General

In One Ear and Out the Other print from photograph of fabric glass by Maria L. Berg staged by Redbubble

The poem

The Best Rooms Are Too X-rated

Thinking through the bedrooms
so many bedrooms
moving and moving
trying to make something mine
I tried to settle on one
to mentally linger, loiter
describe in detail
like a capsule through time

I wanted it to be a happy place
full of growth and creative industry
accomplishment or at least good dreams
and for a moment I settled on your room
that first room
with only a mattress on the floor
we sat together in the chair
and blew bubbles through the fan
That room didn’t need anything else
for a few weeks

Then I thought of our room
before the storm
the tall ceilings and

I realized that all of the best rooms
the very best rooms
are too X-rated

Visualising positive morrows,

Obliterate,

Periods of pain of present,

Smell of freshly watered Earth capturing life,

Spirited songs of a songbird signalling strength,

Set spirits soaring sky-high.

Hues of nature,

Paleness to vibrancy,

Teaches immense patience,

Promising unexpected potential,

Anticipating happy outcomes,

Turns a frown,

From fright instantly,

To an ecstatic yearning.

51 words.

Acknowledgements :- Thank you Reena Saxena for running the challenge at Reena’s Exploration Challenge # 132 . For rules please refer here. Thank you all for stopping by and reading.

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2020/04/23/reenas-exploration-challenge-132

Would you like to write something in a similar spirit, or just carry this ahead – in prose or poetry? Can you think of a story or anecdote or historical tale on the same theme? It should basically be a story of survival strategies.

Instead of driving the fears out of my way, I allowed them to drive me into failure, depression, and low self-esteem.

Then one day I decided to face my fears, and drive them away before they make me crazy.

And I found out that it was my fears that made the things look difficult,  bigger, and frightening than they were in reality.

Driveaway the fear with courage because 

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #131

PROMPT #131

I give below a situation. You may take it as a part of your piece – beginning, middle, or end.

He had lost everything of value to him. There was an empty canvas on the easel, his colors and tools. What would he paint?

————————————————————–

The ghostly galleon was a pale shadow in the skies

nervous moonlight peeped from behind the clouds

silvery, slithering snakes streaked down to the seas

the lone, ageing vessel valiantly tried to stay afloat

wailing waves walloped the deck again and again

the master helmed the ship stoically

though his heart was grim at what lay ahead

as the sea-spray hit his face once more, she tasted like memory

of all the good times he had had on her calm waters

and he smiled

her turbulent, troubled flashes of temper did not frighten him a bit

sea was his beloved, he could read her every pulse

yet, he admitted to self candidly, she could be capricious

he wouldn’t mind dying in her arms

but he knew they had many more years of togetherness

he had learnt to starve the fear that gnawed in his gut

never letting the…

The first tale I thought of for Reena’s prompt today comes from a book I read so many years ago, “Dune,” by Frank Herbert.  Youtube is a marvelous treasure-trove on any topic, so I went looking to see if I could find where someone recited the passage that has stuck in my mind and become a part of my being since then.  I was able to find this excellent short video that talks about, “The Litany Against Fear.”

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
– Frank Herbert, Dune, Paul Atreides’ Litany Against Fear

Reena is…