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Showing posts with label Laura Shovan's 11th Annual February Poem Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laura Shovan's 11th Annual February Poem Project. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Unlocking the Monster

Stories are small vignettes that start in the spaces of my mind and are brought to life with evocative words and images. Stories become my key to unlocking the soul and inner ideas, releasing words into the universe of thought. Writing journals (digital or non-digital) are sacred spaces where fears let go and thoughts rise. Laura Shovan's 11th Annual February Poetry Project has been an outlet for me to address storytelling in poetic ways. 

Day 27 of the challenge presented a unique way to introduce the monsters within that plague the soul. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Monster was the subject raised by Tabatha Yeatts. As a child, I was fearful of monsters but Shelley's creature seemed misunderstood and alone. Many times, humans feel the same. Chaos existing in the world estranges people. Kindness and empathy are lost in the mix. Loneliness leads to increased horror. The monster within finds shape. These thoughts sparked an idea to review the fictional Frankenstein monster in a different way. I first digitized a picture of an outstretched monster found on the Internet. He seemed bound by a world of chaos and internal strife. What I created is a brief glimpse into an unfinished tale.

Have you ever felt bottled up?
Perhaps, the answer is 
to seek peace in life's moments.
Make the ordinary extraordinary.
Just Be.
Settle in.
Search the soul.
Open your heart to gladness.
©CVarsalona, 2023, quick write

Today is the last day of Laura's project and tomorrow starts the first day of Two Writing Teachers' 16th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge of writing daily during the month. I am ready to search my soul and expand the stories within. Join me.



Thursday, February 23, 2023

Story Evolves

Stories evolve as rich products of the creative spirit. While traveling to Disney World with my family, a window setting without a storyboard caught my eye. Mannequins dressed in late 1920s clothing were looking out at the boardwalk and a water body. I stopped to photograph the female mannequin thinking she has a story to tell. I knew I could create a writing prompt with her photo that would make an interesting challenge for Laura Shovan's 11th Annual February Poem Project. 

Last weekend, I did some research and added photos of a painting beside the photo of a female mannequin (see the left corner below). The other two images were a painting by Edward Henry Potthast, the American shorescape and landscape artist (1857-1927), in the top right corner, and the piece of digital art I created of children at the shore in the bottom right corner. On February 21st, I added all three photos and a prompt to spark other poets' imaginations.

Prompt-Day 21
Ponder the following thoughts:
What if the past and present timelines begin to merge?
What do the images bring to mind? (beach, children, seaside, nature, a vacation, other)
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I enjoyed creating the above prompt.  Because I was so busy reading other poets' poems, my offering was added late. My poems are below. I do appreciate constructive criticism. 

Summering in Style



I just realized that it is the end of the month, and the Poetry Sisters challenged writers to write an ekphrastic poem and use the tagline #PoetryPals. I offer the above poems.

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Tabatha Yeatts is the host of Poetry Friday this week. She is also one of the writers who participate in Laura Shovan's daily February 2023 Poem Project. You can find more poetic goodness from the Poetry Friday community here at the Roundup on Tabatha's blog.
Collage Art Logo by Linda Mitchell