In this space, my form.
Inhale ~ pause ~ exhale.
My moment, that's all.
Close by bumble-bee locked in buzz pollination. Its moment, that's all.
Mid-distant birds swoop upon windwoosh air currents. Their moment, that's all.
Far-off faux hornet, motorcyclist races time. His moment, that's all.
Beyond orbs, dark space. Airless, lightless, void between. Our moments are all.
This week’s photo prompt for Friday Fictioneers, courtesy of Ted Strutz, brought to mind one of my poems (a secret favourite of mine) that I published on my blog a couple of years ago. The poem is a progressive haiku centred around the phases of the moon and contains the names of two Japanese Shinto deities: Tsukuyomi the Moon God, and Amaterasu the Sun Goddess. I’ve sandwiched this poem between two short pieces of prose, producing a story within a story.
For newcomers to Friday Fictioneers, the challenge requires you to produce a story of 100 words (maximum). It’s worth noting that according to WordPress and to my word processor, compound adjectives and nouns count as one word and not two, although only if you hyphenate them. As a Brit, I love hyphens 😉
YUMI AND THE GODS
The ghost-ferry headed for the shore, each of its passengers’ experiences unique en route to the afterlife and dependent upon their main focus at the moment of their taking.
Yumi was looking heavenward…
under cutglass stars
she dreams of Tsukuyomi
new moon love potion
nocturnal circus
leg draped over crescent moon
girl hangs upside down
gibbous halfway house
shadow night crickets gossip
she needs sedating
full moon tree-trunk spin
naked dancing on silver
she coruscates dew
blackbird sings her home
waning moon ambushed by dawn
Amaterasu
The gods awarded Yumi first prize for her dream and allowed her to live.
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To read other Friday Fictioneers’ stories for this week, or to add a 100-word story of your own, please click on the blue frog below.
Yesterday, I had a most touching email from one of my dear blogging friends who asked if I was okay. Apparently, my posts are as regular as clockwork but I hadn’t posted anything for a week: no Monday Morning Haiku and two missed Wordless Wednesdays. Also, I left it too late to invite anyone to fill October’s guest storyteller slot.
Apologies all round, but I’ve been busy absorbing loads of new info about formatting a novel so the result looks professional both in paperback and in eBook form. There’s a huge amount of contradictory information out there, some of it unnecessarily complicated: thus I’m working hard to ascertain the simplest way to achieve the best result.
While I focus on this for the next week, or maybe two, I’m going to leave you with a progressive haiku centred around the phases of the moon. For your information, the names in the poem belong to two Japanese Shinto deities: Tsukuyomi the Moon God, and Amaterasu the Sun Goddess.
lunar haikai
under cutglass stars
she dreams of Tsukuyomi
new moon love potion
nocturnal circus
leg draped over crescent moon
girl hangs upside down
gibbous halfway house
shadow night crickets gossip
she needs sedating
full moon tree-trunk spin
naked dancing on silver
she coruscates dew
blackbird sings her home
waning moon ambushed by dawn
Amaterasu
Sarah Potter Writes 