white american extremists
hiding in our midst
must be monitored, observed –
his circling, lazy droning flight
just waiting for the order,
for just the right moment to strike
these terrorists so much like himself.
(Use the Third definition of the word Flight in a poem - responses must be between 33 and 333 words)
Normal
Normal,
the nurse’s verdict,
velcro ripping like a gunshot
in the newly quiet space.
Normal,
her obligatory checklist -
stabbing pains and excessive bleeding
to be reported
immediately.
Normal,
the hour long wait with numerous
normal magazines
and your normal friend accompanying you -
the helpless look in your ride’s eyes
telling you
that everything will be back
to normal soon -
work in the morning
and no worries -
it was the right decision,
just the wrong time.
So normal
they keep telling you,
at night
your hand resting on your belly
an aching little need still
fluttering quickly
under your fingers
like a heart beat
inside of
you.
(Use the Third definition of the word Normal in a poem - responses must be between 33 and 333 words)
She realized early on
that the weight
of the old white bearded sky god
lifted
exponentially
as the size of her breasts
swelled
so that
when cornered by cancer
in mid age
she was not afraid
to experiment
with non-being
in spite of the kind
warnings
from friends
and slowly,
she learned to accept
the beings here
and the thought of beings
not here
in the soon
hereafter
to come
so that
when the fatal announcement
came down
that the world was scheduled for demolition
in three days time,
she vacuumed just as she had
always planned
comforted that the dull pang
in her belly
was a clear sign
that the world had always been
three days away
from total destruction -
the only difference
now being
she felt each thrum and boom
of the cuckoo and grandfather
clocks
once only heard
during the unexpected
visits
of curious
strangers.
Give us 33-333 words with this as your inspiration:
The world will end in three days.
The Score
The score etched
in cuneiform plates
was a solid representation
between them
of how much, how many
and how far.
The itinerant passerby
who stopped to watch
their interaction
wrote down his impressions
of who, what and where
and passed it on to his friends,
themselves
itinerant second hand visitors.
Another looked on
long after the others had left,
broken red plates
jutting from the ground like teeth,
and feeling
as if he was missing something
important
sketched page after page
to a vague someone, somewhere
asking
over and over again
why, why, why.
(Use the Third definition of the word Score in a poem - responses must be between 33 and 333 words)
this soap bubble, glass ball
earth
photoshopped
in the palm of my imagination
tightly
and we lose the gravity
of our reality
held too
loosely
and we float in the darkness
one errant curse
as we fall
shattered
into a million, million
unreachable
stars
Write a 33-333 word response to the song featured below-
The Smashing Pumpkins - 33
With This Vorpal Blade
they snicker-snack cackled round Macbeth’s old cauldron –
a father, a son and a holy ghoul -
or was it ad exec, disc jockey and
preacher man -
and I longed for them to tell you the 3 little words,
those 3 magic words –
I love you. I love you, I love you –
but I didn’t want to seem the fool,
a 3 in 1 tool for you to use
as you seamed, sawed or hammered
fit
this foil
rapt package wrapt in a plastic
wrapped in a cardboard tube
full of frabjous
excuses –
and
in just such a place
as this
what I tell you three times is true. –
one with my pen,
two with my ruby slippered lips,
and three with a charm,
ready or not,
you only marry, fall in love,
and find your soul mate
once,
as they say,
and
I do,
do you,
for real,
could it ever
be true?
Write a 33-333 word response to the following quote: “What I tell you three times is true.” by Lewis Carroll.
without you
this tribe of strangers,
family and friends
with no concept
of my blue
lie
and say yes
we see what you're
going through,
the tips of their trees
blending seamlessly
with clear, open skies -
but this blue
of mine,
of us - once so many
shifting moods,
once a ring,
a bearing shared
together
but you,
you stepped through
first
and how do I cross
this infinite space
between us.
(Use the Third definition of the word Blue in a poem - responses must be between 33 and 333 words)
The narrow back alley
of their relationship
with no one way signs or
dividing lines
is all foot traffic, hustle and
busyness delivering the goods,
taking out the trash and emptying
grease traps while
gray spotted aprons
lounge
murmuring
on smoke break -
they hurry past the
competing
and steeping stale
dumpster water
and fresh baked bread
smells
greeting each other
with salaried smiles
ready to open up
for the day
thinking
this store front,
this back alley reality
that we have created-
which is facade
and which is truth-
both
they wonder,
neither
they hope
and each day
decide
(Use the Third definition of the word Alley in a poem - responses must be between 33 and 333 words)
Two
motherless
the great chocolate
whore
of babylon
and his oompaloompa horde
ride their psychedelic ships
home
to our harbor
and we are all
one
golden ticket
short
of redemption,
indentured servants
to his cause
"We're asking you to retell your favorite book. In 33 words."
"3 Wishes"
Wish
wish wish
like a heart
in the dark
of your mind
beating
Wish
wish wish
chest
bared
in the pit
screaming
sharpened pendulum
descending
swinging
Wish
wish wish
you’ll see her
nevermore
The Monkey's Paw, a short story by W.W. Jacobs, is about the strings that come with granted wishes. We are asking you to write 33 words exactly about three wishes that come at a high price to the wisher.
On the count of three
you were
always
spinning free
neither tree
nor what you should be,
a helicopter seed
all motion,
letting go,
so difficult
to know
my direction,
whether my feet
were planted
in the
ground
This weekend we are challenging you to write 33 of your own words to build upon the following: On the count of three...You can choose to include those words if you want, but they do not count toward the 33 words of your own.
Bills,
clippings,
yellowing photographs,
thickening scabs covering
walls,
she wonders
what wound, what hideous scars
lie
underneath
this buckling façade,
is this all
there is
holding her up,
keeping her
from
the
downpour.
Here are some photos to inspire you. Choose one and give us a metaphor or simile to help describe what you see – (walls of an outdoor room covered in stapled, taped paper, etc.) Make your analogy 33 words or less
Broken butterfly
Wings
mere struts,
Leonardo's
bat wings
minus
canvas,
bulbous eyes
searching,
turning
as I reach
to take it
home?
stomp a quick
death?
leave the hopeless spark
fluttering?
I question
all
my
answers.
Describe something that is three different things at the same time. Oh, and do it in 33 words.
Sevenling (in 33 words)
So many years,
so many miles,
this patina of indifference separating us.
Father, how frail,
how like grandfather.
When did you get old?
Not father, I realize, my brother staring back at me.
The Rule of Three is a writing principle that asserts that, in writing, groups of three have the most impact. This week's challenge is to write 33 words using the Rule of Three somewhere among them.
Grasping
the last strains,
every available point
there ever was
or could be,
wondering if this was all,
she slid her fingertips
along the glass,
lingered in the corners
of sunlight,
of refraction.
For this weekend's challenge, we'd like you to read the 33 words below and then add 33 of your own words to move the story along.
The last strains of sunlight lingered in the corners, grasping every available point of refraction. She slid her fingertips along the glass wondering if this was all there ever was. Or could be.
In three words
I can sum up
everything
I've learned about
kissing -
Keep
It
Simple...
Robert Frost one said, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." We want you to do the same. Sum up anything you want, but do it in three words. Your response should mirror Frost's quote by beginning, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about--." And the last four words are yours to choose.
Jesus
Jesus, a man like Zarathustra and Buddha,
a story born to bear the world’s heavy burden
Jesus, a curse flowing like a wound
from your lips
Jesus, the gardener who married
your daughter
Noted blues musician, Lead Belly, was quoted in Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet as saying:
You take a knife, you use it to cut the bread, so you'll have strength to work; you use it to shave, so you'll look nice for your lover; on discovering her with another, you use it to cut out her lying heart.
He uses one object, a knife, to flesh out a character and to tell a story in a basic three-part dramatic structure. We want the same from you. Give us 33 words (exactly) that tell us three different uses for one object.
A fabulist's contract
The talking gecko and quacking duck
insisted
their contract protected him
before and after
any accident -
too late
the man realized
slowly sliding
down
the cliff face
was when he really
needed help.
Tell us an original fable in exactly 33 words.
Trifecta: The Novel
It was a hard, roof rumbling, loose pane rattling dark and stormy night;
his one small flickering light casting shadows -
an obsessive need to write in a mad, mad word counting world.
"We want to play on an oft-noted literary concept: that of the opening line of a book (also known as an incipit, if you're fancy) ... give us a 33-word opening line to your book."
Riding this chain clanking
rickety Ferris
wheel
skyward,
a cresting
carnival cacophony
tumbling away
backwards
your stomach dropping, hands grasping
falling with this girl
one small awkward
reaching
step
to hold
her
hand
"In celebration of Moon Day we want you to write 33 words about someone who took a giant leap."
Daughter
This gray runway
and rusting, silver river
snaking its slow way
to unfettered
horizons –
how long and at what great speed -
lift off -
your sudden leaping
past the moon of us
and childhood?
"Please give us a creative piece inspired by the photo below. (Picture of a girl and cow separated by metal railing on a paved road) You have two options for word count: you can either give us 33 words or 333 words."
Three
Her world, a helicopter seed spinning
under his fingers,
a piano playing
for an hour
on the radio
and she is all motion
and letting go with the gravity
of his notes
telling her
she is beautiful,
desirable, attractive,
everything she ever wanted to be
just the way she is –
Sandra, some of us have been plugging that meter
all our lives for a second
of bliss here,
that special remembered year
with two minutes of bliss
there,
this spinning free
neither tree
nor what you should be
and I still feel your fingers
from last night,
your poem, the world
a helicopter seed spinning
making it hard to see
where I am going,
where my feet are planted
in the ground.
For this week’s poetry prompt, I want you to take one of the following lines and make it the first line of your poem. Feel free to take liberties with these openings.
“The world, a helicopter seed spinning”
Bliss
Marcus said
this then is
bliss
the knowing
that whatever comes
comes from the same source,
the same fountain as us
and, oh
how we fling ourselves
out into space
for one exulting instant
declaring gods, monsters
and eternities all within our
reach
until gravity
takes hold
and we fall
one drop among
many -
our one small shout
lost
in a resounding torrent of
bliss, bliss, bliss
Write a poem that reveals bliss
t-shirt
Worn holey
and wholly faded,
a holy shrine
of your college days -
it's a thick skin of buddies
and gals and easy booze
unraveling,
what your spouse