Oct 14, 2015 Friday Fictioneers

PHOTO PROMPT -© Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly

The Thing I Held

©October 14th, 2015

By Vijaya Sundaram

Rain poured down like tears while I stood at the railing.   My hands shook.  My eyes were wet, like rain.

The blurring in my eyes flooded my throat, like smoke pouring down the chimney, asphyxiating me.

In my hand I held the thing that had destroyed a life.

Behind me, in my room lay that life, the man who’d almost destroyed mine.  No matter that he deserved it.  No matter that he was wrong.  No matter that I was broken.

He was dead.  And so was I.

The rain washed away the thing I held.  It washed me away, too.

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Thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our Fairy Blog-Mother (as I dub her) for hosting Friday Fictioneers for us fiction-loving writers from around the world, and for that evocative photo-prompt which served as our springboard today.

Tags: murder fiction, Self-Defense, Violence against men, violence against women

Oct 14, 2015 Original Poetry, Writing 201

A Cold Christmas Pine-Tree

(Writing 201, Day 9: Shape Poem/Anaphora/Epistrophe/Symploce)

©October 14th, 2015

By Vijaya Sundaram

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‘Tis

Almost winter.

And chill will soon set in

And bitter snow will quickly fall

Before the Fall comes

 Tumbling down, before the leaves

Come tumbling down,

Before green apples turn to brown, before

Our smiles turn into frowns, when bitter

Cold will curl your hair, your skin, and then, with

Blank confusion, you’ll begin to

Layer up, and slide down streets, and find that you can chatter

 With your mouth clamped shut,

And what you say, or dream, or write, or think won’t matter.

Too soon will pine-trees don the frost

Of tinsel, paper flakes of snow, and lights of gold with pride and joy

And hope and peace and love enwrapped.

And shining gifts will glow beneath, a star above,

Who cares a whit if you seek and find your love of Soul

In other domains, other spirits, other lands? Who cares a whit?

That matters not!

This matters–not

What you say, but

What you are by

Night or day — a

Shining, lovely star!

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Tags: #Love, #Soul, anaphora, christmas, Christmas tree, cold, epistrophe, fall, gifts, joy, Pine-tree, shape poem, Shape Poetry, spirit, star, symploce, Winter chill

Oct 14, 2015 Original Poetry, Writing 201

Elegy for a Dying Earth

(Day 8: Flavor, Elegy, Enumeratio)

©October 15th, 2015

By Vijaya Sundaram

I fear the earth has come to reap what we have sown

In haste, we sowed the breeze, and reaped this hateful wind

And through this storm, we’ll miss those things we loved so well

The rain, the snow, the flowers, this land– for we have sinned.

 

Not sins against a God, or gods, or goddesses

But sins against the likes of us, of you and me,

Against our children full of confusion and hurt

To whom we give our ravaged earth, and dying seas.

 

I’ll miss the scent of rain on dusty earth, the scent

Of budding rose, and jasmine sweet, and marigold.

We’ll see the ponds go dry in summer months, and geese

That leave in droves, will seek new lands, and mourn the old.

 

Now, storms and hurricanes ravage our broken lands

And dolphins strand themselves, and turtles gasp, and more —

Asphyxiated fish that choke in netted seas

Lie dead and blind upon our broken, littered shores.

 

I mourn them all, the birds, and animals, and plants

I mourn us all, so smug, so proud, so full of greed

With eyes of death, he chokes our breath– that demon, Wealth;

And laughs at us, although we cry; for mercy, plead.

 

What hope have we, who heed his lusty, tempting call?

What chance this earth against that mighty money-song?

If we but stop and turn things round (turn off the lights!)

We might yet live, and save what’s right, avert what’s wrong.

 

So, close your eyes, and step outside, while life yet thrives

And taste the beauty of this fragile Earth, who gives,

Such wealth, her fruit and flowers, and these, our forests wild,

So fragrant, fresh and sweet, in places that still live.

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So, our assignment today was: Write an elegy, use flavor in your poem, and try the rhetorical device of Enumeratio

Alas, I attempted the Elegy form, but gave up almost instantly.  Still, just to challenge myself, I tried rhyming (It’s hard to resist a trite and easy rhyme scheme, but I really tried).  I’ll probably go back to tweak this poem!  This is only my second draft!

Also, I remembered almost too late that I needed to incorporate “flavor,” so I tried that, too.

My Enumeratio needs work, but I tried, I tried!

So, just as I did last week, when I attempted a classical Ode, and followed it with my next (non-Classical) Ode, I shall aim for another Elegy, but that will come later.  I have to run, now)

Thanks for reading, all!

(P.S.  So, I went back in just now – and tweaked three or four lines, just rearranged some words, cut out some, added an “and” or a “so,” and suchlike.  It’s at times like these that I remember my favorite Oscar Wilde, who once said words to the effect of, “I’m exhausted.  I spent all morning putting in a comma, and all afternoon taking it out.”)

Tags: #Elegy, #Life, #Love, #Writing 201, Beauty, Change our Ways, Climate Change, Commas, Dying Earth, Oscar Wilde reference, Save the seas, Savor the sweetness of this planet, Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind