The Versesmith

Poets and Storytellers United #151: "a box full of darkness"   Magaly invites us to write poetry or prose inspired by the following lines, from Mary Oliver’s “ The Uses of Sorrow. ” My unopened box of darkness, pushed to the furthest back of the shelf, beyond my fingers reach, was a gift. An unwelcome gift. I need no more darkness in my life. Gift me brightness and happy days. If not sunshine, at least give me rainbows with the rain. I have no use for sorrow, I’ve had my fill. My cup of sorrow ran over long ago. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #poetsandstorytellersunited #freeversepoetry #maryoliver

  Tanka Tuesday Halloween Poetry Challenge: Witch's Brew Poetry Colleen tells us " Witches and their potions are synonymous with Halloween. Let’s create a spellbinding poem. (longer syllabic forms work best). You can write freestyle, but you must include a syllabic form too! Write a syllabic poem about a witch brewing a potion. Include vivid descriptions of ingredients and their effects.  You can make the poem a rhythmic chant or incantation, enhancing the magical feel of your words. The idea is to have fun, so humor works! Feel free to use end rhymes on forms that don’t usually have them. Please let us know the form and if you’re using end rhymes. (The use of end rhymes is optional). For this challenge, if you’re using end rhymes on forms that don’t usually have end rhymes, you’re creating experimental syllabic poetry. Or, write from the perspective of an ingredient, expressing its fear or excitement at being used in the brew." A very good thing were are encouraged

The Sunday Whirl  Wordle #678 Prompt words in red.  P L Chadwick / Ancient & modern in the Crypt at Buildwas Abbey What a ghoulish night . The buried arise from within the crypt to spin their spells into tricks. Tricks of the un- dead . The wicked wind wrap s it’s gnarly fingers into all living beings this ghoulish night . Forced to breathe in the frigid spell s, the tricks , this night . This ghoulish night , when un- dead things under wicked spells , wrap their gnarled fingers in the cracks of the crypt , prying their freedom, to wreak havoc, to spin in the wind and feed. What a ghoulish night to be dead or alive. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

  The Sunday Whirl Wordle # 676  Prompt words in red.  image  This night , this Night of Night s, as the full moon rises, and the cat scratches to get in, the screeches in the walls rattle me. I stand before my kettle peering into its depth, into the simmering elixir within. The vessel is black with age, and ceased being shiny a century, at least, ago. Mist rises into the air, dampening the fringe of my tangled  locks . Slowly it gathers, swirling to form an image,  one long divined.   I  sigh , all my doubts allayed.  The image no longer mist, it solidifies into pleasing figures. Bird-like, yet not quite birds, my ghoulish swarm hovers, waiting for my command. This Night , this Night of Night s, we fly together. ©202 4 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

 dVerse – Open Link Night 372 Ekphrastic Options Visitations: Majorette, Hand Stands, Gifts, A Slight Lapse of Purpose, Yea by Joseph Kinnebrew photo ©Jade Li Pixies dance by moonlight, their silhouettes to see. Gymnasts on pinheads gyrate (Acrobatic sprites!) to cricket music, the hoarse refrains of frogs. Pray do not join them, though their sport be joyful, and their music glad. Here’s the thing, up close they disappear, by daylight too, invisible. Those who follow pixies, or with the goblins dine, will find their mirth short lived. That path, deceptive, leads solely one direction, disappearing into mist.   ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #dVerse #ekphrasticpoetry #freeverse #pixiepoem #dVerseopenlinknight

 Poets and Storytellers United #150 : How High is the Moon? "For your optional prompt this week, I invite you to write about the moon." I have written a photo tanka.  photo ©Lisa Smith Nelson #phototanka #tanka #moonpoetry #poetsandstorytellersunited