The New Blog Propellant Prompt #6

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! I have re-posted several prompts, but it’s fun to come up with new ones.

Write a post: Fiction, poetry, even a true story based on the following prompt. When you are done, include the URL address of this post in your post. Simple! All those who read this post will have a link to your post, and all those who read your post will have a link this one. More readers = more followers (so they say). Regardless, it is fun to share.

This week’s prompt:

It’s proposal season at work. Lots of ideas for sessions and workshops. Every year is a trend in proposed topics. One year it’ll be Memoir. The another will be YA, another year is Mystery, and so on. Not sure why. I leave that question to the publishers.

This year’s trending topic is a fun one, and certainly one I know a couple of you enjoy, given your love of visual art and poetry: Ekphrastic poetry

Basically, an ekphrastic poem is a poem inspired by a work of art. If you’re interested in more info, Wikipedia’s Ekphrasis page is chock full, and if you do an internet search, you’ll find many sites and blogs dedicated to the topic.

Choose your own work of art, or select from the following Public Domain options (courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access Collection):

Viennese Cafe: The Man of Letters
Moriz Jung, 1911

Landscape with a Waterfall
Johann Christoph Rist, 1816

I was aged about seven years
The first time that I flew
I strapped a rocket on my back
And the next thing that I knew
I could touch the clouds.
As I lifted off, went airborne
As I soared into the sky I knew then what a junkie feels
For truly hooked was I
I could touch the clouds.
The other lads played baseball
But me, I never did
I perfected my propellants
And left contrails overhead
I could touch the clouds.
I’m older now, still flyin’
Sometimes every day
I’ve got a gig with TBP
And you know what they say,
“He can touch the clouds.”
In the time I have been doing this, Working for Ms Rose,
I’ve inspired poetry
I’ve inspired prose I’ve inspired writers
To raise their voices loud
Meanwhile I’m doing what I love
Each day I touch the clouds.
(by Thom Kerr)

He Said/She Said

Bend it to your liking, he says. Make of it what you will. Alrighty, then…

Instead of OLWG Prompts:

I voted
the wetness of his soul
overcome the legacy
you born in a barn?
if I don’t go I’ll never know what’s there
that’ll be fun
I fall in love with you every day
and no one even knows I’m gone
be like snow

How about:

I like fun
You don’t even know
Wetness overcomes snow (how do you do that as rock/paper/scissors?)
Every soulful legacy is born of love
His barn was voted best in the county
What’s gone, I’ll never know.
Fall, and no one in a hundred years will help you up
That’ll be over there one day, you just wait and see

I know. A bit of a copout. But it was kinda fun! OLWG #196

The New Blog Propellant Prompt #5

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! I have re-posted several previous prompts, but it’s fun to post new ones.

This week’s prompt:

Use the theme “prompt,” or one of its synonyms to create a story or poem
(Some synonyms: incite, arouse, cause, convince, elicit…)

The Blog Propellant Redux #14

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! Every so often, I repost former TBP prompts.

Write a post! Fiction, poetry, even a true story based on the following prompt. When you are done, include the URL address of this post in your post. Simple! All those who read this post will have a link to your post, and all those who read your post will have a link this one. More readers = more followers (so they say). Regardless, it is fun to share. Anytime! Respond now, or come back to this prompt when it suits. “The door is always open.”

This week’s prompt: It’s an oldy, but a goody from ye ole WordPress Daily Prompt files.

You walk into your home and find two people you don’t know eating cake. What happens next?

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The New Blog Propellant Prompt #4

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! I have re-posted several previous prompts, but from time to time, I’ll post a new one.

This week’s prompt:

“Inspiration,” in English has had the meaning “the drawing of air into the lungs” since the middle of the 16th century. This breathing sense is still in common use among doctors, as is “expiration”…However, before “inspiration” was used to refer to breath it had a distinctly theological meaning in English, referring to a divine influence upon a person. The sense of inspiration often found today (“someone or something that inspires”) is considerably newer than either of these two senses, dating from the 19th century. (from Merriam-Webster.com)

The Blog Propellant Redux #13

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! Every so often, I repost former TBP prompts.

This week’s prompt: I have a friend who genuinely loves their work as a bookkeeper. I can’t think of anything more tedious. What is it about an occupation or leisurely pastime that others misunderstand? What are assumptions others hold? How are they inaccurate? What would others find a happy surprise about an otherwise dull occupation or pastime?

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The New Blog Propellant Prompt #3

This week’s prompt:

Make of, or do with the following narrative what you will:

I remember the first time I heard Kenny G. We had MTV playing in the background while we puttered around, separately doing whatever it was we were doing, when this soft, melodic, soprano saxophone came wafting through the house. We simultaneously emerged from wherever we individually were, drawn to what this completely bizarre/not MTV sound was. The two of us stood dumbfounded, listening and watching ‘Songbird’ video.

“What the f….was that?” my husband said with a loud laugh when it ended.

I was aged about seven years
The first time that I flew
I strapped a rocket on my back
And the next thing that I knew I
could touch the clouds.

As I lifted off, went airborne
As I soared into the sky
I knew then what a junkie feels
For truly hooked was I I could touch the clouds.

The other lads played baseball
But me, I never did
I perfected my propellants
And left contrails overhead
I could touch the clouds.

I’m older now, still flyin’
Sometimes every day
I’ve got a gig with TBP
And you know what they say,
“He can touch the clouds.”

In the time I have been doing this,
Working for Ms Rose,
I’ve inspired poetry
I’ve inspired prose
I’ve inspired writers
To raise their voices loud
Meanwhile I’m doing what I love
Each day I touch the clouds.
(by Thom Kerr)

The COVID Shag

Shawna frowned at her beaming husband, Carter.

“I actually got used to you with long hair.”

“Really? I thought you hated the COVID shag look. I sure did.”

“No, I said I don’t like it on me.”

“Oh. I love your hair long.”

“It itches my neck. Can’t wait to cut it.”

“But, you are waiting.”

“I’m waiting until I get vaccinated.”

“Why? If it’s bugging you, get it cut.”

“Why can’t I just do what I want, how I want, hm? You wanted to get yours cut, fine. I don’t. Not yet.”

“You going to cut it short, like always?”

“Like I said, I don’t like long hair on me.”

“I do.”

“Well, I liked you with longer hair, but you didn’t ask me.”

Shawna and Carter stared at each other, unsure what the next move should be. If there is one thing this year cooped up together demonstrated, it’s that it is best to just let the conversation freely wander around the trivial things, rather than piling them up into burning pyres of marital discontent.

“Why’d you like my hair longer?” Carter asked.

Shawna shrugged. “Oh, I guess it made you look… I don’t know… not exactly sexy, but, yeah. Sexy. Sexier.”

“Huh.”

“Not so buttoned-up, I guess.”

“Huh.”

“Why do you like me with long hair?”

Carter took a moment before replying. “This’ll sound weird because you’ve always had short hair. But, it makes you look… more feminine.”

“How’s that weird?”

“Well, because… OK. I’ve always thought that you’re pretty, right? Long hair makes you… different pretty.”

“Different pretty.”

Carter smiled, “Yeah, whatever that means.”

“So, you’d like me to be different.”

“No, that’s not what I said.”

“Do you want someone different?”

“Shawna, please don’t do this. We agreed. I love you just the way you are. I don’t care if your hair is short. I just happen to really like it long. That’s it. I don’t want someone different. Please, please, don’t do this.”

Shawna gave Carter a quick hug around the waist, then walked out of the room. Carter sighed. It was going to be another one of her sulky days.

The haircut prompt made me laugh. All three prompts this week are: Let it wander around; Burning pyres; I don’t like your haircut

The Blog Propellant Redux #12

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! Every so often, I will repost former TBP prompts.

This week’s prompt: Select a photo below and write a fictional journal entry or memoir of the day the photo was taken.

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The Blog Propellant New Prompt #2

I used to maintain a writing prompt blog called The Blog Propellent. It was a lot of fun and these days, fun is what we need! I have reposted several previous prompts, but this time, I put up a new one.

This week’s prompt:

Interview someone! Real or imagined. Come up with five questions and three follow-up questions to your interviewee’s answers. The Interviewer can be in first person, or a third person character.

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