Ronovan Writes Sijo Wednesday #36- 11-16-22 Mindfulness of Past and Future

Use FREE as your inspiration this week.

You should use the word in the title of this post as your inspiration as either a theme of the Sijo or in the poem itself.

There are:

  • Three Lines
  • 14-16 syllables per line
  • A total of 44-46 syllables for the entire poem




Each new season heartens the recent past toward the future
Because Nature is not a product of ‘luck’, but alive,
Free to act creatively yet bound to an eternal plot.




https://ronovanwrites.com/2022/11/16/ronovan-writes-sijo-wednesday-poetry-challenge-36-use-free-as-your-inspiration-this-week/

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #248- Excavating History

We have a phrase this week to serve as your writing prompt.

…passing through a doorway in history

There is no restriction on format of the piece. There is no last date either, unless you wish to be featured in the Weekly Wrap. 



Duncan’s head hurt.
His pursuit of truth is a hunger he knows can never be satisfied in a conclusion. He wonders, “Is the past truly a mosaic of endless opinions or is there more?”
To become an observer by passing through a doorway of history would give him more evidence but trusting his eyes and ears has limitations. The “who he is”- a being marinated in modern day culture and sensibilities- would be a tremendous disadvantage to an unbiased reenactment. He knows that the understanding of history is disserved by only studying collections of modern intellectual interpretations after the fact. It needs to be excavated for evidentiary fossils that prove each past moment was once alive and three-dimensional.
So, Duncan reads everything he can find… journals and diaries, essays and articles.
His focus is on the founding of his country. Not from any patriotic duty or political position, as one might guess, but because he has Spatial Sequence Synesthesia, and his personal ‘mental map’ oddly always balances on a fulcrum in the late 1800s. His internal visual timeline stretches to infinity toward the past and future from the 1860s every time he withdraws his focused perspective and tries to ‘see’ all of Time. His ‘gift’ is either a peculiar mental defect or a sign of something special and Duncan doesn’t believe in coincidences, so he feels compelled to understand more. He’s somehow tied to that period.

I wish him well.
He may never find a full understanding, but Duncan doesn’t care as long as he collects knowledge that he can absorb through his 5 senses and his heart, bringing the past alive again.
He’s a guy I’d like to talk with!

Sweet Ending

I breathe deeply.

It’s been weeks since I’ve inhaled,

and felt alive.

The waning growing season

is less about endings, to me.

Stagnation and swelter

Have lifted.

It is far better to be busy.

Survival is an active process.

The depth of silent winter,

White and cozy,

Hasn’t any power to suppress

my spirit.

As the woolen, suffocating blanket of summer lifts,

I remember to be happy.