Welcome to Prosery! Michelle Beauchamp (Mish) here to offer drinks, snacks and a little inspiration.

This is your opportunity to write a short piece of prose (not prose poetry, not a poem) that incorporates a given line of poetry. You may break up the line with punctuation or capitalization, add words to the beginning or end of it, but you cannot insert words within the given line itself. Prosery can be flash fiction, non fiction or creative non fiction. It usually reads like a story with a beginning, middle and ending. 144 words is the maximum length for this challenge, not including the title. So let’s get started.

I stumbled upon an “accidental poet” by accident. Yes I did! As I was delving into some poems and poets of more recent times, I came across a news article by The India Express about a woman named Valsa George. I thought it was not only a wonderful nod to her, but also a reminder of the unknown, untapped talents that can lie deep within us. Her story resonated with me as her passion for penning poetry evolved later in life and quite unexpectedly. She describes in her bio….

“My encounter with poetry was sudden. I didn’t write a single poem till 2007. It was the fatal year when I happened to be bedridden for about four months. Obviously I was quite depressed. To while away my time, I started scribbling something and I felt what I wrote made sense and that was my first poem, The Great Escape. It was making myself convinced that my life was not meant to be languished in despair. It had such poignancy and depth of feeling..as it came directly from my heart!”

www.poemhunter.com

Valsa George writes of life, love, death and nature but I was especially drawn to her poems that speak to the art of poetry itself.

“When Poetry Haunted Me”

“What Poetry Is”

“What Shall I Serve You?”

Here is another….

Winged Words

by Valsa George

Like a creature hibernating in its burrow
Waiting to come out with the first verdure of spring
The seed of a poem lay dormant in my heart
Through the long winter awaiting another spring

After staying torpid inside for long
At a time I expected it the least
Timidly came out the first word
As shaky as a calf getting up for the first time

Then another came and word after word in a row
Like pellets of rain on the window pane
I boiled them in the crucibles of my imagination
And finally dipping them in the ocean of my emotions

But rhyme came to set constraints
For the right alignment I struggled
I had to decide on its texture and format
Pondered if it should be a sonnet or an ode

I might have kept the door open for long
Alas! All my words and fancies flew away
Like birds taking on wings into the sky
From a cage where they were imprisoned for long

I stood so helpless with my mouth shut
Staring blankly out into the airy nothing
Like one lost in the doorway of his own threshold
Unable to call back those winged words lost in the void

From this poem, I chose the following line to include in our prosery.

“The seed of a poem lay dormant in my heart.”

~ from “Winged Words”, Valsa George

Remember to use the line in its entirety and also give credit to the poet by noting the source.

Here’s how to join in:

• Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose no more than 144 words that includes the line given.
• Post your prose on your blog.
• Click on Mr. Linky below to add your name and direct url to your prose.
• Add a link for dVerse on your page so others can find us.
• Visit your fellow poets on the list to read their poems and comment.
• Pull up a seat at the pub to say hello.
• Enjoy!