Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Out of Standard with Izy






Greetings Garden Dwellers!

Welcome to the third edition of Out of Standard.  Once a month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  You will be called upon to find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.   Special thanks to Sherry Blue Sky who suggested this theme would make a great general prompt.    So with thanks given, I proudly present....

August’s Challenge:  Embrace your doomsday.

As long as civilization has been in existence, there have been those Doomsayers   who foretell of an impending end.  Some declarations are steeped in mythology, such as the Norse Ragnarök.  Others are based on scientific calculations, see Heat Death of the Universe.  Neither seem like very much fun. 

Some hold to their own personal theories and lie in wait for their homegrown prophecies to bubble to the surface.  The National Geographic Channel has aired two seasons of their show Doomsday Preppers about people who are preparing for way beyond realistic doomsday scenarios. They spend most of their waking hours canning food, building bunkers out of metal shipping containers (surprising cheap and cozy), and practicing their marksmanship.  Again, no fun.  No one is installing their own doomsday disco or stockpiling giant bouncy castles for end time picnics.   

While doomsday is inevitable (everything that begins must end), it’s rather a downer of a topic.  

Challenge Rules:  

Toads, I call upon you to cast aside the doom and the gloom.  I ask that you imagine yourself a doomsday and revel in the end times.  Come to peace with the chaotic, inevitable nature of our solar system and write a doomsday poem which has a happy ending.  Like every challenge, your poem must by newly written for this challenge and not one previously written which conveniently fits the theme.   

Go now, my lovelies, and bring back something unexpected, something out of the Doomsday Standard.



18 comments:

Fireblossom said...

Yay, it's Izy time!

Toads, please forgive my lack of visits lately. I will be around this weekend, and will try to come see you all!

Daydreamertoo said...

Love this prompt Izy, thank you!

Ella said...

Wow, I love happy endings ;D
Cool challenge~

Buddah Moskowitz said...

Thanks for this unexpected prompt, which yielded a completely unexpected writing. Enjoy!

Kerry O'Connor said...

I do love a dystopian landscape.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

What a totally cool prompt, Izy, and the twist you put on it will make this a lot of fun. I also apologize for being so behind, kids......was away and on return and sucked back into the whole Work/No Time thing. Sigh. I'll catch up at some point.

hedgewitch said...

Wonderful wonderful prompt--and exploding atomic teddy bear lead-in pic--I must brood on this and get back, though after just reading Shay's, no doubt hammered out at dawn's crack this morning before work(!!) I am a bit humbled at tackling it. Thanks, Izy.

Kay L. Davies said...

Oh, a very difficult one for me, Izy. I can face the idea of an end for myownself, because I've lived a long and eventful life, but I ache when I think of the children I love so much: my nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, my husband's grandchildren, and the grandchildren of my close friends.
Just a wimp, I guess, but I'll try to think of something to write.
K

Susan said...

I let myself off easy after reading Fireblossom's poem and weeping at everything from the orange bus on down. Bless her! I can only take so much catharsis in one day. Izy, you are a dangerous and worthy challenger!

Isadora Gruye said...

Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to those whose responses will trickle in later. You all brought so much to the prompt. I found this challenge near impossible, and yet you all triumphed.....viva la

Susie Clevenger said...

I'm late, but I made it. When I saw the challenge Izy I had not clue as what to write. I finally got something written and I had a lot of fun with it.

hedgewitch said...

I also went for the lighter side of apocalypse--funny that contemplating total destruction of life as we know it made me finally write something cheery--oh well--I had fun with it, anyway. It's late late late here so will be by to read tomorrow.

Margaret said...

Wowzers! This is quite a challenge... it may take me a few days - if I can be creative in this vein at all! I will certainly be back later to read all the entries.

Marian said...

love this! sorry, Izy, i was out of service yesterday AT THE BEACH but now am back and this is a topic i've flirted with a bunch of times, so it feels like fun. i'll work on it and come back, even if i'm late :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Izzy - managed to squeeze in a rather silly one! Hope it doesn't make anyone who is phobic, sick! Or even the non-phobic! k.

Hannah said...

Oh, I loved this Izy!!! Can't wait to read you all!! :)

Margaret said...

I almost gave up.... Izy... you are too hard on us :)

Mary B. Mansfield said...

Finally made it in on this one...ended up with another Missive from the Lair!