The Versesmith

  dVerse #233 : Bring on the Boo!  "...just 44 words, including some form of the word boo." I was having so much fun with this one I forgot it was to be only 44 words!  It is now...   On Hallowe’en night when the Goblins appear, window glass rattles, we cower in fear.  Ghosts and Ghoulies  moan “ BOO ” up the stair s , dragging their chains into human affairs.  In the dark hallways,  Ghouls and Wraiths wait, while Banshees and Hellhounds howl at the gate.  ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

 Poets and Storytellers United  Friday Writings #196 " ...for today's optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by Autumn (rituals, foods, colors, celebrations… or anything that makes autumn memorable and/or special) ." ©2021 Lisa Smith Nelson summer's last hurrah  has come and gone, once again brisker nights arrive one more blanket on the bed  long sleeves and socks for morning  ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #autumnpoetry #autumntanka #poetsandstorytellersunited #fridaywritings #syllabicpoetry

Poets and Storytellers United  Friday Writings #195 : Revisiting Old Favorites "... for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to revisit one of our old prompts. Maybe one you missed? Or one you could explore again ?"  I have chosen a prompt from 2022, one I'd missed. I have " subverted " the prompt in that the narrator is not a stranger to the person she is writing, but they are both strangers to me, although one's name isn't unknown. Friday, November 25, 2022 Friday Writings #54 : Writing to a Stranger “...write to a stranger. Not just any stranger, but someone specific you have in mind, whether observed or imagined.” (Don't forget, you can always subvert a prompt too – by doing the opposite of what it says, or by writing about why you refuse to write to it, or by deliberately misunderstanding it, or by going off at a tangent....) Georgia, my dearest friend Georgia, Does it disappoint to know the public sees you  as “ that woman ” who paints those m...

  dVerse - Prosery : T. S. Eliot and J. Alfred Prufrock To write a contribution you will have to incorporate the given line into a piece of prose of no longer than 144 words (including the given line but excluding the title).  You may punctuate and divide the line as you want, but you cannot insert any words into the line.  public domain license      T. S. Eliot… Could it be?      A prompt based on Eliot’s line from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock , “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes”?      A great line, a great metaphor. As to be expected by a great poet. Although his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is bizarre!      T. S. Eliot… one of my favorites. I incorporated or quoted his work in seven of my own poems on this blog. That ties with Edna St. Vincent Millay, another favorite.      Eliot’s The Wasteland is a fertile field of inspiration! Oh, the characters he...

 dVerse #231  :  Making Much of Poems  Pen us a smallish poem of just 44 words, including some semblance of the word MUCH.  image credit   Like scattered pieces of child’s puzzle, I shattered. Missing the most important piece, right there, where the ragged hole in my heart is. Nothing fits to fill it. So much left unsaid. So much left undone. You died much too early. I wasn’t ready. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   #dverse #quadrille 

 Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #193: Tell Me Something Good “...for this week's optional prompt, I am requesting that you tell me something good .”  I hear the sparrows’ chirp cicadas’ buzz smell the neighbors’ barbecue I see the clouds above floating gently by feel breezes in my hair I pick a warm tomato ripened in the sun ...a taste of something fine the dog is belly up wriggling on the lawn his carefree joy contagious ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   I've just had a taste of something fine. Jackson Browne, Something Fine #poetsandstorytellersunited #freeverse #jacksonbrowne #atasteofsomethingfine #fridaywritings

For  dVerse MTB : cinquains revisited The American cinquain "... is a... five-line poem with a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2, but there are plenty of variations . You may use this form as a single stanza, you may reverse and/or do it as a mirror. When done well it also bridges into concrete or shape poetry, as it may be shaped as an arrow, you may even want to use it as the poem of a haibun." I have chosen to write a Butterfly Cinquain. 2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2 centered my Queen of the Garden saved from the neighbor's trash now stands regal in the garden golden armlet, a crown upon her head amid a scent of herbs among the bees she reigns ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  #americancinquain #butterflycinquain #dverse #syllabicpoetry 

dVerse   MTB: Ubi Sunt and that Where, Oh Where?   And our MTB prompt today is simply to use this Ubi Sunt motif in your poetry as such: title your poem with the question – where are the/they… use the questioning within your poem, even with repetition DO NOT ANSWER it though – the questioning is rhetorical employ concepts of mortality, the transience of life, a sense of nostalgia ubi sunt is a term meaning "where are they??" taken from the Latin phrase "ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt," or "where are those who were before us?"   Where are the friends who promised forever? Who vowed a cradle to grave? Where are the sisters who pricked their thumbs? Who undying kinship gave? Have they forgotten those carefree days? Broken our childhood pact? Have they forgotten we were as one? Ignoring our solemn act? Where are the friends we used to know? Those we held so dear? Where are the ones on whose sides we stood? W...

 dVerse Prosery   Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose up of up to or exactly 144 words,  including the given line from this poem.  “ The future gathers in vine, bush, and tree: Persimmon, walnut, loquat, fig, and grape .” From the poem “ Time and the Garden ,” by Yvor Winters dead zinnias 144 words      It’s been a long summer, so long I’ve given up on the garden.      The Shasta daisies once tall and proud, now tall and brown, crisped by the August sun.  I’ve let the pluots drop to the ground.  I’ve no energy to haul out the ladder to pick the ones past my reach.  Keep my distance, out of sight is out of mind.        Did I say no energy?  Yes, that, plus I just don’t care anymore.  After illness a few springs ago the garden’s gone to seed, to weed, to pot, as it were.  Nothing was weeded that year.  Last year their seeds grew wild, too much for me to handle, this spri...

  Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #190   I went with the way the prompt was worded last Friday. So, it's not quite a summery spooky Summerween (which I have never heard ov) poem.  Just a scary summer thing.  " ...we’ll invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by Summerween (or scary things that happen in the summer). " Scary things that happen in the summer around here are wildfires. In recent years too many weeks of the summers have been spent indoors avoiding the smoke that fills the valley (there haven't been any this summer, knock on wood).  In 2020 Portland, OR had the worst air quality in the world due to the wildfires across the Pacific Northwest. The air quality in my city broke records for the worst air quality ever.   2020 was the most destructive wildfire season in Oregon on record. In early September, 2020, an arsonist (still unknown) started a fire that grew to destroy nearly 3,000 structures, leveling entire neighborhoo...

dVerse #229 Just pen us a poem of precisely 44 words, not counting the title, and using some form of the word jabber . image public domain Stop your jabbering, chattering drivel. When in public  you must speak civil.  You run off at the mouth, babble and yak. You sound like a duck the way you quack. You mummer and mutter all the day. Stop the yapping, you’ve nothing to say! ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved    #quadrille #dverse 

  Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #189: The Most Important Step "...for today’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose which explores the same question: What’s the most important step a person can take? "   Perhaps the hardest step to take, yet the most important, is the first step away from a toxic relationship, be it romantic partner, family member, or employer. Those on the outside may find it easy to give the advice, “ Leave, just walk away .” Easy to say, hard to accomplish! But, once that first step is taken, the next steps become easier. Step away. Step away. I know it's harder to do than say. I was young once, and in your same shoes. I didn't step away and I'm paying my dues. Step away. Step away. I know it's harder to do than say. It's better now than in a few years, before there are children, who will add to those tears. Step away. Step away. I know it's harder to do than say. Take the first step. Hold onto my ha...

Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #188  Rather than the optional prompt, I've gone with a triolet .   The summer days are long this year. Our garden planted dry as bone. With scorching sun, the skies are clear. The summer days are long, this year I miss you more than last, my dear. I tend our garden all alone. The summer days are long, this year our garden planted dry as bone. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

  dVerse #228   Write a quadrille and post it on your blog or website. Our inspirational word this week is " fish ."  She is fishing for complements once again. She baits her hook with clever words designed to flatter me. Once upon a time she reeled me in, a trophy catch. Now I gasp for freedom’s breath. If ever did you love me, throw me back! ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

  Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #187  "...write a poem of celebration, whether of a person, a thing, an event… Optional extra: do it in the form of a Sapphic ode." I got the syllables right, as for the meter?  I have no idea!  If not, it's a syllabic poem celebrating cooler days! ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson I rejoice in the cooler days of autumn,  when faces lift to October's soothing breath. With dying light, the season's hush appease a summer weary soul. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   #syllabicpoetry #poetsandstorytellersunitied #sapphicode 

  Ronovan Writes Cinquain Poetry Prompt 10: TREASURE is your inspiration.   after too many days of scorching sun garden  withered wilted harvests wanting sweet rain  ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   #ronovanwrites #cinquain #poetryprompt #syllabicpoetry  

dVerse's #227 The word we are writing to today is turn or a word that has turn in it. Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title), including some form of the word turn. image public domain 44 Words I imagine whispered voices down nameless alleys hurried steps on the cobblestones a shadowy figure seen over my shoulder billowing black cape rancid breath warm on my neck his mouth agape teeth wet with blood paralyzed I cannot turn is this terror or pleasure? ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

  Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #185 " ...find inspiration in the following quote: “Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience. ” You always make the same mistakes time and time again. Hoping your results will change,  they only bring you pain. You never learn your lesson or try a different route. Never do you pick the nice, you always choose the lout. You say you want to change your ways, you’ve learned from your mistakes. Then you see a handsome guy and fail to use your brakes. I can’t keep listening to you bemoan your dismal luck. While I see red flags flying high, you claim to be love-struck. I don't believe you ever tried to start again from scratch. I see a lazy user, you see quite the catch.  Experience is not your friend, although it is for most. You proudly introduce your beau, as though he’s worth the boast.  Please think it through the next time, before you jump in deep. That w...

  Friday Fictioneers   "The Challenge: Write a complete story in one hundred words of less." Mine worked itself into a story-poem. photo prompt © Roger Bultot 100 words Please don’t. I said, don’t ! Turn off the TV! You know the dog is afraid of boom-booms, why would you add more when there are enough outside right now! Look at him! It’s not funny. He’s shaking and drooling and won’t go outside to pee before bed. No, I won’t drag him out! I’ll clean up his accidents. You’re cruel. I wouldn’t force you to face your fears, and you understand what’s happening, he doesn’t. You are a jerk. I hate you. I really do. Yes, I love the dog more. Go, or I will. And, I’ll take the dog. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved Only two things in this are true.  My dog, Mickey, is very afraid of fireworks, which are, unfortunately, legal (with exceptions, but people ignore that and bring the banned ones from out of state) in Oregon from June 23 through July 6.  He also will ...

Ronovan Writes  Cinquain Poetry Prompt 8: RELEASED is your inspiration. image " Slack bitch ." He's drunk again. Too long I've held my breath,  feigned sleep. This night I gain release,  break free. ©2025 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   #cinquain #ronovanwrites #syllabicpoetry