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It’s the first Monday in May, the weather is warmer and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing Prosery, the very short piece of prose or flash fiction that tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. It can be in any genre of your choice, but it does have a limit of 144 words; an additional challenge is to hit 144 exactly. The special thing about Prosery is that we give you a complete line or two from a poem, which must be included somewhere in your story, within the 144-word limit.

One of the many things I did while I was still teaching was coach students to enter the annual poetry performance competition, Poetry by Heart, and I’m proud to say that one of my students got through to the final in London. Students make their choice of poems from a comprehensive bank of poetry, a useful place to find little gems of poems, which is where I came across the poem for this Prosery prompt.

It’s by Rachel Lyman Field (1894 – 1942), an American writer who, until she was ten years old, apparently couldn’t read, so she listened to plays, poems and stories and learned them by heart. She would then compose her own versions, which she would act out or recite. When she got married, Rachel refused to become a housewife; she continued to write poems and stories, many of which were adapted into Hollywood films. She died in 1942 at 48 years old.

The lines I chose are from a poem called ‘Something told the wild geese’, which is about the moment, the turning point of the year, when wild geese sense that they must fly south and migrate to warmer lands for the winter. I particularly like the use of summer and winter words and how they are emphasised by the use of a dash before them.

^{Image by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash}

The geese have already arrived here in Norfolk where they will stay for spring and summer. I love geese, so this poem and these lines attracted my attention:

“Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly.”

Here’s how to take part in Prosery:

–   Write a piece of flash fiction of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line in the order in which it has been given. You may add or change punctuation, but you may not add words in between the given ones.
–   Post your Prosery on your blog and link back to this post.
–   Link it up to our Mr. Linky.
–   Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy
–   Visit other blogs. Enjoy some amazing writing, and don’t forget to comment.