Challenge, and return to the option of form poetry. The object of this challenge is to write a poem in no more than 10 lines (but you may write in fewer than 10 lines all the way down to a single American sentence). Choose your own form or write in free verse, if preferred.
This weekend, our frame of reference is "Dark Emeralds" - from the final line of this poem by James Wright.
I look forward to reading a number of short poems, from Saturday through to Monday. The link does not expire, so please feel free to write more than one poem, and a return to comment on poems linked later would be appreciated.
"A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness." - Marcel Proust
Fair Use
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born 12 May 1828 in London. He divided his attention between painting and poetry and founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which sought to introduce new forms of thematic seriousness, high coloration, and attention to detail into contemporary British art. As I was reading some of Rossetti's poetry, I came across "Insomnia", a poem that completely blew me away.
Insomnia
Thin are the night-skirts left behind
By daybreak hours that onward creep,
And thin, alas! the shred of sleep
That wavers with the spirit's wind:
But in half-dreams that shift and roll
And still remember and forget,
My soul this hour has drawn your soul
A little nearer yet.
Our lives, most dear, are never near,
Our thoughts are never far apart,
Though all that draws us heart to heart
Seems fainter now and now more clear.
To-night Love claims his full control,
And with desire and with regret
My soul this hour has drawn your soul
A little nearer yet.
Is there a home where heavy earth
Melts to bright air that breathes no pain,
Where water leaves no thirst again
And springing fire is Love's new birth?
If faith long bound to one true goal
May there at length its hope beget,
My soul that hour shall draw your soul
For ever nearer yet.
Have you ever found yourself lying awake in bed at night, waiting for sleep to come, when your brain refuses to shut its mouth and thoughts of every angle and shape that plagues it? I have often found myself unable to sleep at night. There is just so much to do!
For today's challenge, I want you to write a poem about insomnia. Your poem doesn't necessarily have to be serious, it can be light-hearted too. Choose your own form or write in free verse, if preferred. I look forward to reading what you guys come up with.
The link doesn't expire, so please feel free to write more than one poem. Please do visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!
I hope you and your muse are having a
glorious day. Today’s prompt was born out of a nursery rhyme (see below),
which can be found in Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith.
The last three lines of the piece, not included in the
image, say that one also needs the following to make a human:
“Strength enough to build a
home,
Time enough to hold a child,
Love enough to break a heart.”
Every time I reread this book, I ask myself the same
question: what else are humans made of? For today’s prompt, I invite you to ask
yourself, what am I made of? Then
craft your answer into a 3-stanza poem or a very short story (of 131
words or fewer).
Feed
the link to your new poem or story to Mr. Linky.
Visit
other Toads, and see all the wonders they are made of…
…and,
as always, let them know what you think of it.
Tarot cards have a long and fascinating history. Originally used for playing card games in the 15th century, the cards began to be used for divination in the blah, blah, blah. We don't need to know all that today! Today, we're just goofing.
Your assignment: visit Astrology.com to get your tarot card for the day (it's free; no sign-up). Explore the meaning of your card. Treat it as a joke, a portent, a really cool piece of art - whatever suits your muse. Just make sure your muse keeps her musings to 60 words or less.
Greetings to all poets and peace-makers!
It is the day to share our thoughts in poetry, here where the platform belongs to those who embrace the concept of the pen being mightier than the sword, the song more powerful than the war cry.
Let us reach out and hold fast: write: share: read: respond.
Greetings to all poets and friends. It is time for the Flash 55 Challenge! The rules of this prompt have not changed: Write a piece of poetry or prose on a subject of your choice in precisely 55 WORDS.
For the OPTIONAL EXTRA part of this challenge, I invite you to consider the theme of the GHOST TOWN. Follow THIS LINK to view and read about some of the 'world's eeriest ghost towns'.
Feel free to post more than one 55-word piece to this prompt, which will remain first on the Home Page until Tuesday morning. Please return to enjoy the poetry of fellow poets.
Hi everyone. Fireblossom here with another Fireblossom Friday writing challenge for you! Lately, I have had an old standard stuck in my head, called "It's Only A Paper Moon."
It's a Barnum & Bailey world/ just as phony as it can be/ but it wouldn't be make believe/ if you believed in me.
The challenge this time is simple! Write something that makes us believe in something that isn't real. No autobiographical tell-alls this time! Make something up out of whole cloth and make us believe in the world, person, or thing that you create. That's it! Please make it a NEW poem or flash fiction. No haiku. Then sign the linky and visit others. have fun!
