Reading down

—GUSTS, Fall/Winter 2015

Announcement: KYSO Flash (Knock-Your-Socks-Off Art and Literature) Triple-F Writing Challenge

Sharpen your pencils now…the deadline is fast approaching 

Deadline: Sunday, February 7, 2016 (midnight PST)

Categories: Micro-fiction, prose poetry, poetic hybrids such as haibun stories and tanka tales, and lineated poetry (both free verse and formal). Innovative works also welcomed.

The Challenge: Entries must be no longer than 500 words each, including the title (and we count words in all poems as well, not lines). Each entry must also include seamless use of three prompt words: fierce, flicker, and fool.

Prizes (in USD):

$300 First Place

$200 Second Place

$100 Third Place

$50 Honorable Mentions (3-5 awarded)

Plus publication online and in a soft-cover anthology, with a complimentary copy for each winner and finalist

Entry Fee: $5 USD per submission, no limit. Electronic entries only, accepted via Submittable.

Summary Description: 

KYSO Flash announces a writing-prompt challenge of three words: fierce, flicker and fool. Accepted from writers worldwide: micro-fiction, prose poetry, haibun stories, tanka tales, and lineated poetry, both free and formal verse. Innovative works welcomed. Cash prizes. $5 entry fee per submission, no limit. Winners and finalists will be published online this spring and in our print anthology next fall; contributors will receive one complimentary copy each.

Full Guidelines: http://www.kysoflash.com/Classifieds.aspx

Tanka Prose

Something in the Air

by Janet Lynn Davis (prose) and Susan Burch (tanka)

I catch myself staring at the cracks in her thickly applied pink lipstick. Then it happens. Something from somewhere lands in one of my eyes, aggravating a contact lens and as per usual triggering a mini-waterfall. 

At the eleventh hour, just as I need to get serious about my required research paper, my Freshman English instructor, via swift strokes with her red pen, presses me to switch to a more-traditional (aka stodgy) topic. That's why I'm now sitting here in her dank little office behind the classroom: to assert myself. 

In a flash, her face freezes as she no doubt notices the waterworks. “Okay. You can go ahead with it,” she sheepishly acquiesces. “I was only afraid things would get too psychological for me.” With that, she officially approves my original topic: Why People Laugh.   

This probably wasn't the first time tears saved me. I run with it.            

I blink my eye 

to get a lash out—

the married guy

sharing the elevator

winks back at me

                

____________________

Authors' Note: For those unfamiliar with U.S. university curriculums, "Freshman English" refers to a first-year English literature and composition course (or courses).

—Haibun Today, vol 9 no. 2, June 2015

Thanks to fellow poet Susan for working on this with me. Was fun to do! By the way, what I write about here (the prose) really did happen.

Bitter wind

bitter wind
the scent of orange
in my face cream

—Mariposa, 33, Autumn/Winter 2015

Fresh beet juice

fresh beet juice

washes over my hands …

the blunders

I attempt to sop up

before the stain of regret

—Skylark 3:2, Winter 2015

A gleam

a gleam

when she notices

the "Grandma" mug

now too heavy

for her to hold

—Frameless Sky, Issue 3, fall 2015

Castle

castle

after castle

on the banks

of this river … 

still a world of kings

—GUSTS, Autumn 2015

Castle (on hill) where Richard the Lionheart
was held captive,  Durnstein, Austria

The assortment

the assortment
of birthday cards
he gives me,
one from each side
of his personality

—red lights, 4:2; Take Five, vol. 1 (2008)