Welcome to Prosery at the pub! Mish here as your host.

This writing challenge of short prose can be flash fiction or creative non-fiction containing no more than 144 words (sans title). It must not be poetry (ex: no line breaks, versification, meter). It must contain the given line of poetry within the body of the prose. You may break up the line with punctuation and capitalization, add words to the beginning or end, but you cannot insert words within the line. Those are the rules. Now let’s get started!

Recently, I was searching for a quote representing the powerful role of writers, poets and artists during turbulent times. In the process I stumbled upon award-winning author and professor, Toni Morrison.

The quote itself (at the end of this page) will not be part of our prompt today, but I was excited to find some of her poetry that will lend us a line for our prosery. Voila!

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio on Feb. 18, 1931 after her family had relocated from the South in the hopes of escaping racism. Her writing focused on the history, complexities, struggles and resilience of the African American experience. She played a pivotal role in bringing Black literature into the mainstream. Morrison was the recipient of many prestigious awards including the National Books Critic Circle Award (Song of Solomon, 1977), The Nobel Prize in Literature(1993) and the Pulitzer Prize (Beloved, 1987). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama (2012). Her career spanned over six decades. She passed away in 2019. Source:www.womenshistory.org, www.neh.gov, www.wikipedia.org

Besides writing eleven novels, five children’s books, two plays and an opera, Toni Morrison was the author of “Five Poems“, first published in 2002. You can read them here. For your prosery challenge, I have chosen the following line from her evocative poem, “Eve Remembering”.

“Lips forget what they have kissed.”

Here’s how to join in:

• Write a piece of prose, up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line.
• Post your prose on your blog or website.
• Click on Mr.Linky to add your name and direct url to your prose.
• Provide a link to dVerse so others can join in too.
• Please visit the work of others to read and comment.
• Drop into the pub to say hello. We are a friendly bunch.
• Enjoy!

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. – Toni Morrison