Their disappearance inspired this attempt at an uncommon poetic form — I’d never heard of the form of poetry called “Dizain” until Will Hull tagged me in a poetry challenge. He learned of it from this article by Adelia Ritchie. I traced back a number of links and I think the challenge actually originated here, written by Somsubhra Banerjee: Uncommon Poetic Forms Would You Give It A Go?medium.com According to Somsubhra, the basic rules for a Dizain poem are clear:

6-Word Photo Story Summer Challenge — Sweltering summer night; breeze-induced shadow. Our daughter’s cat is staying with my husband and I for a week. When she crawled up behind the blinds in our bedroom to sniff the breeze coming in the window. I didn’t know she was there until I saw this silhouette. Thanks again to…

Editing one’s own work is tough, but would a good writer make these glaring mistakes? — I have been working my way through the questions posed in the writing challenge, Ask Yourself Empowering Questions. This brought forth a searing question of my own: How can I possibly have missed not one, but three enormous errors in the titles of two of the responses I wrote last…

~ 6-Word Photo Story Summer Challenge — Sunsets like this make artwork superfluous. Thank you, Mary Chang Story Writer, for this fun photo/story challenge, and Will Hull, for tagging me as an invitation to participate. Also, thank you Snapshots, for publishing these stories. Per the guidelines for this photo challenge, I’m adding the following tags. Hollie Petit, Ph.D., Ching Ching, Bingz Huang, Sandi…

Juicy, cold, and tasty; this ticks all the boxes for what to eat on a blistering-hot day. — One of my favorite summer recipes one year was a Watermelon Salsa recipe I found on the website Eating Well. One hot day, with a watermelon in the fridge, I decided to make the salsa. Imagine my dismay when I realized I didn’t have the other ingredients. It is a…

Prompt #3: What is your worst flaw and why are you keeping it? — Why would anyone refuse to give up a flaw? Prompt #3 of the Ask Yourself Empowering Questions is, “What is your worst flaw, and why are you keeping it?” I hardly thought about this before I knew my answer to the question. There may not be a single word for my worst flaw — it is caution all wrapped…

Prompt #2: What experience do I want to create now? — When I first saw the question, “What experience do I want to create now?” which is listed as the second prompt of Tree Langdon’s “Ask Yourself Empowering Questions” writer’s challenge, all kinds of world-improving and lofty goals came to my mind. What surfaced amongst my thoughts, however, was what I’ve…