"Cold Enough for a Fire".. I Can Almost Hear Daddy Say!

"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere. "
- Joyce A. Myers

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

"The writer doesn't need economic freedom. All he needs is a pencil and some paper."
- William Faulkner, 1897 - 1962

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Microfiction Monday #61 -




Rub a dub dub.. the wash board in a tub.. Little Miss Mary splashed her best dress with water while the "wash woman" was in the outhouse..

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( just a side note from someone who has had the chance to wash clothes on a washboard in a tub... though the picture is cute.. there would be no way she would be still dry.. washing clothes on a scrub board is back breaking.. hot.. and very tiring.. I actually own two well worn wash boards and each of my children have had a chance to learn to use them.. in fact I insisted that they wash their own things while we were on a camping vacation.. yes I am a mean..mean... mean woman... )


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Ceremony

selfish blunders jolt
wedding trinkets soon tarnish
apathy begins

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
7-1-2010

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Shielded

love a sweet buffer
hardest work a pleasant chore
poverty giggles

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
7-1-2010


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Burnished Bog

ghostly lily pads
brightly adrift in moonlight
alligator sleeps

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
7-1-2010


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It is bitterly cold here.. as Christmas draws nearer and nearer.. I don't have much spirit.. I think about all the ones who we will be missing this year.. some who have been gone for a long.. long time and some who have recently passed.. I have heard that they sell "spirit" in colorful bottles.. and I have been wanting a bottle tree... I wonder what "spirit" will taste like.. thanks for stopping by my blog today to share a few moments of my world... I welcome both comments and followers.. Have a great day!
Patsy

Teeny Weeny Word Counts! ~ Acrostic poems

"Poetry: the best words in the best order." ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand" ~ Plato

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words" ~Robert Frost

"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom" ~ Robert Frost


One type of poem that I do enjoy writing is the acrostic poem. They will say something down the edge of the poem as well as whatever idea or emotion the writer my be trying to convey by the poem itself. I Often acrostic poems for words that people send to me. Yesterday I had a few words to arrive hoping to be turned into acrostic poems. There was a catch this time though. They all had Itty Bitty; Teeny Weeny word count rules. Or at least I thought they had small word count rules. For instance I had the word HEN with a word count rule of Four. That means that not counting the title, I could only use four words. It sounds tough to do because it is. Another one was the word Weakness with a word count of fifteen words. I have many weaknesses including a weakness for words. But Fifteen words is really not very many when you are writing a poem. It gets down to bare bones words. Every word has to count. You have to trim away every word that isn't positively necessary. But I think I met the challenge OK.

This is a very short Post today. I decided that since the poems had teeny weeny Word counts. I would stick to that theme for todays Post as well. Y" all have a wonderful day. I hope you will Enjoy todays Poems.
Patsy


Hen ~ (acrostic -word count of four)

How Many
Eggs
Needed?

written By: Patricia sawyer
1-30-2009

Weakness ~ acrostic ~ word count of fifteen.)

Work; worry;
Everyday!
Action ~ reaction!
Kindness? Never!
Needs not met.
Eventual eruption!
Somebody WILL
suffer!

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
1- 29-2009

How Many Words?

"Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words." ~ Paul Engle


"Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them."
~ Charles Simic


"A poet who makes use of a worse word instead of a better, because the former fits the rhyme or the measure, though it weakens the sense, is like a jeweler, who cuts a diamond into a brilliant, and diminishes the weight to make it shine more." ~ Horace Walpole


How many words does it take to say what I want to say? How many does it take to say all I need to say? I always thought that you should use lots of flowing flowery words to "dress up" any story or poem that you wrote. I even thought that you had to use a certain amount of fancy words just to make it look good. I was recently informed that I was wrong about that. I had always known about word counts. Years ago when I took one of those by the mail writing courses, that were so popular back then, they talked about word counts a lot. Of course they had to set limits because the story did have to actually fit into their magazine with lots of space for the other writers stories and articles too. Not to mention the classifieds and pictures required to make a good magazine.

But word count in poetry? My dark poetry teacher called it the extra word law. He said take out every single word you can! Then read it over a few times to make sure you got them all. But to start out knowing you can only use a set amount, and a small amount at that, of words is often scary. I have tried to entice my poetry club into trying it. So far they all say I am limiting them too much. It is new to them and they can't imagine saying anything with less than a page full of words. I will eventually woo them over to at least try it I hope!

Today's poems were all written by prompts. Each of them gave a one or two word prompt plus a word count limit. So that we not only knew how many words we could use, but also the subject of our poem. However we are always able to interpret the word or words or even sometimes, pictures, in our own way. Maybe some of you have a word in mind and want to send me a word and a word count. Maybe you have a picture you'd like me to try and write something from. Just remember that some subjects require a few more words than others. But being me, I'll give almost anything a try. I hope you enjoy these poems. Have a great day!
Patsy


#1) PROMPTS: spiral, malleable, stranded ~ use one, two or all three.. your choice. 30 (thirty) words. ~ Emma

Behind a Wall
Hammers of your words
strike again and again.
My soul spirals downward
uncontrolled. My malleable
heart forever twisted by
wicked words. My Love stranded
behind an unbreakable wall of Pain.

written By: Patricia Sawyer
10-21-2008
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#2)PROMPTS: surreal, sunset; use both or use just one. you decide. ENTER♥
~ mesmerized--x

Sunset
Old gray heron
wades knee deep
along ponds edge.
Feeding.
Fiery reflections dance
across still waters.
Bass leaps through
sunset.

written By: Patricia Sawyer
10-20-2008

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#3) 35 words or less. no rhyme. anger and unrest found in the youth of the worlds cities today.
~ Norman

Pieces Of Me
On City sidewalk corners
stands anger, Desperation and Pain.
Buyers, Sellers, Pushers!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Stop; Look around
faceless stranger lays dead.
I calmly walk away.
Pieces of me dripping
into the river of unrest.

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
10-28-2008
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#4) Prompt: Manhattan chill - 30-40 words -Brevity and imagination are the key
~autumn gypsy

A Long Way Up
Big city socialites
Barely there dresses.
Midnight chill kept off
their shoulders by thick
chinchilla fur. Champagne
filled bellies.Strutting their stuff.
A wiggle in their midnight walk.
Frozen smile. Eyes as dead as the
animal about their skinny neck.

written By: Patricia Sawyer
10-30-2008