Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 109

The Sailor Said Brandy… [Tanka Tuesday Prompt]

We know the Japanese poetical form tanka means short song, which is appropriate as it is a form of the broader genre waka, which, itself, is a form of song or verse. So for our first Tanka Tuesday I feel it fitting for the prompt to come from a song. And it is no ordinary song for it is a song of the sea, a song of love found, and a song of love lost.

Using the traditional Westernized syllable count version of the form – 5/7/5/7/7 – write a tanka inspired by one of the songs most loved by the sailor…well, at least this sailor – Looking Glass’s Brandy You’re A Fine Girl.

While your response to the song can be the result of wherever the song takes your heart and mind, the syllable count must be exact.

Submissions close at 7PMish and our selection will be published at 8PMish.

Please “Like” the ones you like, and then go visit the authors’s sites and maybe comment on some of their work there since no comments other than submission responses are allowed here.

This may explain things a bit about the Writing Challenge.

This may explain things a bit about the tanka.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Brandy You're A Fine Girl, contests, Japanese poetry, Looking Glass, music, music videos, poetry, tanka, verse, waka, writing, writing contests, writing prompts

The Sailor Said Brandy… [Tanka Tuesday]

We know the Japanese poetical form tanka means short song, which is appropriate as it is a form of the broader genre waka, which, itself, is a form of song or verse. So for our first Tanka Tuesdays I feel it fitting for the prompt to come from a song. And it is no ordinary song for it is a song of the sea, a song of love found, and a song of love lost.

Using the traditional Westernized syllable count version of the form – 5/7/5/7/7 – write a tanka inspired by one of the songs most loved by the sailor…well, at least this sailor – Looking Glass’s Brandy You’re A Fine Girl.

While your response to the song can be the result of wherever the song takes your heart and mind, the syllable count must be exact.

Submissions close at 7PMish and our selection will be published at 8PMish.

Please “Like” the ones you like, and then go visit the authors’s sites and maybe comment on some of their work there since no comments other than submission responses are allowed here.

This may explain things a bit about the Writing Challenge.

This may explain things a bit about the tanka.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Brandy You're A Fine Girl, contests, Japanese poetry, Looking Glass, music, music videos, poetry, tanka, verse, waka, writing, writing contests, writing prompts

The Cubby Hole [Memoir Monday Selection]

Apologies for the delay; however, I just finished watching “American Sniper” to celebrate Groundhog Day. And even though Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which foreshadows six more weeks of winter, I don’t care; the awesomeness of the movie just made this Groundhog Day one of my best ever.

Great flick.

And you know what made this day even better? All the awesome submissions for today’s writing prompt.

So many of your youthful adventures were similar to mine. The adventures Satin Sheet Diva conjured while in her tree of a cubby hole are not unlike those I write about in my “Barn” poem from my poetry collection. And how I appreciate Mandy Moran’s remembrances, especially of “Marble Magic.” Oh how I loved me a good round of marbles. And it seems as if Guidance Fitness Personal Training was nearly channeling my youth with his flowing recollections.

I especially enjoyed Yoshiko’s one word haiku-like submission. Even if we never had a physical space we could escape to, hopefully we all had access to books as children…or, in my case, comic books. How I could get swept away into some of those classic reads.

And while I enjoyed all the submission, the one that spoke to me the most was the one that really made me feel as if I were there with him in his cubby holes. I could just imagine his Lands of the Butterfly and the Grasshopper and the Ant. I could see myself sitting next to him on his window sill as the expanse of the land ran out before us all the way to the horizon. But mostly I enjoyed his wardrobe of a cubby hole. For it reminded me so vividly of how I loved to enclose myself in dark spaces like a closet. Ours had sliding doors and once closed and darkened, the clothes hung down like flimsy ghosts and the shoes and other unknowables scattered about on the floor felt like things only a child’s imagination could imagine.

Wonderful memories.

And so it is my pleasure to present to you our selection for this Memoir Monday…

NR Wishart Healing and His Magical Cubby Holes

nrwisharthealing.com

I had a magical place over a fence off a field which backed onto my family home back garden. I dubbed the stretch of land Butterfly Land, then there was Grasshopper Land further on and then Ant Land. And it really was divided like that it seemed for me. I loved it there. Sometimes I would share it with a friend and take them there. There were plenty of trees to hide in or climb high and sit on a branch and watch nature. Lost in my own world. I could literally see my own worldly creations if I ran with them. Places would transform. And then there was my wardrobe lol! I used to hide in there and just be still. The most influential place was my bedroom windowsill. I could see out to the horizon. A rare spot in the town I grew up in. Higher than what lay in front. A nice green field and plenty of trees and fields for miles. Every insight, vision, dream, it all happened on that windowsill. Night time contemplating, prayers, bathed in countless warming sunrises. Beautiful moments!

Thank you all very much for such wonderful submissions with their wonderful cubby hole reflections.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: childhood dreams, children, cubby holes, dark spaces, memoirs, memories, writing, writing prompts

In Celebration of Ground Hog Day…

The fam and I are heading to the movie theater to see “American Sniper.”

Consequently, our selection for “Memoir Monday“ will be delayed several hours. I will say there are some wonderful submissions and as a result all who submitted a response to the prompt may have a free digital copy of one of my books or short story up on Amazon if so desired. Please contact me through the, you guessed it, Contact page to let me know your choice.

In the meantime, you’re welcome to watch this trailer repeatedly until I return and get the selection picked and published.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: American Sniper, Ground Hog Day, Indie Authors, movies, writing, writing prompts

Nature’s Risen Sol

the dawn’s gentle tug

from twilight’s tuck tender yields

nature’s risen sol

Inspired by Nature? Join our Newsletter Love Emerson, First Commitment

Must be a subscriber to participate

Edition 003-15 is germane
Filed under: Photography Tagged: evening sky, haiku, living, metaphors, morning sky, nature, photography, poetry, sol, spirituality, sunrise, sunset, writing, 俳句

The Cubby Hole [Memoir Monday Prompt]

My childhood homestead was filled with wonderment. We lived on a dead-end street that ended at field that had a path that led to dirt roads and other such adventures. Next to my house was an expansive, swaying field where an old magical barn lived. I spent much of my youth in that barn and there much of the foundation of who I have become was set. I celebrate the Barn and the Field, as well as the secret Pond that lay beyond the dirt road in my poetry collection Poems from the River.

And while there was so much nature with hidden folds and crooks for me to escape to and which I did, there was also one such place right inside my home, which I used as a back up of sort for when I couldn’t get outside to escape from whatever it was that was chasing me or to whatever it was I had wished to become me that day. This not-so-secret secret place was hidden underneath the stairs. There was my inside place to escape, to daydream, to scare myself a little, to bring myself to quiet, and it was what we called a cubby hole. It had a small door that matched the paneling of the wall and inside, where all our games and decorations and other things meant to be hidden were stored, the ceiling was low, even for a child, and it was lit by one bare light bulb with a pull chain.

Like the barn, it, too, was a place of magic…

So tell us, in the form or device of your choosing…

Where, as a child, did you go to escape, to become? Where was your Cubby Hole of magic and wonderment?

Submissions close at 7PMish, selection announced at 8PMish.

This explains things a bit.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: barns, childhood dreams, children, cubby holes, daily prompts, daydreams, fields, secret places, spirituality, trees, woods, writing, writing contests, writing prompts

You Make the Call…

My heart says the Patriots only because I do not like repeat champions – unless of course it were the Browns…hey! stop laughing! – but my head says the Seahawks just because their defense is so dominant, Lynch nearly unstoppable, and Russell Wilson the Wizard is a football phenom of magical madness – and seems to be an all around good guy; his work with children with cancer is very heart warming and inspiring.

So, I can live with either team winning but mostly I hope for an exciting game, a great half-time performance (though I don’t know much about Katy Perry except that she’s lucky to have married Russell Brand because when they divorced he didn’t take her to the cleaners by not cleaning out half of her bank earnings), and awesome commercials…

Yup, I’m about as American as one can be when it comes to the Super Bowl, including the nachos, wings, and other delectable Bowls of Super Snacks and other Scrumptiousness.

Yeah, I know…all the issues and controversy surrounding the NFL are very worrisome. That Ray Rice video is just gross and that sort of vicious behavior cannot be tolerated, not just in the NFL, but in all sectors of society. Perhaps we should address this issue further as a #ThoughtfulThursday prompt.

So, in an effort to make an awkward transition from such seriousness as domestic violence to such trivial things as football fun…

Which team do you pick to win? And for those of you truly daring, tell us in the comment section what your final score predictions is.

As for me, I’ll go with the heart and pick the Patriots over the Seahawks by a score of 35 to 31!

Take Our Poll

 

 

Filed under: Sports Tagged: cancer, chicken wings, domestic violence, football, nachos, New England Patriots, NFL, polls, predictions, Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl, voting

Bestest Brothers Under the Sun

Aurelius & Zeno

Filed under: Photography Tagged: adorable dogs, animals, Aurelius, dog photography, dogs, naps, photography, puppies, sunshine, Zeno

Three Men Walk into a Bar… [#SatireSaturday Prompt]

First off, you may have noticed that today’s prompt is not of the #SonnetSaturday sort as originally advertised.

Yeah, about that…

See, I did me some literary math and took the total number of participants to date and subtracted that number by the presumed difficulty level, which I presume is pretty high, in sonnet composing and concluded that we just don’t have the mathematical heft to support a #SonnetSaturday. And to be honest with you, I’m a little worried about the long-term survival of this Daily Prompt thingie in general. But we’ll make that decision at a later date.

So, instead we now have #SatireSatuday, which may be a bit more mathematically attainable…

So, three men, the President of the United States, the “President” of Russia, and the Pope, as well as each of their cadre of bodyguards, walk into a bar, an underground transgender bar, hidden off a back, unassuming alley in an highly flamboyant basement of an unassuming building in the highly assuming city of Moscow…

You can take it, and by it I mean the satire, from there, utilizing any literary or art form you wish; however it must contain the words or spirit of the words: “the president’s secret fantasy.”

Roger that?

Roger that.

Submissions close at 7PMish and my selection will be posted at 8PMish.

The purpose of these exercises, in my mind, is to practice our skills and network a little bit. So, if you have the time and desire, please submit something; however, if you’re just a dedicated reader, please take the time to “Like” the submissions you like and, as we cannot allow any comments other than the submissions, please visit the sites of those daring to submit and find something to enjoy and comment on there.

To help get us in the proper frame of the prompt I share with you Antony Hegarty of “Antony and the Johnsons,” one of my favorite singers, as a reminder just how talented and worthy of our respect our transgender brothers and sisters are. And they are worthy of our respect not because of their gender choices or wardrobe choices or smooth skin, but for the same reason anyone else is worthy of our respect, which is, of course…just because.

 

For more on Antony, there’s this.

Peace and have fun…

Roger that?

Roger that.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Antony and the Johnsons, art, fiction, Indie Authors, LGBT, music, politics, President Obama, President Putin, Russia, satire, the Pope, transgender, writing

Rub-a-dub-dub?! [#FFF Selection]

Ha ha…what more can I say about the two submissions in response to today’s prompt other than they both are frikkin’ awesome and just the bizarre fun and wonder I was hoping for. The only problem is having to choose one over the other.

I had pretty much resolved myself to the international standard selection process of the Flipping of the Coin to let Chance decide. However, right before the flip, as the coined balanced precariously on my thumb, I manned* up, so to speak, and decided that I would not choose my selection by such a cop-out of a way.

The selection had to be up to me not a coin. I had to find a way to differentiate between the two. So I got to thinking about what if it were me writing a response to the prompt. Which response would I be more likely to write – the humorous or the macabre? Yeah, you guessed it, I probably would have gone dark with this one.

Consequently, it is my pleasure to present to you…

THREE MEN IN A BLOODY TUB

by Josh Wrenn

England:

Detectives are baffled by findings of human remains found floating in the Channel. All of the dead were cut into pieces, but meticulously scrubbed clean of blood, fingerprints, and other evidence.

Lead Detective Jeff Murdock would not confirm the rumors that there is a serial killer on the loose, but did confirm that there are multiple victims.

Anonymous sources within the department tell BBC News that they believe there are at least two victims who were dismembered, cleaned, and then dumped into the Channel.

BBC News has also learned that a task force dubbed “The Butcher” has been set up within the department but has been unable to determine whether it is related to this case. We have also learned that at least one witness may have been brought in for questioning by the task force.

In other news:

The families of Westham’s famous Candlestick Maker, and his friend and world-renowned Baker are asking the public for assistance in finding the two men, who never returned home after a fishing trip. Anyone who knows anything about their whereabouts is asked to call 111.

 

myfridayblog.wordpress.com

 

Thank you very much Doug and Josh for your awesome stories. If either of you would like a digital copy of one of my selections at Amazon, please contact me through the Contact page and let me know.

And thank you to all who joined in the fun and took the time to “Like” the selections for yourself. You all, too, are frikkin’ awesome.

Until tomorrow…

 

*non-gender specific

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: #FFF, authors, books, children's poetry, fiction, flash fiction, Indie Authors, nursery rhymes, prompts, rhymes, writers, writing, writing contests, writing prompts