VisDare 34: Fearless

FEARLESS (?!?)

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guests for my dinner
looks like they weren't expecting
wolf in sheep's clothing

VisDare 34: Fearless

VisDare 33: Indifferent

I haven't played Visual Dare for a while.  

Are these The Umbrellas of Cherbourg?

Probably not.

I'll go the haiku/senryu route.

 

wet sad and confused

displaced in the modern age

ancient godesses

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these three muses

so much more charming

without their rain gear

~~~

VisDare 33

 

 

VisDare 14

VisDare 14

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I'd had my eye on her for days.   When the time was right, I'd approach her. 

All right - truth to tell, I was working up the nerve.  But today was the day.  I'd boldly walk right up to her, and if things went well, sweep her into my arms.

Finally, I felt ready.  The time was right.  But on this day of all days, as her long strides took her on her way, and I set out to approach her, she had on a leash what must be a new pet.

And it was - of all things - a woman!

VisDare 10 - Whimsey

Today, Angela brings a whimsical picture, indeed.

 Picture Source

What do you make of it?   Here is my attempt, in a minimalist 78 words.

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Vell, Mr. Goldberg, I know dat zome peoples call me a mad zientist.  But I am really a zuch good outzide-box thinker, no?

Here ve haff my lastest zucsess.  You zee, I haff zpliced jzenes from ze lemming into zees escargots. 

Und off zey go from ze edge, zometimez mit a schplatt.

Zat is vhy I haff you invited here, to zee if ve could maybe collaborate together.

By ze vhey, Mr. Goldberg, may I call you Rube?

VisDare 7 - Secret

This is not a follow-up to last week's effort.  Just a simple little stand-alone in 149 words.

Surprise - the lock made no sound when I turned the bulky key.

Nor was there a screech from the hinges as the ancient door swung effortlessly open.

The moonlight streaming through the open doorway was all I needed to survey the vast riches in this crypt.

A jeweled brooch.

A golden cup.

A Mithril dagger worth more than even I could imagine.

They all went silently into my pouch.

The residents here had no more need of them.

Soon I would be like a King – one of these ancient Kings, whose crypts are supposedly protected by powerful curses.

What’s this?  Aha - a purse of gold coins.

There was no sound but the slight whisper of the wind, like an old lover’s sigh.

Then it caught the door, and slammed it shut with a crash that would wake the dead.

Oh great gods  .  .  .  the DEAD.

~  :  ~  :  ~   

As a haiku

 Stealing from the dead
Risky business any time
Then an ill wind blows

VisDare 7

VisDare 6: Emerging

I've been away from VisDare and Marci's story for a while.  It was a combination of life getting in the way, other distractions, and perhaps a soupçon of negligence.   I had at least three different not-wholly-satisfactory ideas on what to do with this picture, and finally chose this route.  My first draft weighed in at exactly 150 words, so that is what you get.

Picture Source

Marci found the gilt-framed painting behind Great Uncle Albert's desk - another curious artifact.  The family resemblence was obvious, and she speculated that it might be her grandmother, as a young woman.  That would place it in the mid fifty's, though the hairstlye, dress and oil lantern were not of that era.

She hung it in her bedroom, and soon it became a familiar feature, easily overlooked.  At times, though, Marci thought she noticed a slight change in position or expression. But that seemed too weird, and how can you be sure about these things?

A few months later, when the full moon streamed through Marci's window at midnight, she woke to find the woman striding out of the picture frame.  She placed the lantern on a side table, sat on the edge of Marci's bed and stroked her hair.

"There is much I need to tell you," she said. 

~ : ~ : ~

As a hiaku


Mystery woman
Product of moonbeams and dreams
What is your message

 ~ : ~ : ~

Marci's Thread 

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VisDare 6

VisDare 2

VisDare 2:  Resolute

Picture Source

Leon's Great Adventure

[119 words]

Leon was one spaced-out kid.

I never realized how much until he actually did it.

He told me this was a trick he'd been working on, but I never believed him.  You wouldn't 've either.  You know that.

"By the big ol' pine tree, down at the corner," he told me, "That's the spot.  That's where it's gonna happen."

Ever the showman, he popped up on one wheel, slowed to a coast [I could never keep my balance like he did] and as he drifted past the tree, he followed his front wheel out of our space into some strange other place where I couldn't follow.

I hope it's better for him there. 

It was a one way trip.

VisDare #1

This picture strikes me as being pretty much intractable.  I've pondered it for a few days, and this is not only the best I can come up with, it's ALL I can come up with.

And I usher in the new and improved 150 word limit by using a paltry 45.

Lo siento.

Sure, and I've had some bad dates before.

And maybe this isn't even the first time I've been left out on a ledge by one of 'em.

But I never thought I'd ever get stood up by some flighty girl what calls 'erself Mary Poppins!

Visual Dare 35

Conference

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OK, boys, knockin' off that bakery was a piece of cake - and we didn't even have to ice nobody, neither.   But we still need dough.  Look, we're better bred than that, so we gotta rise up to somethin' bigger, see.  Listen to me, 'cuz this aint no pie in the sky. So what do you say, boys - if you guys got the crust, everybody gets a slice.  Now - are we goin' after Lego-Land or the candy store?

But you, Shorty, you gotta stay home.  I'm tired of you loafin'.


Visual Dare 35

Visual Dare 34 - The Kiss

Go to anonymous legacy to read about this week's dare and join the fun

THE KISS

So long we've been here
Not coincidence but molded
Fate placed us side by side
With my longing side-long glances
Caressing your smooth beautiful face

Then I fell for you

Such loving things I would
Whisper if you only had an ear
But you disdain the urgency
Every rigid cell of my being
Puts into my firm dry kiss

This is no fall from grace

I look upon your shaded eyes
The soft arc of your chin
The tip of your delicate nose
Imagine the sweet ecstasy of
Meeting your distant perfect lips

If you would only fall for me

Visual Dare 33 -- Timing

Angela must spend the rest of the week searching for these enigmatic pictures.

This week's challenge is titled TIMING.

Photo source

TIMING

Two-four, four-four, three-four, six-eight, nine-eight, twelve-eight, even fifteen-eight [that rascal Debussy.*]

All the time I spent practicing all those times.

Now it's my time!

And here's the train to Carnegie Hall, right on time.

"All, aboard then, step in time."

Wait  -- what!?!  Where is my cello?

Oh, sh  .  .  .

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*The first two of a smattering of distinctive 15/8 measures sprinkled throughout this Nocturne occur from 47 to 51 seconds in this video.  They are basically equivalent to eighth note triplets in 5/4 time.  It was my great pleasure to perform this piece last Friday.  We didn't get a lot of notes in the trombone section, and the 15/8 measures were a big help in locating my entrances.

Point of clarification - this is not our performace.  We don't YouTube.

Saturday June 9, 2012
Festival Concert Hall, Round Top, TX
Texas Festival Orchestra
Pascal Verrot, conductor

12/13 Update:  If you've come along this far, do yourself a favor and follow along here for something completely celloistically different.

Visual Dare 32 -- DISOBEY plus SHW -- REACTION

This time the VD prompt is a picture and a word.

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DISOBEY

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The Sensational Haiku Wednesday prompt is REACTION

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A REACTION TO DISOBEY

She thinks “Gee”and ”Haw”
Command me; but no mere girl
Tells me where to go.

Roused from my stable
To this snow;  I’ll give her a
Ride she won’t forget.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I think this pair of haiku REACTS to both prompts with disobedient intent, but without actually violating the integrity of the prompts.  For me, at least, skirting the edge that way spices it up just a little - like snatching that last chocolate morsel.


UPDATE: This is more disobedient than I thought.  I picked up last week's SHW prompt.    It's unlike Jenn not to have the new prompt up by mid-morning.  Hope she's OK.

UPDATE 2:  She's OK.

 

Triple Visual Dare Number 4 Plus SHW

Angela threw down the gauntlet this time and, mixing metaphors, sought to snare us with a tricky collection of presumably intractable photos.  But I was up well past midnight blogging the Crossword puzzle, and in the wee hours my addled brain takes off in even weirder flights of fancy.  This time it's 92 words.

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THE RAVIN'

Though he promised, "Nevermore!"
That damned raven's at my door.

So quickly, now, my little men
Before he flies away again,

Bring to me my sharpened snips
To give his wings some grounding clips.

But with his feathers ebon dark
There's no use for a pencil mark.

Imagine how he’ll raving sing
When I bob his raven wing.

Then when he can no more fly
I will bake him in a pie.

And when his evil, awful caws
No longer echo in my halls --
I'll resume my favorite pass time:
Sniffing walls.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Reduced for Sensational Haiku Wednesday

REACTION

Again the Raven comes
Spoiling my tranquility.
This time I'm ready!

Triple Visual Dare No. 3

I'm a bit late to this one, due to the Thanksgiving holiday and lots of wonderful family activities.

This entry is another stand-alone, and on the surreal side - again at exactly 100 words.

The photo prompts:

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WHERE THE WATER TAKES YOU

You wake alone. 

Where is the mysterious woman who had lured you into her house and pleasure bed?

After you dress, the strange little girl appears there.

"Look in the garden," she says.

Yes. There she is – still beautiful, but not in the flesh – in cold, hard stone.

“No.  There.”  The strange girl points to the fountain.

A sunbeam strikes the cascade, and in the rainbow, her lovely face.

From the mist she beckons to you with her arms, eyes, lips,   .  .  .

“Yes!” the strange girl encourages you.

You remove your clothes and step through the watery curtain.

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I wrote this in present tense to heighten the sense of weirdness, then at the last minute decided to oonch it up another notch by changing the PoV from first person to second. Good idea? Bad? What do you think?

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Reduced to a haiku

You long for her once

More, and find her waiting in

The fountain of love

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UPDATE:  Taking some inspiration from Bjorn's post, I also tried my hand at a Triolet.  It feels a bit forced, so I'm less than thrilled with the not-quite-satisfactory result.


Remembering a single night of love
You seek the elusive loving stranger.

Can there be a destiny to prove,
Remembering a single night of love?

You heed the little girl and do not leave,
But search the garden heedless of its danger,

Remembering a single night of love
You seek the elusive loving stranger.

Triple Visual Dare #2 Plus Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Find this week's TVD challenge here.  The SHW prompt is FIERCE!

The picture prompts [see the challenge link for photo credits]:

And now for something completely different - in exactly 100 words!

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AN ODD DAY IN OZ

Elpheba wasn't going to fall into the same trap her sister did, so she cast a potent repelling spell at the rapidly descending house.

In the stress and strain of competing forces, the structure was rent asunder.

Zebra Boy wandered through the rubble, running his nimble fingers over various ruined items: twisted plumbing fixtures, half an old wall clock with a wall chunk still attached, bits of masonry and wood.

"Hey, kid," Elpheba hollered, "get out of there.  What do think you're doing?"

"Mind your own bee's wax, Lady, " Zebra Boy retorted, "I was just feeling a little board."

~  ~  ~  ~  ~ 

And, since I am never above mixing my memes --

The story reduced to a Haiku:

FIERCE

Home wrecker yells at
Strange little kid; he hurls back
A verbal brickbat.

Update: Here is some history on the word "brickbat."

Triple Visual Dare

Following FSF links, at Sarah's place I learned of Angela Goff's Visual Dare.

This gave me an opportunity to explore another aspect of the increasingly complex story I'm discovering, and have been revealing through my Five Sentence Fiction entries.  Here, for the first time, Gil's wife [who's name is Cheryl, as it turns out] is the protagonist.

I had no clear image of her, but the first visual prompt clicked - that is Cheryl!  [Photo credits at the Dare link.]

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After that, working the other two in was a snap.  The hard part was hitting the word count.  My first shot had me at 101, and only half finished.  So I put on my minimalist hat.  Indeed, this would all be a lot less enigmatic if I had a richer word budget, but this clocks in at exactly 100.

I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo, so, alas, that's a bonus point I can't qualify for.

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Of Cheryl, a Tower, and Trees

Cheryl was devastated to discover she was pregnant.

One slip, one time, and this?

She found him waiting where they first met, at the footbridge in the park. 

Silently, they strolled down the long tree-lined lane to a place not of this earth.

Up the spiral staircase of the ancient tower then - yes - where she had been so willingly seduced - that was the very place to share this awful news.

But he, craving a son, was elated. 

She could have her baby – his baby – here, where the time slip was different, and her husband Gil need never know.