*** NOTE: dVERSE LIVE is this coming Thursday! See you there!

It’s Prosery Monday at dVerse: the prompt where we write prose based on some given lines of poetry. It can be flash-fiction or creative non-fiction; cannot exceed 144 words in total (sans title); must not be poetry (no versification, line breaks, metre, etc); and must include the poetry line given as the prompt, word for word, within the prose.

So here I am back home in Boston, missing the ever-sunny weather and warm days of our past two months in San Diego. Tomorrow it will be 50 degrees, but today and Sunday, the wind chill was 2 below zero!! Winter always fights to stick around in New England and spring struggles to bloom.

Folks are ready to get outside, see buds on trees, and desperately want to put away their heavy jackets. Many of us head for a local florist or grocery store that also sells flowers. The first bouquet I buy to set on our dining room table is always daffodils. Their bright yellow reminds me that sunny and warmer days are ahead. There is something inherently cheerful about daffodils with their ruffled edges. They also remind me of my college days. Every fall there was a sing contest between the sororities and fraternities. We attended many a practice to do ourselves proud. Lucky the group that had a good number of members who were in the excellent Augustana College choir. Me? I can’t read music and have a hard time staying on pitch even if I know the tune. It was a given that I always mouthed the words as our group sang in competition. The song I remember most, which was truly beautiful, put Wordsworth’s poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud to music.

I Wander Lonely as a Cloud
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

So here’s the prompt for today’s prosery. The line I want you to include in your prose/flash fiction of 144 words or less, sans title, is “I wandered lonely as a cloud”.  Remember, you must use the line, word for word. The punctuation may be different….but the words must be there, ordered just as they were by Wordsworth, word for word.

New to dVerse?  Need to be refreshed on the rules? Here’s what to do:

• Write a piece of prose (flash fiction or creative nonfiction) that includes the line “I wandered lonely as a cloud” and is 144 words or less, sans title. You can NOT write poetry today. Prose is the name of the game!

• Post your prose to your blog AND add the exact URL for your poem to Mr. Linky below.

• REMEMBER to either TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your post that leads readers back to dVerse (https://dversepoets.com). 

• If you do not TAG or include a link to dVerse at the end of your post, I will gently remind you to do so. After all, this will increase your readership and others will find dVerse, hopefully to join in the fun. If you do not add the TAG or link after my reminder, I will remove your post from Mr. Linky. I do not want to do that. So please do include the TAG or link