What a Difference a Day Makes by Maria L. Berg 2022
As you can see, the snow is gone. I know I said I wasn’t going to publish all my word pictures here, but I wanted to show the result without the snow, and then I did some playing indoors.
Playing Indoors by Maria L. Berg 2022
New Poem
The dVerse Poets Pub is open after a two week vacation and today Lisa invites us to write a “celebration” haibun. I haven’t written a haibun in a while, so I think I’ll give it a try.
Celebrating Release from a Beautiful Imprisonment
I saw large, white flakes fall during my white-knuckle drive home through thick rain and sporadic drivers with speeds from infrared to ultraviolet.
Ten days it snowed since we opened presents, and ate Mother’s delicious strawberry cake, everyone generous and grateful. I remained sustained.
Overnight snowmelt frees me from joyous ice jail I return with treats
When I included “abandon” as a prompt, I imagined things left behind. I was feeling that kind of abandon yesterday, but I want to leave that behind. This morning when I thought of abandon, I thought of wild abandon: bright colors, spinning until falling, rolling down hills. The surrender kind of abandon. This bliss kind of abandon.
I’ll try to bring both aspects of abandon to a poem to fit yesterday’s Poetics prompt: In the Light of Other Days.
I ask my morning what I can abandon to enable a feeling of wild abandon Worry, said the morning abandon your worries like branches abandon their leaves to the wind and I hear the lawn is getting too long and you have dishes in your sink and I remember the black grit on the gray kitchen tiles I ask my morning how to abandon all the worries I’m facing so I can feel reckless abandon? Face them with action So I mow the lawn with abandon and as the grass abandons inches I turn my ankle but I do not abandon my mission I yell the pain at the wind and for once the pain walks off when I finish and lock the mower in the shed I find that my shed keys are lost most likely locked inside the shed and while not finding my keys I notice the drip from the outside faucet drip, drip, abandoning water (and money) into the mud which is worrying
Dimensional Abandon by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I was inspired to try a shadow effect inspired by images I’ve seen on Pinterest. Pareidolia combined with tricks of light and shadow made for some interesting house guests.
It hides behind the fancy ribbons the glitter, the streamers it hides in plain sight behind white-toothed red-lipstick smiles is obscured by laughter and music
but then a sudden light– headlights through the window sweeping the far wall, someone leaves the bathroom or enters from the hall– and the shadows shift and I see it so clearly and then it’s gone covered again in laughter and the next song’s major chords
It hides under every plastic cup and every paper plate under every chair used to fasten a balloon I can taste it in every bite of cake there it is in the flicker of candles I smell it coming in the smoke when extinguished
It lingers longer this year as it lurks in the shadows and leaves a clingy film after the guests have gone
My days are flying by. Every day I think I’ll get more done than I do, but I’m enjoying putting extra time into this initial set-up with the intent to have everything come up again later. I started hopping around a little bit yesterday, and that helped me get motivated to go back and continue the scene from the day before.
How’s your writing going? How do you get and stay motivated?
Why the Long Faces? by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
So far, so good. My prompts are inspiring me to hop out of bed, grab my camera and try new techniques. When I woke up, I made a quick list of things found in the wild that I forgot to put on my abandoned property description yesterday. This included: spiderwebs, spiders, huckleberries, salmon berries, ferns, maple trees, etc. The list of these details made me think of a set of screw-on macro lenses I bought a while ago and only tried once or twice. I set my camera to macro, grabbed the 10X lens and the 4X lens, and set out into the wild.
The world was very cooperative. It temporarily stopped raining and a little morning sun peeked out from the clouds occasionally. The leaves held lovely droplets. I was hoping to find one little shriveled up huckleberry clinging to the tree, but instead found many tiny huckleberries hanging on. They were delicious crispy, juicy treats. What a nice surprised.
Today I am wild as wild as a huckleberry after the first frost a crisp, tart-sweet burst as wild and fresh as raindrops collected in the yellow petals of a buttercup among ferns as wild and fresh and vibrant as light breaking through the thick gray to reveal threads of spiderwebs from sori dot to sori dot as wild and fresh and vibrant and dangerous as thorns hiding entwined on blackberry vines weaving through it all like sharp fangs behind plump, closed, smiling lips ready to prick any bit of vulnerable bare skin that comes too near today I am wild
a huckleberry after the first frost a crisp, tart-sweet burst raindrops collected in yellow petals of a buttercup among ferns light breaking through the thick gray clouds to reveal threads of spiderwebs from sori dot to sori dot thorns hiding entwined on blackberry vines weaving through the underbrush like sharp fangs behind plump, closed-smiling lips ready to prick any bit of bare skin
In the Light by Maria L. Berg
Veins by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
Yesterday I made the Miso and Squash soups I had been planning, so my meals are only a matter of quick warming for a while. I had forgotten all about my word count sticker sheet and bingo card, so I have some fun stickers to put on things today. Hopefully that will get some fun motivation started.
Writing Exercise: As my warm up today, I’m going to keep Chekhov’s gun in mind today and make a little map of everything I’ve set up in my opening scene: All of the props, sounds, people, etc. that have been brought to the reader’s attention as important and brainstorm how they may be revisited and build toward the climax of the story.
Yesterday, during the BARN writing group, a new member mentioned Wild Writing with Laurie Wagner, so thinking of today’s photo prompt, I looked it up. It consists of 15 minute hand-written writing sprints, writing as fast as you can. Sadly, I press hard even when I try not to, and do not write very quickly. But I do write faster when hearing the tick of my kitchen timer, so during my morning pages this morning, I will attempt to write as fast as I physically can and hope it leads me to bi-passing my inner critic and get to my intuition and instinct.
Whiskers by Maria L. Berg
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, carve, I went to grab a carving knife from the knife block, but it was missing. Mr. Skeleton had gotten to it first and had gone on a skeleton candle murder spree.
Unlike yesterday, I had a lot of fun this morning, and everything worked the way I wanted it to. My photo shoot was inspired by the original Halloween movie (affiliate link) poster.
I have really enjoyed this photography challenge this month. Not only does it get me up and active first thing, with creative production before breakfast, it involves crafting and engineering. I’ve enjoyed how the different prompts have worked together, so the graves I didn’t finish one morning, filled out the graveyard on another morning. There’s been a nice balance of creating scenes inside, outside, and bringing the outside in. I’ve tried so many new things and feel like I’m mastering some new techniques. I’ve also explored my space in new ways and appreciate all of my Halloween decorations for their versatility.
I found these one-word daily prompts so inspiring, I plan to continue during November. For NaNoWriMo I’m working on a thriller novel called “Abandoned Property,” so I’m creating prompts to go with that theme. I’m working to come up with prompts that will be as inspiring as Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge has been.
Killer Shadow by Maria L. Berg 2021
Halloween Slasher by Maria L. Berg 2021
OctPoWriMo
Today’s prompt, “Tea,” took some thought, but then I thought of charming elderly ladies which led me to Arsenic and Old Lace and I thought of the practice of reading tea leaves for divination, and decided tea would fit in nicely as spooky inspiration.
Finally split in two I’ve broken through to the gooey bits where dualities splash and clash in banality a mystery of flesh starving to carve
the protective coating cracked, gives and crashes around the periphery as sharp edges glitter in steel in jittery fists from shivery spinal nerve trickery
contradictory cleavage poking at pains hoping for gains by slicing and dicing then displaying the gore as horror torn and shorn from its safest hiding places
the conditionality of sanity sliced by a skeleton’s carving knife in the morning light dazzles momentarily before it scares me and I put it away.
The Other Slasher Comes to Play by Maria L. Berg 2021
Slasher Protege by Maria L. Berg 2021
And after I thought I was done taking pictures, kitty went to learn at the feet of the master slasher. Of course, this was meant to be a secret transaction, so he ran off the moment he saw I was taking pictures.
For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, creature, I experimented with an effect I noticed when I started to play with bokeh in the mirror: it’s possible to take a photo of a filter both right side up and upside down. These are my first experiments with the effect, but I got some fun results.
Tentacles by Maria L. Berg 2021
OctPoWriMo
Today’s prompt, “Speaking and Listening,” reminded me of all of my children’s story records my parents brought me a couple weeks ago. I think I’ll spend some time with them as I write today. The headless rider has some funny lines.
For Today’s Poetics challenge at dVerse Poets Pub, Lisa requested Halloween themed poems about irritating human attributes. That seems to fit well with today’s creatures. I don’t think I’ve tried the Duodora form before.
Headless
Human creature I’ve never come down so far with you before and heard. Don’t forget those roars in the night! Ibbity-Bibbity-Zibbity-Zab Every hypocritical word a trap
Human creature where monsters did last rise you have to believe in them to see them Pull off its disguise! Ibbity-Bibbity-Zibbity-Zab This is a headless monster you can’t nab!
For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, “drink,” I bought yummy, colorful juices and repurposed my candy mold as an ice tray. The drink photos did not go well. I made a terrible mess and I’m going to have to deal with a drunk alligator and zombie later, but I like how the candy pumpkin shots turned out. Making shots for a zombie, what was I thinking?
Today’s Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, is “frog.” My nephew told me that my next bokeh filter should be a frog a while ago. I’m glad I finally made it. I like how it turned out.
The Tuesday Writing Prompt at Go Dog Go Café is to write a poem without using the words “the” and “and.” I think this constraint could work well with sonic surrender, so I’m going to give it a try.
Today’s Poetics prompt at the dVerse Poets Pub: to write my way out of a place of pain, fits so perfectly with my thoughts of an ode to tortured love, it’s as if Ingrid was in my head this morning.
Oh, my Torture, this Love
When pain reigns, thrilling heightened awareness glaring nerves sparking with life firing toward limitations creating tense-muscled suspense extremes of what I can stand
Is it fear that brings me here? Does my flesh believe it will tear? Warning of peril from unlimited pleasure chaotic behavior when overwhelming pre-frontal processes, living uninhibited
In dizzying free-fall, Contusia dazed in a haze, purples sensitive to touch, crazed obsessive worries in separation so unstable wobbles, topples hobbled drained faint–that in-between pain
like frogs hopping perilously across back roads in thick morning fog brought on by a pond squashed in grills every year I am drawn to danger, red cayenne heat of danger, frying-pan-to-fire danger, tightrope-no-net danger, thin lines connecting cliffs over synaptic canyons too far to cross, between gains lost, ends too soon
Lake Frogs by Maria L. Berg 2021
Writober
Go Dog Go Café also has a Halloween-themed Prompt Challenge looking for Halloween inspired original pieces of writing / and or art. Submissions are open until October 25th.
This Week’s Story
Logline: An arrogant gossip hears noises coming from his shower. Exploring the drain isn’t enough, after cutting a whole through the floor, he finds that his problems run much deeper.
This morning I started the draft and it already surprised me. I’ll keep writing to about 1,000 words today and then let it simmer again until tomorrow. Here’s a little excerpt from my protagonist’s childhood trauma flashback:
I’m not sure what I did to convince it to stop playing dead, but when it did it was all claws and teeth. Its feet pierced my neck and shoulders trying to hold purchase while its teeth and front claws went for my head and face. I dropped the wood and flailed, but couldn’t scream for fear that parts of it would get in my mouth. So no one came to my aide.
I fell hard to the concrete on top of the wood I dropped, bruising my ribs, and played dead myself. It didn’t take long for it to lose interest and scurry into the shadows. I crawled up the steps and cried for my mom. She covered my cuts in stinging alcohol. I filled the house with screams, outmatching the wind until it died, and she took me to the hospital.
My first plum shrub cocktail photograph by Maria L. Berg 2021
Today’s prompt from Laura at Dverse Poets Pub is to write a Novelinee, a nine line stanza with a rhyme scheme in iambic pentameter. Let’s see what I can come up with.
In novelty
a sudden interest overpowers calm and everywhere I look a present falls like plums too high to pluck now in my palm enthralling rubber skin to sweetness calls excite my senses newness all around abundance fills my morning breakfast air the plop of ready fruit, adventure’s sound what foreign taste awaits for me to dare once hidden, now the joy in looking found
I finished this poem right on time to go combine my shrubs. I made:
plum & honey + apple cider vinegar with basil
plum & agave + balsamic vinegar with sage
For my cocktail I used equal parts rum, the balsamic shrub and tonic water. Sounds weird, but it’s tasty and has a nice bite. Here’s to trying new things! Make your way to the bar and request a sample. 🙂
I thought I’d share this vocal warm-up I like to do before recording (because it’s fun):
Yesterday, I discovered that the bass effects pedal I’ve had for many years, has a built in drum machine, so hold onto your hats world.
Focus on Reflections words and music by Maria L. Berg
Focus on Reflections
I face a self-imposed focus on reflections a month of looking of looking in mirrors looking at me
not turning away looking further and deeper finding the deep waters past the imperfections
What will I find there? What does reflection smell like? What is its taste? How will I get to the point where I only see what I like?
All those flaws become only a reflection only the light hitting a chip in the mirror everything reflects light all we see is a reflection
*That was an interesting experience. After finding a drum beat and recording the drum and bass. I played it back while saying lines to the room. When I felt like the concept was flowing, I recorded myself, then typed up what I said as if transcribing. That was fun. I think I’ll play with that a lot.
I hope all of you will come by this Thursday, Sept. 2, and read a special guest post about revision by Jacob M. Appel. I recently enjoyed his poetry collection, The Cynic in Extremis. I found it both entertaining and provocative.
Experience Writing 