Get Listed! with a Mystery Guest

Greetings to All Toads, Poets and Friends.

We are in the final season of this wonderful Imaginary Garden, as 2019 draws to its conclusion and, with this in mind, I asked a very special friend of the Toads to share one of her fabulous and famous Word Lists for the last Get Listed writing challenge.

Artist Unknown
Source: weheartit.com
Fair Use

This mystery guest wishes to retain her anonymity, but she has been a long-time blogger, who has her own special, magical way of appearing in many whimsical disguises, like Alice recreating her own unique Wonderland. I am most thankful for her support and artistic approach to poetry over the many years of my blogging experience and thrilled to share her eclectic selection of words with everyone today.

To participate in this challenge please select THREE or MORE words from the list and write an new poem inspired by the images they suggest.



onyx

groan

lemon

sticks

elocution

shelves

cinnamon

Twix

risperidone

Nyx-door

warden

plunge

esthesis

Guest Listed! with Helen Dehner

It’s fitting Kerry invited this ‘old toad’ to guest in September, my birth month ~  Seventy-eight and still kicking!

I spent the majority of 2018 caring for my son Carl. Four emergency room visits, surviving sepsis, liver and colon abscesses, three hospitalizations, three surgeries. Seven months of terror, stress and finally celebrating his recovery. 

Helen and Carl

Poetry took a back seat to everything else in my life.  I joined a book club in January, back to volunteering in Community Theatre (props, costumes, backstage crew) and will join an acapella women’s singing group in October.  Oh! And I am learning to play the harmonica, channeling Bob Dylan (Okay, I am laughing out loud) who also celebrated seventy-eight in May.

Crater Lake

Bend, Oregon

Here is the list of words to choose from, which reflects much of our September Book Club choice “My Dear Hamilton” by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie. Eliza’s story is fascinating, as is learning more about the political climate and lives of our founding fathers.

I look forward to reading your poems, any form .. any length. I enjoy all of you immensely. Please use 3 or more words in a new poem written for this challenge.

Aberration
Absence
Assumption
Audacious
Avant-garde
Bedrock
Clamor
Consensus
Enmeshed
Exile
Risqué
Sacrifice
Shame
Toxic
Trauma
Virtue

Guest Listed! with Fireblossom

Hello Toads! 
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, I'm baaaaack. Fireblossom here, the guest who just shows up without calling first, and I've brought a word list with me. The prompt is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Just pick at least three of the words from the list--or more if you wish--and create a poem which includes them. Extra credit: use one of the words in your title. Then link, share, read, step back, do-si-do and feel good about the whole thing. Here's some music to get you started.

Here is your word list, Toads. Get hopping ;-)

folderol
bric-a-brac
instantaneous
momentary
lucid
derring-do
pontificate
green
smug
photo-op
slipshod
hokey pokey
fist pump
demure
lollipop
snooker
rendering
blancmange
smidgen
operatic

Get Listed: Late March Edition

How should not thy lovers rejoice in thee, 

leader and lord of the year that exults to be born

So strong in thy strength 

and so glad of thy gladness whose laughter puts winter 

and sorrow to scorn?

Thou hast shaken the snows from thy wings, 

and the frost on thy forehead is molten:

thy lips are aglow

As a lover's that kindle with kissing, 

and earth, 

with her raiment and tresses yet wasted and torn,

Takes breath as she smiles in the grasp of thy passion
to feel through her spirit the sense of thee flow.
- from March: An Ode by Algernon Charles Swinburne
(read the full poem here)

Greetings poets, wayfarers and friends. As we bid farewell to the month of March I am reminded of poems by Algernon who was one of the most accomplished lyric poets of the Victorian era. The early critics commended his intricately extended and evocative imagery, metrical virtuosity, rich use of assonance and alliteration, as well as bold and complex rhythms.

For this "Get Listed" edition I want you guys to choose any 3 words that fit best with the mood/theme/personality of your poem on a topic of your choice. For those who would like an added (optional) challenge feel free to throw in a word or two of your own and be sure to mention it somewhere in your post.

• afternoon                  centuries                 silence                          sugar                        forbidden
• untried                       dust                        march                          teasingly                      rise
• primrose                   shadows                  inseparable                    open                        strawberry
• smudge                      song                        bowl                             yellow                          care

Also, enjoy this musical inspiration by Ariana Grande, I found it to be quite compelling:

Good luck sketching, honing, and naming your masterpiece. I look forward to what you guys come up with. Please do visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!☕

Get Listed: January Edition

And it yellow’d the strings of thy tangled hair,
                That shook in the wind of night.
The moon made thy lips pale, beloved;
         The wind made thy bosom chill;
                The night did shed
                On thy dear head
Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie
Where the bitter breath of the naked sky
                Might visit thee at will.
-from Lines: The Cold Earth Slept Below by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(read the full poem here)

Greetings Poets, wayfarers and friends. As January sets in, I am reminded of Shelley whose poetry reflects passion, beauty, imagination, love, creativity, political liberty and nature.

New year calls for new beginnings, new rules and new traditions. For this "Get Listed" edition I want you guys to choose any 3 words that fit best with the mood/theme/personality of your poem on a topic of your choice. For those who would like an added (optional) challenge feel free to throw in a word or two of your own and be sure to mention it somewhere in your post.

• carnation                slightly               percussion               balcony                January 
• deep                        toss                       heat                       snow                       wind
• gravel                    morning                 city                       obvious                   pensive 
• bedside                  bread                    clouds                     ache                       poems

Also enjoy this musical inspiration from Honne:

Good luck sketching, honing, and naming your masterpiece. I look forward to what you guys come up with. Please do visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!☕

Get Listed: October Edition

Source

Colors burst in wild explosions
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumn-weaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colors unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colors burst within
Spare me those unending fires
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall."
~ Dark Tranquility, With the Flaming Shades of Fall  

Greetings poets, wayfarers and friends, as Autumn sets in I am reminded of the album Skydancer which is the debut studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band, Dark Tranquility. "With the Flaming Shades of Fall" is a particular favorite of mine. There is something incredibly distinct and nostalgic about the way this season carries the human spirit forward as we welcome change and prepare to start afresh with a clean slate.

For this "Get Listed" edition, I want you guys to come up with your own brief creation. Please keep your poem under 150 words. Choose any four words that fit best with the mood/theme/personality of your poem on a topic of your choice.

• lucid                    fiery                  twilight               silhouette                     despair
• touch                   plunge                frost                   goldcrest                      wind
• sleep                   colour                 aspect                murmuring                   coffee
• gravel                  leaf                    october                branch                          notes

Good luck sketching, honing, and naming your masterpiece. I look forward to what you guys come up with. Please do visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!🍁

Get Listed: July Edition

Source

Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone:
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.(read full poem here)

- Thomas Moore

Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. As Summer sets in I'm reminded of poems by the Irish Poet, Thomas Moore. His poem "The Last Rose Of Summer" is a favorite of mine. He wrote it in 1805, while staying at Jenkins-town Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was said to have been inspired by a specimen of Rosa 'Old Blush.'

For this 'Get Listed' edition I want you guys to come up with your own brief creation. Please keep your poems under 100 words. Choose one of the word groups (using all four words) that fits best with the mood/theme/personality of your poem.

• consider                   breathe                anguish                 dreams                   thicken
• pale                           rain                       deep                      softly                        path
• sun                            loss                      mind                      rose                          ebony
• leaves                       orchid                    sky                       image                       grass

Choose your own form or write in free verse if preferred. I look forward to what you guys come up with. Make sure to check out our Red- Letter Day post which marks the anniversary of our blogsite below this prompt and leave your thoughts there. Lastly, please visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!🌹

Get Listed: Poems In April Edition

Source

To what purpose, April, do you return again?

Beauty is not enough.

You can no longer quiet me with the redness

Of little leaves opening stickily.

I know what I know.

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe

The spikes of the crocus.

The smell of the earth is good.

It is apparent that there is no death.

But what does that signify?  (read full poem here)

- Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring.

Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. We are halfway through the month of April, and I must admit it has been an incredible journey so far. I have long been in love with poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. There is something distinctly profound about the way she picks her words and phrases and the poem above is a perfect example.

For this 'Get Listed' edition I want you guys to come up with your own brief creation. Please keep your poems under 100 words. Choose one of the word groups (using all four words) that fits best with the mood/theme/personality of your poem.

• canopy               frost                   despair                omen                        sensual
• wander              dawn                  blood                   wistful                      features
• lightly                pity                     guts                      crocus                       blue
• spring                change               dark                       edge                        mouth

Choose your own form or write in free verse if preferred. I look forward to what you guys come up with. The link doesn't expire so feel free to write more than one poem. Please do visit others and remember to comment on their poems. Have fun!

Get Listed: Landslide Month

January resolutions may be fading, but it is still the month of new beginnings. Coincidentally, today is my husband's birthday. So over at our house we'll enjoy the cake of choice from his boyhood --yellow cake with peanut butter icing and a grape jelly filling. A glass of milk is required to wash it down. Yum!

For today's prompt I'll provide the word list ingredients for your poem referring to either new beginnings or a birthday (happy or sad or in-between). I'm not looking for an ingredient poem about baking a cake! I'll be full-up on dessert anyway. I want to feast on the words you insert into your new creation on newness itself, or on a special celebration you are looking forward to, or a milestone memory you recall about a loved one.

Mudslide, landslide, red velvet, carrot.... there are so many ways to mix goodness into your poem. Choose all four words from ONE of these word lists to build your new poem:

 solace                         trace                              pause                              over

 inwardness                sweat                             reflect                             beginning

 need                          forgiveness                    unfolding                        back

 thanks                       weight                            years                               ahead

I look forward to reading and savouring your respective slices of life. Also enjoy this musical inspiration from Stevie Nicks.

 

Get Listed: November Edition

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a gem of a book by Sandford Lyne titled, "Writing Poetry from the Inside Out:  Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry." The Poem sketching technique Lyne suggests gives wide enough girth for both birthing and growing poems. I copied 10-12 pages of his word list groups from the back of the book to get me through a few years of writing.

For this Get Listed edition I ask you to create your own brief creation. Keep it to under 100 words (I have a short attention span). Choose one of the word groups (using all 4 words) I've listed below to insert into your brain child, being mindful to choose the word list that fits the best with your mood/theme/personality of your unique poem on the topic of your choice.

pencil                  Creator                  desires                November                 nightmare
orphan                 pity                       night                   layers                         frost
book bag             tomorrows            flesh                    stone                          ruts
tank                     winds                    poems                 throat                         awoke

And, if this seems backwards... try reversing the sequence by first choosing one of the word groups, and then letting a fresh poem spring forth from...  well, from a metaphorical loin-place.

I can only suggest that there's no right or wrong way to poem. I can however, offer limited guidance and encouragement in sharing what's worked for me, while reiterating that no two poems are alike in personality or voice.


Good luck sketching, honing, and naming your beauties. Can't wait to meet/read them. And please do check in on all your fellow poets.

get listed - July

Nearly high noon of summer here in the northern hemisphere.

What they won't say anymore, or ask, is what happened to birdsong?

Maybe it's only here in concrete southern California - maybe where you are, there are more than crow squawks and gull cries and the occasional dove coo at dusk.

For this edition of get listed, see if you can bring the sounds of summer to the page - something missing, or maybe something just waiting to get noticed again.

As always, please post an original poem to your blog, link that pen to Mr. Linky, then visit back to read and comment on the other poems as the days go by. The prompt will remain open.

Please use at least 3 of these words (or reasonable variants):

heat, bird, easy, fling, pass, sweat, corn, float, ice cream (that's considered one), bright, cricket, dusk

(Song rights belong to respective publishers. No infringement intended - non-commercial use.)

Get Listed - April Ain't Fooling edition

Brooklyn Bridge. Image- Fair Use

We've gone and made Arthur Furgurson emperor, and George C. Parker king. 

Who?

That phrase, "if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you" came into parlance due to Parker.

He was, if not the original con man, one of its more successful operators, having sold the Brooklyn Bridge, General Grant's Tomb, and The Statue of Liberty, among other properties. (For other scammers, see here.)

Furguson was merely a Scottish actor who regularly sold the White House.

Hmmmm.

Your word list for the Global / National / Earthbound (though maybe some astronauts are playing, who knows?) Poetry Writing Month 2017 is:

Wait, you believed that 'short' business? Then I have a bridge to sell you...

How to play: take at least 3 words (or reasonably variants) from the following compilation, craft into a new poem, and link via Mr. Linky below.

Please be so good as to come back and read and comment on your fellow con artists, too.

bridge, con, lie, tomb, scam, gullible, fraud, president, hustler, sucker, mark, prison

Get Listed!

Greetings to all Toads, poets and friends. I am standing in for Grapeling today and have been scratching my head for a source of words to inspire the muse in the latter half of the week. In the end, I have set my sights on the work of William Butler Yeats, simply because his poetry has given rise to several titles of novels, by famous authors.

Fair Use

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy takes its title from the first line of Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song...

Fair Use

Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe’s acclaimed 1958 novel takes its title from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
                                                                                                      Source

For this challenge, I have selected a few distinctive words from each poem. Use a minimum of THREE words (or derivatives) in a new poem on a subject of your choice. Additionally, you may choose further words from these two sources.

The List

neglect
country
monuments
tatter
holy
gyre
artifice
drowsy

anarchy
centre (center)
tide
waste
desert
pitiless
ceremony
innocence

What Fresh Hell is This? - November Word List

This month's list is dedicated to the risky proposition currently called 'Democracy'. 

Even for our out-of-nation Toads and visitors - what happens in the US November 8th will for good or ill directly impact the rest of the world.

The challenge: describe your view on this year's US election - how it affects you, how it angers or delights you, how you will be moving to a small island that likely will be consumed by global warming soon, but hey, better blue than orange.

Part (A): you may NOT use pejoratives, curse words, obviously denigrating terms, etc.

Part (B): Instead, take the approach of Dorothy Parker:

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

or Oscar Wilde:

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Part (C): take at least 3 of the following list of words and weave them into a new poem for the challenge, observing parts A and B above:

novel, toss, lightly, force, money, God, look, forgive, enemy, annoy, happy, cause, go.

As a reminder, please post the poem to your own blog, link that specific post in Mr. Linky below, and please revisit over the next few days so you can read your fellow contributor's efforts.

More on Dorothy Parker here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Round_Table

And Oscar Wilde:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

and your musical interlude: Óveður from Sigur Rós: