The Versesmith

Poets and Storytellers United " ...as your prompt this week, I invite you to think of a piece of music which affects you emotionally  whenever you happen to hear it played – whether it warms your heart or brings back different reactions – and tell us what this particular piece has meant to you in your life." While the poem is pure fiction, I often think of old friends preserved in faded photos.  What became of them?  Do they wonder about me too?  The inspiring song lyrics are below.  (The term abstraction came from an unused NaPoWriMo prompt to use an art term in a poem.) ©Win Smith 1962, in author's collection She said she lived her life in abstraction, drew pleasure in exaggeration, in the distorted way she viewed us, squinting her eyes in appraisal. She thought herself another Miro, speaking Catalan to her friends. Once at a party she tossed me out, I'd told her Joan was a man. That was so long ago. A faded photo is all that's left to remind me of her. So wa...

dVerse - Prosery Monday  - June 9, 2025 Greetings to All Poet Pubsters on this beautiful June day. Lisa here, serving up a Prosery prompt, goodies, and liquid refreshments. Prosery is where you write a prose story instead of a poem, using a given line of poetry (or song lyric) to inspire you. Word limit is 144 words, not including title, and the given line must be used without adding or taking away any words in between. Punctuation may be changed. To Hurt is to Steal - Bono and U2, from "Mysterious Ways" on Achtung Baby 144 words      You’ve hurt me once again.   This time will be the first I don’t forgive.        It’s nothing new, your hurting me, yet each pain is like a new stab to my heart.   That’s my fault.  I forget each time what you are capable of.  The cruelty, the lies, the laughter at my confusion.  Yet, why should I be confused?       I learned early on what you were like, wh...

  A Bañarse A Bañarse,   by   Juan Santiago Corbacho in author's collection I sit at the kitchen table, my computer sits with me. I raise my head and there you are, hanging out in the living room. Although surrounded by other places, other faces, you are my favorite. Who brought you here, so far from your native Argentina, to end up on a wall in Oregon? ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

  Ronovan Writes   Ovi Poetry Challenge #86: ENERGY is your inspiration  With energy to burn, no more, this growing old is quite a chore. When waking up my back is sore. Still, it's better than not waking!  How quickly years went slipping by, those limber years when I was spry.   To reverse the clock… would I try? I really do not think so.    I wouldn't want to live the pain, along with pleasure, ere again. The sunshine seasons, dismal rain, recollections best forgotten.  ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  #poetryprompt #syllabicpoetry #ovi #ovipoetry #ovipoem #ronovanwrites

 I wrote a poem inspired by this Oaxaca postcard before deciding not to participate in a postcard poetry exchange.  Not to waste it, I've posted it here and on my other blog.  Two demons shooting the breeze, their work-week done. Sipping their lager carefree as you please, it’s their time for fun. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved 

 Mindlovemisery's Menagerie   Sunday Confessionals: Dictionary print by © Jen Galaxy - in author's collection words on paper obsolete not to the artist inspiration flows divines limitless galaxies  ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

Ronovan Writes Ovi Poetry Challenge 84: OPEN is your inspiration Open your heart, open your mind.  It costs you nothing to be kind.  Make an effort to not be blind  to those who need some assistance.  They may be down, need of a hand, open your eyes and take a stand. In days of woe, when much is banned, we all may need reassurance.   Open your wallet, if you're can, we're all worthy, no one less than.  "... evil men plot, good men must plan ," as proclaimed a man of wisdom.   ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  The quote is a line from speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.  He may have been paraphrasing, or influenced by, an older quote by Edmund Burke, " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing ."  #poetryprompt #syllabicpoetry #ovi #ovipoetry #ovipoem #ronovanwrites

Poets and Storytellers United  Friday Writings #160: Low Battery " So this week's optional prompt is "low battery". Interpret that phrase however you wish in either poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. " What a perfect prompt after yesterday's ordeal with a literal battery issue, leading into figurative low batteries in relation to life in general. I've written prose segueing into a tanka.  If it were haiku following the prose it would be a haibun idyll, but I don't know if there's a name for using tanka.   It’s one thing after another.  No, it’s one thing at the same time as another, with money for one.  Make a choice.  Put off the other.  Is this what prioritize means?  Top of list demoted once again.  How long before it cycles back up?  I can write prose and poetry, making light, when it’s sink or swim, isn’t it?  Life’s expensive, but it’s better than the alternative.  Most days.   yep, the car won’t star...

 Poets and Storytellers United #159: Making it New  " So, for your optional prompt this week, I invite you to look through your writings and see if there is anything you might remix to make a new piece. " Years ago I started working on this little  senryū for a prompt I later found I couldn't post (it required WordPress pingbacks).  So, here it is. Or, as edited, I guess it's a photo  senryū.

I was going to participate in a postcard event where you write poetry on the back of postcards, but changed my mind.  I had written a few poem already, including this one for Medusa, as well as one for a postcard I'm using for Red week.  So they don't go waste I'm posting them here (and on my other blog for Thursday Postcard Hunt ). Detail of Caravaggio's Medusa, who was given a bad rap. MEDUSA I sitting here, looking at Medusa, thinking of victims. Hers is a story as old as time and as young as this morning. Who’s to blame her anger? There she was, sitting peacefully in the temple, when along comes Poseidon, (who really should have been cavorting with the mermaids, not ogling a maiden in Athena’s temple) who can’t resist her beauty. Talk about victim blaming! What kind of goddess was Athena anyway? Like mortal Medusa stood any chance against a god! It’s  her  fault her own temple was defiled! I’m sitting here, looking at Medusa. Assaulted. Punished. Decapitated. I’m...

Ronovan Writes Ovi Poetry Challenge 82: AWARE is your inspiration We must take a strong stand to stop books being banned, get heads out of the sand, or we all will lose out. We must all stay awake, there is too much at stake,  it should make your heart break, watching this happen.  It may begin with some books,  then they'll sink in their hooks, and because they're all crooks, we'll lose some of our freedoms. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  #ovi #ovipoetry #syllabicpoetry #ronovanwrites #poetrychallenge 

It's Haibun Monday at dVerse . "Hello dVersians! Welcome back after the holidays break. This is Li(sa) and it is my pleasure to host Haibun Monday today.   While looking for something different but still within the parameters of haibun, I came across a form called, burning haibun..." Now it has come to the place where I lay out your choices to inspire you today. Please choose one (or more) of these options: 1: Write a burning haibun based on an interior journey you’ve taken. 2: Write a burning haibun using the lyrics from a favorite song to inspire you. If you choose #1 or #2, please show all of the incarnations, from original prose, to first erasure (or bolding words, as done above) to the second erasure verse using the chosen bolded words, to the final haiku or senryu (aka personalized haiku) If you’re not feeling adventurous, please choose #3: 3: Write a haibun on any topic you choose. Burning haibun is a brand new form for me and in the world of poetry in general....