Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

This month my contemporaries and I have been writing about publishing at the Writersvibe. Getting from draft to final copy can be like getting sucked down a black hole of research, marketing, and the like. Fall to far down that hole and finishing feels impossible.

You may even feel like you've been sucked into Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. So let's pause and and have a little fun.

Let's write own version.

Jules and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

The alarm went off. Jules jumped out of bed,
Tripped over the cat, and stepped in something wet.
She felt like she needed to throw up.
 "These things always happen in threes, right?
That three. I'm done so it's going to be a great day!" Jules said.
What Jules didn't know is that it was already
a terrible horrible no good very bad day."

On the way to work Jules heard: Flump. Flump. Flump.
"Seriously. A flat tire at 5:00AM?" she said.
The wind was cold and Jules forgot her gloves--
in her rush to beat the early traffic
And her flashlight. She sighed.
 This was going to be a
Terrible.
Horrible
No good
Very bad day...

A.H. at Glazed Heart might ask me "Where's this Story Going?" I don't know. <sigh> Where do you think it's going? Help me finish this one up--pretty please with sugar on top?

Finish More: Loving Progress

From my little black book:

Look

II: Loving Progress

The breathing room still stumbles. Song echo the empty growing long A.
Flat E in the sinking day. Color possible found in faded blues and greens

Serious girl: Revisited dreams that almost never were.

Found: Shells, bobbles, rocks. The robins revisit last year’s pears
still clinging to the Bradford's branches. Leaves: Litter the soft'nin' damp below

Propellers: Spin to smile, Wings: Snapped parallel. Eager to find lift and drag
Red flag: Attention! Twelve abandon novels, histories, and chaos theory.
A fairy brick road: Horizon bending ‘round. A tripping stair. Shy of master.

Finish More: A Beginning

Last year I set an intention rather than a resolution: Love more and I did. Remembering two words instead a list of resolutions worked well for me.

This year I didn't know what to set as an intention. Here's a few I went through:

• Be more compassionate
• Give more
• Socialize more
• Write more

Each one of these left a sick feeling in my stomach.

Gears: They work when they are touching. I see no straight lines to anywhere.

 Now I've got it:

FINISH MORE

 

This year I'm documenting my intention with an epic poem. Look my be something like my own Beowulf with a happier ending.

What is your intention for the year? How will you remind yourself of your intention and celebrate it?

Look

I: The Loved and Incomplete

Half-painted walls: The bright of new stands stark against fading purity

A fairy brick road: Nowhere to go. A tripping stair. Missing light.

The Naked Table: Not a paint, a brush, or an adhesive stuck to its top

A plane unwound to grounded, wings askew. White Strips mid-wall
A Breathing room: No space to breathe or sit or sing

Hyacinths: No dirt for spring bloom. Bare walls: Begging for memories

Twelve abandon novels, histories, and chaos theory. Nine credits: Shy of master.

Spark: Tiny Stitches and Golden Thread

I've enjoyed two rounds of Spark as a writer, so I participated as an artist in Spark 18.

Me? An artist? EEEK!

Once I stepped into my fear of creating something really awful, I lost track of the clock. I didn't know how long it would take to cut and strip blue and white strips out of magazine, weave them together without tearing them and take a needle and thread to the entire caboodle.

I, of course, was under the mindful tutelage of the Jumping Bean--a very accomplished creative and mixed media artist himself. He was especially complementary of the bead work and the "golden" tape.

Spark grandmaster, Amy, give us a ten day window of creation. Wow, did those ten days fly. (Oh, my, the things I could add...tire tracks.)

Here's the result:

Navigating the Web

My random partner Heidi Mordhorst shared a fun poem "Black Under Blue" to work from. Thanks Heidi! Heidi shared some of here creative process on her blog my juicy little universe.

Check out our pieces:

•  "We Be" (poem)/A View from Saturn (photo)
• Navigating the Web (mixed-media) /Black Under Blue (poem) 

Are you inspired? Pick a picture, a painting, a quilt, a sunset, or a poem and create something that moved you. Allow yourself to be surprised and please, please, have fun!

Smiling Bomb

I haven't written in a while. I took a Smash365 prompt from Cool Blue Souls today.

Attached

To my own

Smiling Bomb

My grin Grows

Wider

My heels Strike.

Echo. Echo

Like the Shoe

of a horse

At the Fourth

of July Parade

I advise you:

Stay out of

Blast radius

Smiling Bombs

Can be disarmed

Are you brave?

Are you afraid?

Come closer.

Beware of the turn--

to Smiling Grenades

I've just Pulled the

Pin.

Run.

Take Cover

From this thing.

This Lethal Grin

This Pretty Sin

Take cover