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Welcome to another edition of Prosery, where we exit our comfort zone and compose some prose! Using the line below, write a prose piece of no more than 144 words (excluding title). If you’re up for the challenge, write your prose in exactly 144 words!
Today, the United States celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A modern prophet, Dr. King’s tireless advocacy of Civil Rights helped transform a nation stratified along racial lines. While the struggle for authentic equality is far from over, his leadership and monumental contribution to the cause led to the end of legal discrimination.
His example inspired the poet and storyteller extraordinaire Maya Angelou to work for him as the northern coordinator for King’s SCLC. She honored the themes of his famous “I have a Dream” speech in her inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton, “On the Pulse of Morning”—27 years ago on this day!
How fitting, then, is it for us to include this line from that poem in our prose:
The Rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, But do not hide your face.
Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning” (excerpt) from On the Pulse of Morning. Copyright © 1993 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House Inc., 1994)
New to dVerse? Here’s what you do:
- Write the prose of you choice (flash-fiction, etc.) of 144 words or fewer (excluding title) that includes the line.
- Post it on your personal site/blog
- Copy your link onto the Mr. Linky
- Remember to click the small checkbox about data protection.
- Read and comment on some of your fellow prosaists’ work
- Like and leave a comment below if you choose to do so
Have fun!
dVerse 
You want the whole thing included in the piece of prose or just the first four words?
The whole sentence.
Thank you, Frank.
Thanks for hosting, Frank.
Thank you, Merril! 🙂
Good Afternoon, all! The Pub is open! 🙂
That quote was not too easy to use… but I did my best… I only changed added a line-break and changed punctuation a bit.
Thanks, Bjorn! I’ confident you can meet the challenge! I’ll be right over.
Hello Frank and All. The Power of Poetry! Ms. Angelou, a Holy Transmitter if there ever was one. I will try to do the prompt justice…
I tried my best too… hope it went through…
It did. And you best shows! 🙂
Great to see you here, Jade! Looking forward to it! 🙂
🙂
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That is a tough quotation to fit into a story. It would make a good title, but I guess that’s not in the rules of the game.
It is not. But in the end, you didn’t need it to be! 😉
I cannot believe that was 27 years ago.🤯
Sent from my iPad
>
Time flies! 😉
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Good evening all and thanks for the prompt, Frank. It’s already gone 10 pm and I’m ready for bed, but I wanted to post and link tonight, so that I can come back and read and comment in the morning. A tricky quote, but I got there in the end!
Glad you stopped by, Kim! 😀
Thanks Frank! 😀
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Thank you for hosting, Frank.
I’ve added mine to the linky-thingy. What an apt quote to use today!
I’ll be fascinated to see the different vectors it takes, how it flies.
Na’ama
My pleasure, Na’ama! Glad you joined us today! 🙂
🙂
It can be a bit challenging, and as such funny, to follow instructions to use a sentence, for instance, like in this prompt. Or to write exactly 144 words. This time, though, aI chose otherwise. My text is 160 words, and aI focus at the form of the prose in the video, and not on that specific line, even if it reveals the form. By the word “form”, aI here think philosophically. Thank, You, Lord. Ai have a feeling, by now there has been so many minus, it makes sense to add, or to multiply. May the text which aI posted be founding.
Okay, I’m in with exactly 144 words. Thank you for the challenge!
Excellent! 🙂
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That it for me tonight. I’ll leave the bar open for any of you that still want to share. See you tomorrow!
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It’s Tuesday morning and when I read the comments on my post, I realised that I’d mis-typed the title – a possible Freudian slip. Instead of ‘Skylarking’, it should have been ‘Mudlarking’ – I’ve changed it now! That’s what I got for trying to write and post before bed. We’ve woken up to mist and frost – chilly!
Ah, the perils of fatigue blogging! 😉
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Maya Angelou is hard to pass by, a treasured choice for me, and thank you for hosting Frank.
My pleasure! Happy you can join us!
I exceeded 144 words just a bit … but I couldn’t decide which rock to take out, and my muse led me more to free verse than prosery. In retrospect, I seem to have been a bit of a rebel. Mea culpa, the rocks spoke.
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Thanks for hosting. This one was though. I ended up with a prose poem I think. Hope that’s prose enough. 🙂
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Thanks for hosting Frank. Not an easy one, I must add. Joining in this morning.
Happy you managed it, Linda! 😀
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