The Versesmith

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...

 It's Haibun Monday at dVerse .    The prompt is Fall foliage or Spring blossoms. Eleven months of the year I vainly attempt to rid my yard of Virginia creeper. Come October, I’m glad I failed! The vivid crimsons, and peachy-pinks of leaves, the berries blackest blue on scarlet stems are the clear winners in Autumn’s Color Contest. the unwanted one nuisance rambling vine redeemed in autumn splendor ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #haibun #autumnpoetry 

                    24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge, No. 42     The Beginning of Midsummer: Growing Heat (July 7 – 21)  Shosho 小暑  " This week for #TankaTuesday we’re in the season of the Beginning of Midsummer in the Northern Hemisphere as we follow the 24 Seasons of Japan.  Your syllabic poetry writing invitation is to choose a kigo word or phrase from the seasonal kigo list on the post, or you can choose from the summer category in the Northern Hemisphere, and the winter category in the Southern Hemisphere. Choose from the kigo word list below, or the 500 Kigo Word List . " I chose  Growing Heat  from the kigo word list.  The heat where I live isn't growing, it's already fully grown well beyond summer's usual, and the first wildfire of the season has brought smoke to the valley. A Hell of a Summer  Smoke arrived early this summer, dragged along on the heels of the heat. ...

Kim at dVerse  has given us the following prompt for today's Haibun Monday . "No matter how you feel about the first day of 2024, I would like you to write about it. Have you set your heart on a new beginning, a move, a relationship, a hobby, etc.? Are you resolved to being stuck indoors until spring or have you been / are you going for a New Year’s Day walk? Is the first day of the New Year a time for reflection, or are you nursing a hangover and just need a little peace and quiet? Aim to write no more than three tight paragraphs, followed by a traditional haiku that includes reference to the season."  I stayed up until midnight last night.  Nothing unusual about that, it's something I usually do.  Have some snacks, watch the ball drop from New York, belatedly, as I'm in Oregon, then off to bed well past my "bedtime."   Too early I'm up, cranky and tired.   The cats kept me awake, coming and going, coming and going, knocking things off the bedsid...

Tanka Tuesday #259 haibun idyll   Friday Writings #12: Colour - or the Absence of Colour If the trip didn’t do you in, we could paint the town red, maybe talk about the old days.   I’m just so tickled pink to see you again!   Perhaps as a blue blood, born to the purple, you’re used to white washing all those grey areas I am just dying to discuss.     As the black sheep of the family, I’ve always been more yellow-bellied, so I’ll be green with envy at hearing your exploits!   Oh, please don’t be in such a brown study… here, have a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.     alas, poor orange no rhymes nor adages for you solitary hue   ©2022 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved https://www.pexels.com/photo/food-healthy-orange-white-42059/ There is actually one perfect rhyme for orange, sporange .  According to The Free Dictionary, sporange is " A single-celled or many-celled structure in which spores are produced, especially in...

 The Sunday Muse #182  photo prompt "Plague Nurse" or the traditional Czech Advent costume 400 years ago, before they knew germs spread disease, European medicos were on the right track.    Full regalia when working with the ill, the dying, the dead.   Glasses behind masks, gloves, boots, and… sticks.   Sticks to examine from a distance, yes, but also to defend themselves from desperate patients!   While “bad air” was the common belief as to spread of the plague, these physical protective measures suggest the doctors were aware infection could be made via contact with their patients.   In our day, with our own particular “plague,” shall we take up the stick to those who refuse to keep their distance, vaccinate, or wear a mask?        centuries ago to stem the spread of the plague they knew to wear masks   ©2021 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   Interested as to why this strange bird-like mask would ...