Category Archives: Challenges and Writing Prompts

July 15, 2016

Seasoning – Part 1

By Kat Myrman

Alice imagined the hush of new fallen snow as she gazed from the warmth of the parlor. She smiled. Winter was her favorite time of year.

Since receiving the news she had hoped to spend at least one more holiday with her beloved Henry.

Hints of cinnamon and sage wafted through the air and the sounds of clanking cooking utensils echoed from the kitchen. Henry was preparing a feast of roasted turkey, sweet butter-creamed potatoes, string beans and warm bread pudding with spiced rum sauce.

Alice rarely shared her kitchen with Henry. Cooking was her passion, but this was an annual tradition, and he loved it so.

“Dinner is served my darling girl,” Henry announced entering the dining room with a perfect gold-crusted bird steaming on a silver platter.

“Henry…”

His beaming delight dissolved to dread at the sound of her fading voice. The beautiful turkey and silver tray slipped from his grasp bouncing across the floor in a wet plopping, ear-shattering crash.

He rushed to Alice, catching her as she collapsed.

kat – 15 July 2016
(170 Words)

I am afraid I a a week behind on Jane Dougherty’s Microfiction Challenge, but this week’s challenge painting intrigued me. When I read that it was to be the second installment from the previous week, of course I needed to lay the foundation for my story. And so this entry is Part 1. You can other parts HERE.

11 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction, Random Thoughts and Musings, Under 300 Words

July 14, 2016

Crop Circles

By Kat Myrman
tltweek24

Photo Credit: Emiel Molenaar

“This will show those pranksters to stop messing with my fields,” said farmer Dudley as he mowed down the crop circles.

“They’d like nothing more than for me to freak out and report the “incident” to the police and the news so they can make a laughing stock out of me, but I won’t give them the satisfaction of falling for their joke.”

“Yep, the joke’ll be on them,” he mumbled to himself, as an eerie silence hung in the air and he remembered he was alone and all the townsfolk were gone.

~kat – 14 July 2016

A Three Line Tale for Sonya’s Weekly Challenge based on the photo you see here by Emiel Molenaar.

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in 3 Line Tales, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction

July 14, 2016

Time / Grow Haiku

By Kat Myrman

A trio of Haiku for Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge based on the prompt words Time and Grow. Check other Haiku or enter your own HERE.

funny-pairs-of-animals-388-8

Photo Credit: Free Pictures on Deshow.net

He spent a lifetime
wondering what made her tick,
growing befuddled

They will grow on you,
those silly quirks you hated
once upon a time

Only time will tell
growing closer or apart…
worth it or wasted?

kat ~ 14 July 2016

 

13 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Poetry

July 13, 2016

Never Forget – A Trio of Cinquains

By Kat Myrman
Le Somnambule

Le Somnambule by Marc Chagall

A storm
called Katrina
swallowed The Big Easy
abandoned, desperation in
whirlwind

poison,
death infested,
crested, licking the walls
relentless, inescapable
slurry

beings
young and not so
took to the muck alone
it was every soul for themselves
human.

kat  ~ 13 July 2016

A Cinquain written for Jane Dougherty’s Poetry Challenge based on the painting Le Somnambule (Sleep Walker) by Marc Chagall. When I saw this painting I immediately thought about Hurricane Katrina. This painting represents to me the desperation of the people caught in the storm’s swell and the tragedy of having to leave their beloved pets behind…and the tragedy of our government at the time looking away while the world watched in horror. It was the cat really, who took me there…looking away from the window as if she knew. I used a string of three Cinquains to tell the story. Some things are etched in our memories…for a reason. That we never forget…that we remember so we may avoid repeating the sins of our past. Peace all!

20 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Cinquain, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues

July 10, 2016

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 10 July 2016

By Kat Myrman


I look forward to Sundays. I truly do try to pause, reflect and recharge. Especially on weeks like this when the world felt chaotic and nightmarish. I remember thinking to myself, as I wrote lines of poetry and prose throughout the week, that today’s ReVerse would likely evolve into a chaotic, incohesive jumble of randomness. Living through this past week was a chaotic mess with raging summer storms that sent us all seeking shelter and raging civil unrest against a backdrop of political firestorms that sent us seeking answers.

In retrospect, I wonder why I had a hard time imagining that this week’s Shi Sai would somehow make sense, because surprisingly it does. I don’t know how or why it does. But it does.

I could say, likevi always do, that I’m hoping we all have a great week, but that would be rude considering the elephant in my peripheral view. They say elephants never forget. Not forgetting for me means acknowledging the elephant. It’s not that I’m not hoping that you have a great week. I hope you have a spectacular week. I hope we all do. Including the elephant. Once he catches your attention he’s hard to ignore.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 10 July 2016

Forgive me for not giving you a proper goodbye
I am feeling slightly grounded right now and not in a good way
steamy sapphire sky
So…what do you think about all this rain we’ve been having?
tender waves, exquisite bliss
dreams flood the gray void
from endless nights of terror’s rage
What are you thinking Lady Blue?
they are afraid
desire growls in their belly like poison
hoping for love’s bliss!

~ kat

The Shi Sai, (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a form created by Kat Myrman in April 2016. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”)

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality, Week in Review