Category: Narratives

365 Days of Guest Posts at The Seeker’s Dungeon…read on

Taken from The Seeker’s Dungeon

by Sreejit Poole

365 Days of Guest Posts on Living and Dying.  Get involved and share your story.

All things born must die a physical death.  This we all know. Whether you believe that we fade to black or merge into the light, view death as an end, a new beginning or a transition, plays a major role in how you live.  Do you try and experience everything you can knowing that you are going to die and be gone forever?  Does this cause you to embrace life more fully or does it fill you with fear?  Or do you believe that the way you live sets before you a path towards heaven, hell, or future births?

For 365 days, starting from May 1, 2016, we will have a meditation on Life and Death here in the Dungeon. I want to hear about how you embrace life.  What makes you feel alive? What gives your life value? I want to know about how you deal with death.  When did you come to really understand death?  How has that affected your life?  Does death make life more meaningful?

All bloggers, writers, artists, live-ers and die-ers are welcome.  Send your prose piece (600 – 3000 words) along with a short bio, a profile picture, or picture that represents you to be featured with the bio, and a header image (2000 x 640 pixels recommended) to sreejitpoole927@gmail.com and enter On Living and Dying as the subject.  Be sure to also give the blog, webpage, Facebook, or Twitter address that you’d like your name to be linked to. (If you don’t have one of these, and live totally off the grid, that’s cool too.)

365 days means there are a lot of voices being involved.  If you have a friend that you think has a good story to tell, invite them to join.  If they don’t consider themselves writers, tell them that you’ll proofread it for them and get it up to par.  We want to hear from everybody.

All submitted content should be the original work of the author.

Other notes: Don’t be scared to proofread before submission.  Feel free to share your best material! There is 365 days, so no need to stream of conscious it, take a day and reread, refresh and rejuvenate your post until it’s fantastic.

On Living and Dying Contributors:

© Sreejit Poole, The Seekers's Dungeon
© Sreejit Poole, The Seekers’s Dungeon
365 take one
©Sreejit Poole, at The Seeker’s Dungeon
take 2 365 days
©Sreejit Poole, The Seeker’s Dungeon

 

Read more at The Seeker’s Dungeon

 

girl on a swing (haibun)

Emily eats her  cookie on the swing  in back of the cottage surrounded by rose bushes, plum trees, a cherry tree and several milkweeds. She loves how the grass is tall  and she can crawl on her tummy and pretend she’s in the jungle. The grasshoppers often play dead on a blade of grass and she can outstare any bug and make it jump away.

The blossoms sure looked pretty, she thought as she passed a fallen petal gently on her cheek; it felt like Mommy’s silk scarf.

 

http://www.emagazine.com/earth-talk/monarch-butterflies-in-sharp-decline

child seeks a challenge
caterpillar stares her way
on the milkweed

(c) Tournesol’16-05-06

Written for The Carrot Ranch in 99 words, no more, no less.

risks taken in our youth (Tan Renga)

railway-15
Photo from MindLoveMiserysMenagerie

Winter rice fields–
railroad tracks running
a level above them
(c) Shiki

whistle echoes from afar
teens quickly sneak across

©Tournesol’16/05/05

Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie

Peace of mind (haibun)

She sat by the shore watching the sailboats and listening to the sounds of nature. So many decisions to make and each impacted on people she loved. Her mind echoed should and should not`s so loud that she finally took a few deep breaths and slowly turned to her breath. She closed her eyes in quiet contemplation and mediated soaking up the warmth of the morning sun. Feeling calmer, she looks out at the ducks and swans and nature provided her with an answer.

Lake Ontario, Oakville, On.
© Clr – Lake Ontario, Oakville, On.

white swan
opening its wings in flight
seeking solace

© Tournesol ’16/03/26

lost in thought (haibun)

She frowns at her sunlit streaked window from a long winter’s grime.   Stepping outside she feels the sun’s glow but, still too cool to make the windows squeal like giddy children.

In the meantime, she has plenty of work to do inside.  She grabs a broom and eyes the corners of the ceiling in each room.  The thought of uninvited guests make her want to scratch.

The front entrance is the next move.  She unlocks the door and peaks to see if a neighbour is in the hallway before she steps out in her tattered old hoodie and black leggings.

lost in thought
broom raised automically
a dead fly falls
woven threads rip apart
spider – nowhere to be found

 

© Tournesol ‘16/03/22

 

The Secret Keeper 5 word prompt: web, lost, black, scratch, lock

 

(120 words)

accept each day as a gift (haibun)

“Not another rainy day!!” Trula stomped her feet and threw herself on the couch and sulked.

Her nana rocked by the window and pointed her finger at her grand-daughter, “Child, you take each day as it comes. You cannot command the universe or turn your back to what the Great Spirit hands you each day. You will regret it some day.”  Holding her wooden beads, she whispered softly to herself but the only audible words were “protect her”.

Trula rolled her eyes and scowled at her nana. Year after year, it was the same thing when it was cloudy, raining, snowing or windy, Trula made a scene and refused to study and as she got older refused doing chores on the farm.

Several years later her nana died, when Trula was twenty-one.  The family buried her on the farm near an old oak tree where Nana used to sit and read for hours and later when her eyes failed her, she would pray and smile up at the sky giving thanks to the Great Spirit for each new day.

A few days after the burial, Trula was planting seeds in the garden and suddenly the sky turned dark.  An odd-looking cloud loomed over her and the wind picked up dramatically. Trula rose her fist to the sky in protest when suddenly she felt her feet lift from the ground and long tendrils pulling at her shoulder and head;  a huge CRACK resonated from the sky muffling the sound of a broken neck.

(c) Brooke Shaden

the universe rules,
appreciate each day
rain or shine

(c) Tournesol ’16-03-19

Photo challenge at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie

coming home (haibun) flash fiction 99 words

Twenty-five men left five days ago. The jeep left a trail dust riding over the hill where they were stationed. Today only twelve men returned but only five in one piece. It was their last mission before returning back home. They were anxious to see their family back in Canada but dreaded delivering the tragic news to more grieving families. Sergeant Harvey drove the jeep behind the compound and their mascot ran to greet them. Amir was a black Labrador mix and his loyalty was genuine.

Photo Prompt: FlashfictionForAspiringWriters

dropping to his knees
savouring a gesture of pure love
man’s best friend

(c) Tournesol ’16-03-18

(99 words)

She hated goodbyes (Flash Fiction – haibun)

Submitted for: Flash Fiction Prompt – July 18, 2014-GoodBye

Revised March 18, 2016 to 99 words, no more, no less as inspired by

Charli Mills at The Carrot Ranch

© clr 2014
© clr 2014

 

 

She entered the coffee shop across from Concordia University. They met here the first time five years ago. Some lectures pushed her buttons. Many fled to Psychology hoping “book smart” would make better therapists, muttering, “Enough of this learning by doing crap!”
“Work out your own shit”, most of her professors said, “Be aware of your red flags! You could do more harm than good.” The same group of mature students met here after each class. Together they formed a community of resources, compassion and knowledge.

she dreaded endings,
late arrival was more her style
…just couldn’t say goodbye.

© Cheryl-Lynn (Tournesol) 2016/03/18

99 words

Daily Moments March 12/16 Waning moon (haibun)

“My oh my, how time flies by these days”, she thought walking slowly from the store with her recycled bags in each hand.  She missed the sun set and the multicolours reflecting on the water and now it had dipped below the horizon rising on another part of the world.  She looked up at the sky turning a darker blue as the waxing moon shone down on her filling her with joy.  She set her bags on the sidewalk for a second and took out her phone aiming it at the sky.  It was difficult to do justice to such splendour.


 img_5894

halo embraces,
looks down at her and smiles,
that crescent moon

©Tournesol’16/03/13

Daily Moment March 12, 2016 – waning moon (haibun)

Six Sentence Story

facade (troiku)

5694935622_5ab00710f0_b
Carnival in Venice -29 by Stefan Insam CC BY-SA 2.0

(troiku)

masking facade
bold yet striking
hollow eyes

masking facade
hiding frowns
liquid tears

bold yet striking
her last
charade

hollow eyes
death of the soul
disemboweled

© Tournesol ’16/03/03

Photo challenge – MindLoveMiserysMenagerie