Hello, dVerse Poets! It’s Merril from southern New Jersey where possibility is in the air. The sun rises earlier and sets later, the birds are singing, and green leaves are poking up from the sun-warmed earth. We’ve just switched to Daylight Saving Time—and it’s also the Ides of March, so beware!

I went down the rabbit-hole with Brainpickings (once again), and this poem, “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska spoke to me, even with its gentle irony (or perhaps because of it).

Maria Popova writes that she bounded with singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer:

over our shared love for the great Polish poet and translator Wisława Szymborska (July 2, 1923–February 1, 2012). In 1996, Szymborska was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality.” Upon announcing the prize, the Nobel commission noted her reputation as “the Mozart of poetry” but aptly added that there is also “something of the fury of Beethoven in her creative work.”

You can read the poem and listen to Amanda Palmer’s reading of it here.

However, you do not need to know anything about Szymborska or her poetry for this prompt.
Since this is prosery, I’ve chosen one line from her poem, “Possibilities,” which you must incorporate into a piece of prose. This can be either flash fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction, but it must be prose! And it must be no longer than 144 words, not including the title.

Here is the line:

“I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility that existence has its own reason for being.”
— Wisława Szymborska, “Possibilities”

You must use that entire line. You may change punctuation and capitalize words, but you are not allowed to insert words in between parts of the sentence.

Here’s how to take part in the Prosery Prompt:

– Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line.
– Post your Prosery piece on your blog and link back to this post.
– Place the link to your actual post (not your blog or web site) in the Mister Linky site.
– Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy
– Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts!