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Monday, August 31, 2015

Flower fall - tanka



curt, sharp-edged light
fells blooms from trees gathering
in an orphaned arc

soughing into pregnant grass
rosy tales of birth and death

~~~


For Dverse Poets Modifiers- Use modifiers in wild and whacky ways :)




Canvas of failure - haiku


Over at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads the challenge is to do ekphrastic poetry. Ekphrasis comes from Greek and means to use a description of art (the poem) as a rhetorical or imaginative description. With just a single piece of art, the challenge is to find a poem that does notjust describe the painting, but how it speaks to me, what stories I find in it.


Artist in his Studio by Rembrandt

Tongue-in-cheek haiku

Ugh! Did I paint that?
What was I thinking? Oh hell!
There goes my contract.

~~~

Plain old haiku

Decay seeped from walls
deep into his heart spaces
A desert canvas

~~~


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sensuous Sundays - Moon Paeans


did you know
that moonlight writes poems
on pages of grass

tales of anguish
paeans to the mundane
arias of joy

now you know why
the dawn finds the blades of grass
drenched in tears

~~~

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Stark Reality


(100 word flash fiction)

She eased into the immersive reality machine and touched the power button. Excited and impatient to try out a new software. Utterly untried. Called Stark Reality.

The smell hit her first. Harsh, acrid, almost forgotten. The smell of burning.

Explosions rent the air. Soldiers passed in jeeps shooting randomly.  She turned to flee, tripped and fell.

A deafening thunderclap lifted her off the ground and threw her against a wall. Pain lightning streaked through her body. She could barely see. She tried to feel her face. But where were her hands?

How was she going to reach the power button?

~~~

I wrote this story and then spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the nature of reality. It seems our bodies are virtual reality machines with our sense organs giving us the input. Our brain is the computer and our mind the software. But all of this is controlled by the Ghost In The Machine who decides when to power on and off (dramatically called birth and death). After powering off, the GITM might find another VR machine and power on again. Who knows? The GITM does this for no other reason than to have an immersive experience, much like we would go on a roller coaster ride :) However, we tend to identify with the machine, the computer, the software, the whole package or even software generated concepts like gender, race, nationality, all the while forgetting that we are none of these. We are here just for the ride :D Well, not my thoughts exactly. The mystics have been saying this for centuries :)

It’s that time of the week, when one’s mind itches to see the photo prompt that Rochelle faithfully puts up for the eclectic group called Friday Fictioneers. Today’s story is for the prompt below –

PHOTO PROMPT - ©Claire Fuller
Photo copyright - Claire Fuller

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Views from the plane

On a flight from Christchurch to Wellington, I got to shoot the magnificent Southern Alps and also managed to get bit of Wellington.

Just out of Christchurch







Cook Strait, blue and gleaming in the sun


Wellington, in sight




Monday, August 17, 2015

Mundane Mondays - Teatime


~ Celebrating the mundane ~

Teatime – haiku

gingery spiced tea
biscuit dipping, hot slurping
the sun in my eyes

~~~




Sunday, August 16, 2015

Sensuous Sundays - Love notes



(click on photo to see larger version)



Saturday, August 15, 2015

Beautiful drone photos


10 beautiful drone photos on 500px

(8 and 9 are my personal favs)


Friday, August 14, 2015

The revenge of the moths


(100 word flash fiction)

“Come on, we’ve come this far, let’s not falter. We’ve got to find our friend.”

“But, as far as we have found out, these strange arched eating places, they only serve cow, pig, fish and fowl. We won’t find him here.”

“A ‘lil bird told me this one’s different. They serve wildlife meat to only some people. We’ve got to get in and find out.”

“But, what are we going to do if we find they serve wild lion meat?”

“We will poison their food, so that no one eats here anymore. And do the same to all the others.”

~~~

Cecil’s death still haunts me. I need catharsis, I guess.

A bitter tale written for the lovely Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers for the photo prompt below –

Photo © Madison Woods

Sunday, August 09, 2015

Too young to wed - 2


After I had written Too young to wed and was agonising about all the child brides and how helpless I felt, it occurred to me that there was another side to the story - the husband's side. I had to write another story just to look at things from his side too. I confess, I couldn't see very clearly (being female and not being from that culture).

THE SAVOUR

(110 word flash fiction)

Khalid flops to his side. Lovemaking with Saida is always dissatisfying. Firstly, she doesn’t move. Then, she is so small. Guilt stabs at his heart. He shouldn’t have married someone so young.

But, her uncle had begged until he had relented. After all, he was saving her from possible rape and ruin. He had given her a ‘married woman‘ status. And now, the chance to be a mother.


Smug satisfaction wipes away the guilt. Saida gets up and leaves. ‘Ungrateful wretch! Crying all the time.’


Sleep clouds his brain as clouds obscure the moon just as the thought is forming that his child and wife could both go to school.


~~~

Saturday, August 08, 2015

Too young to wed


(100 word flash fiction)

Saida’s husband has flopped to his side after heaving his 54-year old heavy, sweaty body on her 14-year one. Through her tears, she can see the moon outside the window emerge from behind clouds.

Fat-belly moon. Like her own growing belly. Wanderer of the skies. It reminds her of freedom. Of her short-lived school days.  Of her once fiery desire to be a teacher.
Yes! Fire could be her deliverer.

She tiptoes across the room to the kitchen. Thick, dark clouds are rapidly obscuring the moon. In the fading light, she finds the kerosene, douses herself and lights a match.

~~~

Can't say I wrote this story. I only paraphrased a real-life story (or bits from lots of them). Watch the full feature on this National Geographic Live feature called 'Too young to Wed" by Photographer Stephanie Sinclair and writer Cynthia Gorney. Heart-breaking stuff!

Flash fiction for Friday Fictioneers to the photo prompt below -

PHOTO PROMPT -© Madison Woods

Thursday, August 06, 2015

Like a pebble - tanka


Autumn drops a leaf
on sky-coloured still water
gold seeps into blue

blue seeps into me. I am
cloudless, skyless, limitless

~~~


(Image from - http://www.goodfon.su/wallpaper/autumn-maple-leaf-water-osen.html)


Written for the Carpe Diem prompt - Like a Pebble

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Coming of the camellias


The first camellia of the season has bloomed ---