Below, I’ve generated a list of 100 random words. The idea is to read through the words, searching for a word that sparks your inspiration.
Then, choose no less than three words to use in your poem.
Media Trolls Rampant Phobic anguish Maddening ‘crisis’ trolls With sober concerns spread numbing self-doubt Rudehoax
The Crapsey Cinquain is a five-line, non-rhyming poem featuring a syllable structure of 2-4-6-8-2. Choose words that create drama that builds into the fourth line. The turn occurs on line five, the most important line. This is where you change your focus away from the drama in some interesting way. Cinquain poems need a title.
I have chosen words or situations for this week’s prompt from Baba Vanga’s predictions for 2023.
Devastating solar storm
Explosion in a nuclear plant
Human birth in laboratories
Alien attacks
Earth changing its orbit
Bioweapons
You need not use the words verbatim. You can use one or more of the situations as a stimulus for imagination and base your piece on it.
Fear and the UNKNOWN: The Promotion of Fear and Ignorance through Censorship
Jesse folded his hands and sat back from the computer screen. The staff prediction’s list in front of him, of mostly apocalyptic events, made him chuckle. Most had already happened to some degree and the others were based on what his more alarmist fellow science fiction editors liked to call unverified ‘conspiracy theories’. He’d come to accept that blatant lack of self-awareness from co-workers, that was currently spreading faster than Covid-19, but rather than get upset by it, he chose to be amused.
Theories, after all, encompassed the whole genre with which they were dealing. Only recently had the modifier of “conspiracy” become a popular ‘wink’ for dismissing big ideas. The only conspiracy he could detect was this new, unimaginative, ‘group denying’ of thought according to ‘tastes’. But the covert- and alarming- call for censorship was not something registering on his ‘amusement meter’. He wanted people who worked for him to have a great deal of intellectual confidence in their ability to entertain all ideas.
Current recommendations to remove ‘misinformation’ from the public square by ‘experts’ (and political tyrants) who believe the public is subject to mass hysteria, made Jesse shudder. He’d even heard a few folks complain that other people’s ideas were harmful! Jesse understood how more information and ideas, not less or fewer, offer us the better chance to remain calm and reasonable when tested.
The dire prediction on the list of an Alien Attack in 2023 had tickled him the most, though. Jesse wondered how many of his young staffers were aware of the Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938. If so, he wondered if they’d confirmed their elitist inclinations a bit from the media propaganda of that time. He decided to call a meeting in order to give them more information.
As for the rest of the list of 2023 predictions, Jesse thought, “Who knows?”.
That was the last straw! He not only was challenging me, but he had resorted to using foul language in front of ladies! A flame rising from the ashes of my childhood fears when listening to my drunken father’s abusive rants at my mother was uncontrollably burning inside me. When I reached for his throat, the walls of the saloon seemed to split open. One large gap spilled a blinding light over the two of us. I was no longer a child cowering underneath my bed. A reckoning was at hand!
The rest is a blur, even now, as I await my moment on the gallows. My own future decided by men longing for a cold beer and a quick resolution had dismissed who I was in favor of who they needed me to be- a murderer.
The world would soon forget, possibly even forgive, me. I had rid this place of a brutal bully who had terrorized every single citizen causing a weight of hopelessness and despair.
As the hangman pulled the lever, I felt my mother’s tender touch sweep along my cheek beckoning me to come home.
Tonight’s ‘mixer’ is required for all the new employees, and she wondered if her boss knew about it being unsafe. Sarah searched her heart for any viable reason not to go and found none. She probably wouldn’t even be nervous at all but for the President just warning the public about dangerous political extremists and then overhearing three of her co-workers quietly saying MAGA the NEXT DAY! Sarah reluctantly got herself dressed. “Ugh…You’d think the Human Resources Department would have screened out everyone unfit to ‘mix’!”
I chose to experience this book in audio form and I’m glad I did. As someone who tries to grasp every morsel of a book, I may have become bogged down in it otherwise. Unless you’ve had an excellent liberal arts education, the frequent world historical references may cause you to be Googling and/or refreshing your knowledge at the expense of the deep and well-described essence of the text. Within every reference is a clear explanation of the time period so you don’t have to recall all your own facts. I’m blown away how (somewhat scarily) this book describes the intrinsic human tendency to drift toward totalitarianism and draws an undisputable correlation to our experiences before, during, and since, the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s been a perfect storm for our self-destructive behavior. The book does not point fingers or make judgements but simply explains Mass Formation Psychosis. In fact, I felt relieved that there isn’t likely organized malicious wrongdoing on a large scale, but instead, this phenomenon is arising from widespread fear and uncertainty. It’s dangerous and destructive just the same. But there’s actually a hopeful thread that makes our future seem less grim… yet still uncertain. More than explaining just a psychological phenomenon, the book offers many reference-based cases and gets to the center of defining our humanity and human limitations in general. [spoiler alert] Poets, artists, and Nature lovers just may be closer to the ‘truth’ of our existence than the dogmatically logic-based scientists. I’m going to re-experience this fascinating book soon because all the enlightening and affirming information could not possibly be absorbed-to my liking- in one dose. You’ll definitely feel more educated once you read it. If you’re curious, logical, anxious, or find yourself just shaking your head every day, this book is for you!
Here’s a short clip of the author explaining a sliver of his findings:
BTW-the audio version is not read by the author so if you find his Belgian accent distracting, it’s more clearly understandable.
Mensen maken de samenleving en nemen daarin een positie in. Deze website geeft toegang tot een diversiteit aan artikelen die gaan over 'samenleven', belicht vanuit verschillende perspectieven. De artikelen hebben gemeen dat er gezocht wordt naar wat 'mensen bindt, in plaats van wat hen scheidt'.
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