This Writing Challenge was started by Delores a long time ago. Computer issues led her to bow out for a while, and now Words for/on Wednesday is provided by a number of people around the world and has become a movable feast, with [Elephant's Child in Australia] acting as moderator.
Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write. Each Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on time zones and hemispheres) we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music, or an image. What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or ignoring them. We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching are encouraged.
Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. It is always wonderful if as many people as possible joined in this fun challenge, which includes cheering on the other participants. You may post on Elephant's Child's blog, here, or your own blog. If you are posting on your own blog - please share a link on Elephant's Child's blog or here so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. It is always wonderful if as many people as possible joined in this fun challenge, which includes cheering on the other participants. You may post on Elephant's Child's blog, here, or your own blog. If you are posting on your own blog - please share a link on Elephant's Child's blog or here so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
The Challenge: They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Write at least 100 words about the image below.
Stark,
ReplyDeleteHard-edged and uncompromising.
Moody, muddy monochromes assault the eyes and the soul.
Revving engines, horns and sirens shriek from the street.
The air is thick, heavy and unhealthy .
Clashing odours of engine oil and discarded waste fight for supremacy.
The bird’s eye view is no more appealing. Busy, noisy ants scurry across the rigid pathways divided by the towering monoliths which dwarf us, shrink us, alienate us…
And yet, somehow,
against all sense and all probability,
in those same artificial edifices softness, beauty and joy somehow exist.
Love is there too.
Invisible to most but still a triumph to be celebrated.
Well done! I love this!
DeleteThat is very well written indeed EC. You made me feel revolted by the big city and then attracted.
DeleteElephant's Child: You really described city life well. I really wonder why we keep building upward, maybe to reach the sky somehow?
DeleteHave a lovely day.
Yes, there is beauty somewhere beneath it all.
DeleteRazor-sharp, and then this very turn. So good. Kudos, Sue.
DeleteSkyscrapers. Why would my first thought be one of certain "squirrels", of Ingeborg Bachmann's "Der gute Gott von Manhattan" (The good God of Manhattan)? Interesting. Read that long ago, past millennium. Citius, altius, fortius; schneller, höher, weiter; faster, higher, further.
ReplyDeleteAnd why would I, thirdly, come to think of Novalis who in view of an accelerating celerity more than two hundred years ago commended his contemporaries to exercise slowness?
Probably a villager's strange stream of consciousness.
A very thought-provoking contribution, and yes, we should exercise slowness.
DeleteA strange, but well written stream of consciousness.
DeleteSean Jeating: Wow. And hooray for celebrating/living with slowness.
DeleteMuch food for thought in that.
DeleteWriting done. I'm not happy with the result. WfW
ReplyDeleteI like the result, and like the bird's point of view you used. It is hard photo to imagine, especially if you've never been in large (and overwhelming) cities like that.
DeleteThank you. And no, I've never been to a place like this. The biggest cities I've been to have all been in Europe and Africa (Rome, Paris, Munich, Wienna, Warszaw, Cairo and Khartoum (but long ago) ...), where skyscrapers does not grow this tall. Cities in Northern Germany rebuilt after WWII is the closest I've come to something like this. I am sure I would feel totally lost in New Yourk or some of the other American cities.
DeleteI'll see what I can do, I'll have something on my blog on Friday 10th if my brain co-operates.
ReplyDeleteI wrote more than one hundred words. My take on the prompt is - Views from above
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day.
Oh, I love your more than one hundred words and each of the perspectives. Very well done!!!
DeleteOkay, done. My words are over here.
ReplyDeleteI will have to try that next time I'm in a high-rise building or on a rooftop!
Delete