Lovely, talented CafeWriters, I’ve had some heavy personal stuff going on in the last couple of weeks, and I’m having trouble finding my OWN inspiration right now. I’m extending the Milne prompts through the end of June.

As a teaser, however, the theme for July will be SPACE (in honor of the eclipse on the 22nd), and the theme for AUGUST (which is MY month, but I’ll happily share with others who were born in it) will have something to do with FIRE.

If you have photos or quotations you’d like to suggest for either of those themes, comment on this post.

If you’d care to write to some more Milne prompts scroll to the next entry, please.

Thank you all for your patience and participation.

– Miss Meliss

The actual Pooh (and friends) today.

From the moment I was first introduced to Winnie the Pooh as a child, I was entranced as much by the story as by the author’s use of language. As I grew older, I was given books of A. A. Milne’s poetry, which is equally enchanting. For the very late May/June Project, I therefore ask you to indulge me in this celebration of A. A. Milne. I think you’ll find that he has much to offer adult readers, just as he always had much to offer children.

This project will be open until June 14th, or so.

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Option OneFiction

The Queen said,
“Oh!”
And went to
His Majesty:
“Talking of the butter for
The Royal slice of bread,
Many people
Think that
Marmalade
Is nicer.
Would you like to try a little
Marmalade
Instead?”
~A. A. Milne, “The King’s Breakfast”

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving breakfast.

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Option Two: Timed Writing

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.
~A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Take seven minutes (use all seven, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of anticipation.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

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Option Three: Seven Things

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he:
“You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me.”
~A. A. Milne, “Disobedience”

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven things your parents often told you, when you were a child.. Alternatively, give me, seven naughty things you did as a child.You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

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Option Four: Pick Three

Then he began to think of all the things Christopher Robin would want to tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to, and how muddling it would be for a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them right in his mind. “So perhaps,” he said sadly to himself, “Christopher Robin won’t tell me any more,” and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight meant that you just went on being faithful without being told things..
~A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Pick at least three of the following words, and build a piece of writing around them. The form is up to you: poem, scene, flash-fic, essay, or general blog entry. If you want to be really daring, write in the style of Milne. (As always, you can pluralize, change tense, or alter the part of speech, if necessary.)
bear, brain, faithful, going, muddling, perhaps, sadly, wherever, wondered

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Option Five Can You Picture That?
Use the the following photo to inspire a piece of writing in any form (poetry, prose, whatever).
(Please remember to copy the image to your own server, and include photo credit when it is known.)

Photo Credit: Tony Campbell

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Option Six Poetry

“Let’s frighten the dragons.” I said to Pooh.
“That’s right,” said Pooh to Me.
“I’m not afraid,” I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted , “Shoo!
Silly old dragons!” – and off they flew.
“I wasn’t afraid,” said Pooh, said he,
“I’m never afraid with you.”
~A. A. Milne, “Us Two”

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about a real or imaginary best friend

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Don’t forget to comment here with your name, the title of your piece, the selected option number, and the direct link to it. Please note that comments from new participants or with more than one link are held for manual approval, and may not show up immediately.

Happy Writing!

Here, at long last, are the Spring participants for March/April/May

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Option One Poetry

1. The Sound of Rain, by Rahul
2. Weather Saga, by Jeeves
3. Urban Perspicacity, by sister AE
4. Echoes, by Destinee Weathers
5. To Rain or Not To Rain, by Gemma
6. It Rains on a Spring Evening, by Cavaliere
7. Tiny Sprouts, by Bobbi
8. Weather Means More, by Rebecca Reid
9. National Poetry Month Farewell, by Linda

   Ann Nickerson

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Option Two:Fiction

1. Reformation, by J.C. Montgomery
2. Twilight in the Garden, by James Steerforth
3. The Little Meadow, by Bobbi
4. Alone in the Garden, by The Light Bearer

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Option Three: Timed Writing

1. Panoramic View of My Heart, by A~Lotus
2. My Kitchen Garden, by Bobbi
3. It is Written That…, by James Steerforth

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Option Four: Seven Things

1. Seven of my Guilty Pleasures, by The Light

   Bearer

2. Seven Guilty Pleasures, by Ayesha
3. 7 Guilty Pleasures, by Bobbi

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Option Five: Pick Three

1. Garden Writing, by Becca
2. Never-ending Spring, by J.C. Montgomery
3. My Wild Garden, by Bobbi

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Option Six Can You Picture That?

1. Come On, Baby, by Destinee Weathers

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Thank you all for your lovely words. New prompts will be posted shortly.

I’ve got gardens on the brain right now, so I’m sharing my obsession with all of you. The theme for March/April is In the Garden, and I’m so sorry it’s late, but as I’ll be away through the fifteenth of April posting it now may work out after all.

I also want to apologize for not commenting much – I read EVERY submission, but just haven’t had words lately for meaningful comments.

Remember that previous Projects are now closed, and that this Project will remain open until the next is posted.

Thank you for your continued participation.

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Option One Poetry

Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.
~Marcelene Cox

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about weather meaning more

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Option Two:Fiction

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought.
~James Douglas, from Down Shoe Lane

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving being alone in a garden.

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Option Three: Timed Writing

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, from Mosses from an Old Manse

Take fifteen minutes (use all fifteen, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of the process of creation.

This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

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Option Four: Seven Things

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.
~Lindley Karstens

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven of your favorite guilty pleasures. You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

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Option Five: Pick Three

Garden writing is often very tame, a real waste when you think how opinionated, inquisitive, irreverent and lascivious gardeners themselves tend to be. Nobody talks much about the muscular limbs, dark, swollen buds, strip-tease trees and unholy beauty that have made us all slaves of the Goddess Flora.
~Ketzel Levine

Pick at least three of the following words, and build a piece of writing around them. The form is up to you: poem, scene, flash-fic, essay, or general blog entry. If you want to be really daring, write a love letter, instead.

beauty, daring, inquisitive, irreverent, limbs, opinionated, strip-tease, unholy, waste

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Option Six Can You Picture That?
Use the following photo to inspire a piece of writing in any form (poetry, prose, whatever).
(Please remember to copy the image to your own server, and include photo credit when it is known.)

Photo Credit: Alex Rath via iStockPhoto

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Don’t forget to leave a comment with your name as you wish it to be posted, the direct link to your piece, and the option number.

Thanks! And happy writing!

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Option One Can You Picture That?


Photo Credit: Xaviarnau via iStockPhoto

1. Enough of Love, by Little Wing
2. It’s Not What It Looks Like, by James Steerforth
3. Bang! Bang!, by Bobbi
4. He Was Nice, by The Light Bearer

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Option Two Poetry

If I did have an honest — or dishonest — desire to kiss just one or two people, I might — but I couldn’t want to — my mouth is yours.
~Zelda Fitzgerald (in a love letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald)

1. Others, by Ofira Sephiroth
2. L’Agent Provacateur, by Carl Colaco
3. Vessel, by Rob Kistner
4. My Life-Saver, by Bobbi
5. Empty Words, by Melanie

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Option Three:Fiction

What can I tell you by letter? Alas! nothing that I would tell you. The messages of the gods to each other travel not by pen and ink and indeed your bodily presence here would not make you more real: for I feel your fingers in my hair, and your cheek brushing mine. The air is full of the music of your voice, my soul and body seem no longer mine, but mingled in some exquisite ecstasy with yours. I feel incomplete without you.
~Oscar Wilde (in a letter to Constance Wilde)

1. Sending You a Piece of My Heart, by Amercanising Desi
2. The Consequences, by Jenn

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Option Four: Timed Writing

…should I draw you the picture of my heart it would be what I hope you would still love though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have obtained over it,leaves not the smallest space unoccupied..
~Abigail Adams (in a letter to John Adams)

1. For Fuzzy: A Picture of My Heart, by Melissa A. Bartell
2. Picture of My Heart, by Becca
3. My Yellow Heart, by Jessie
4. Finger Paints, by sister AE
5. Eat Your Heart Out, by Floreta
6. The Picture of My Heart, by James Steerforth
7. My Heart, by Bobbi
8. A Picture of My Heart, by The Light Bearer

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Option Five: Seven Things

I don’t like it at all. All the Chairs are staring at me in the most frightful way — And there is a Lady on the Mantel piece who has taken a Great objection to me — and I’m awfully scared —

This is no place for a person with a nice cheerful disposition like me — it looks like those parlors in the Novels where they plot things –
~Isadora Duncan (in a letter to Gordon Craig)

1. 7 Unromantic Places We’ve Kissed, by Bobbi

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Option Six: Pick Three

Do not imagine, because you find these lines in your journal that I have been trespassing. You know I have not – and where else shall I leave a love letter? For I long to write you a love-letter tonight.

You are all about me – I seem to breathe you, hear you, feel you in me and of me.
What am I doing here? You are away. I have seen you in the train, at the station, driving up, sitting in the lamplight, talking, greeting people, washing your hands… And I am here – in your tent – sitting at your table.
.
~Katherine Mansfield (in a letter to John Middleton Murray)

1. Untangling the Past, by Jane Doe
2. Good Things Come in Pairs, by Annie McLennon
3. Ex-Varsity, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
4. Love Letter, by Tamy
5. Rants, by Jeeves
6. Unwritten Loveletter, by Leonard Blumfeld
7. Dearest Love, by Becca
8. On Peace, by This Girl Remembers
9. Love Letters, by Janet
10. Dear, by Dreamer

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Thank you all for your comments and participation, your words of condolence, and your understanding. Welcome to the new folks: Melanie, Dreamer, The Light Bringer, Floreta, and anyone else I’ve missed.