true joy can be known
if we are willing to pay
passage through darkness
kat – 28 December 2016
For Haiku Horizon’s Haiku Challenge, prompt word: Joy.
Tag Archives: Challenge
Solstice Moon
solstice vespers toll
heralding the longest night
Luna shades her face
kat ~ 22 December 2016
For Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge, prompt words Bells & Ring.
Twittering Tales #9 – 20 December 2016
About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a prompt, and your mission, if you choose to play along, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less.
If you accept the challenge, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale. A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.
I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing us a new prompt.
Have Fun!
Here are the results for Twittering Tales #8 based on this photograph from last week:
From Michael at MorpethroadMorpethroad:
Christmas eve it’s just us. The cold is all around us save for the fire in the hearth. We snuggle close, its where we want to be. Together.
(140 Characters)From Ladyleemanila:
flames licking the logs
warming glow, crackle, sparkle
keeping each other warm
ecstasy and passion felt
ah! the love for each other
(127 Characters)From Lorraine’s Frilly Freudian Slip:
She loved a good fire. So warmed her heart and her pyromaniac soul.
(67 Characters)From Willowdot:
Glowing logs capture the imagination.
Dreams arrive in concentration
Memories fill us with happy contemplation.
Yule tide celebration.
(137 Characters)From Pat at Black Cat Alley:
Swarthy skin, crocodile grin, she sold herself to the devil; fire-whiskey lipped, slip of the tongue – she can’t recall the terms of use.
(137 Characters)From Elsie at Ramblings of a Writer:
Watching that flame burning the wood reminded me it’s summer in New Zealand, please be careful when lighting fires.
Beware of forest fires.
(138 Characters)From Kathryn at AnotherFoodieBlogger:
The large beam that held up the farmhouse fell crashing to the ground into the engulfing fire. At that point Jenny knew it was a total loss.
(140 Characters)From Sonali at Howling with the Wolf:
The flames lapped at her feet, ground unsteady, yet she still wielded her weapon, held her stance.
The real fire was in her eyes.
(128 Characters)From Poetry Joy:
Logs crackled in the hearth. Flames licked higher and he wondered what it would take to light even a spark in his dark, world-weary heart.
(138 characters)and from me:
Nothing warmed her heart more than a crackling fire, hot cocoa and a few banned books to burn; freedom of speech and expression be damned.
(139 Characters )
What an awesome collection of Twittering Tales we had this week. So many different takes on this prompt. Thank you everyone for playing along!
See this week’s prompt photo below:
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Twittering Tales #9 – 20 December 2016
Photo from Pixabay.com
“It seemed like a good idea. They would wait for the perfect moment to snap a selfie. But the waves were larger than they thought!”
kat ~ 20 December 2016
(129 Characters)
Hotsy-Totsy – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku – 16 December 2016
Channeling my inner Flapper at my granddaughter’s Roaring 20’s Sweet 16 Party 🙂
Happy Friday! Today’s dictionary.com Word of the Day is hotsy-totsy. It is described as Older Slang. – about as right as can be; perfect: He always thinks everything is just hotsy-totsy.
Hotsy-totsy originated in the Roaring 20’s. There are many parallels between the 1920’s and modern times. The U.S. and the world was just coming out of a World War I. Science was amidst a great debate over the size of the universe (aka the “Great Debate” of 1920). Today we have a great debate of our own: climate change proponents and deniers. And speaking of science, the famous Scopes trial in 1925 was an attempt by creationists to vilify and abolish the teaching of evolution in schools. We’re still seeing this battle play out in school boards today.
In the 1920’s we saw a rise in radical political movements worldwide. Today, there are many references and parallels to those radical movements: Fascism, Nazism, Nationalism, Fundamentalism, Communism and National Socialism. Political agendas focused on moral issues in the 1920’s, as they continue to do today. In the 20’s the 18th Amendment was ratified prohibiting alcohol, only to be repealed in its entirety 13 years later by the 21st Amendment. Today it is marijuana that is flip-flopping between legal and illegal in our courts, with the states taking the lead in decriminalizing it. The 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote in the US was ratified in the 1920’s. Ironically, even though the door opened in 192o, women have a long way to go. Today women still suffer from workplace discrimination and wage discrepancies and continue to be objectified and denied the right to make their own health decisions. We have not come very far from the days when women were considered the property of her husband.
The Immigration Act of 1924 placed restrictions and quotas on the number of immigrants allowed to come into the U.S. Today, we are seeking to do the same and more, by building walls, registering immigrants of a particular religion and threatening to send immigrants back to where they came from. Also in the 1920’s we saw enrollment in the KKK peak after its resurgence in 1915. Sadly we are seeing a this trend again in today’s volatile and polarized society.
In the 1920’s if someone was hotsy-totsy he likely thought quite highly of himself. I can think of a few people who shall remain nameless that fit that description! 🙂 I love the other terms that were mentioned in the “Origin of the Word” segment in dictionary.com: heebie-jeebies and horsefeathers:
Origin of hotsy-totsy – The term hotsy-totsy first appeared in the 1920’s in William (Billy) De Beck’s hugely popular comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. De Beck, in addition to coining “hotsy-totsy”, also coined the terms “heebie-jeebies” and “horsefeathers”.
Such fun words! Of course I had to figure out a way to use them in a haiku. And so here it is. I often hear the warning that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We never learn do we?
It’s hotsy-totsy
at least some think so…others?
It’s just horsefeathers!kat ~ 16 December 2016
The Piper’s New Gig
Some of you may have heard the tale of the Pied Piper, commissioned to rid a village of its rats. When the unscrupulous town leaders refused to pay him for his services he exacted his revenge by stealing away all but a few of the village children, and as some tell, returned them only after he received a ransom that was twice more than his original contractual fee. He was never heard from again but there is more to his story…
Illustration by John Bauer
Over the years, after Hamlin, the Piper made quite a fortune for himself, traveling from town to town. He gave up gathering rats, nasty, diseased creatures that they were, and focused his attention entirely on the children of a place. Parents, he discovered, would pay any amount of money for the return of a child. It was a quick and tidy transaction and children were gullible and easily led astray, no matter how severely their parents warned them to be cautious of strangers.
One day, after finalizing his last job, he met up with the purveyor of a brothel in a shady pub outside of town.
The old man who had been watching him walked over and settled himself on the stool next to him. “So yer that Piper aren’t ye? I’ve heard ’bout yer comin’s an’ goin’s fer years. Always thought ye were a legend, though.”
“Yes sir, I am he.” It was rare for the Piper to admit such a thing in public, but they were the only two in the place and he planned to leave town the next morning.
The old Mack raised an eyebrow and eyed the Piper from his head to his toes. “I’ve bin wond’rin’….when ye gather up yer herd of children, do ye e’er come upon a girl o’ 12 or more?”
“I suppose I do. They come in all shapes, sizes and ages; boys and girls. Why do you ask?”
“If yer int’rested I might have an offer fer ye. How much does one o’ yer brats bring ya…if I might be so bold as to ask?”
“Enough.” the Piper was getting leery. The old coot was asking far too many questions.
“Well, what if I told ye I could double whate’er ‘tis yer makin’? Would ye be int’rested?”
“Mmm…I might.”
And so it was that the Piper entered a new venture. Just as the Mack had promised, young girls were a most lucrative commodity, bringing unlimited riches. He never had to pipe another day. Shiny things and promises of fame were all it took to lure them from safety.
To this day there are Pipers still, who peddle fair lassies to the highest bidder. Be sure to warn your daughters. All that glitters is not gold.
kat ~ 14 December 2016
For Jane Dougherty’s Microfiction Challenge based on the illustration by above by John Bauer.
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like mercury colliding... 