Cafe Writing

July 20th, 2009, is the anniversary of the first moon landing. In honor of the occasion, and because I’m a total space nut, and have watched the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, which dramatized the history of the Apollo missions, our theme from mid-July til mid-August (ahem SEPTEMBER) was SPACE.

Personally, I find inspiration when I look up at the stars and imagine. So do a lot of others, including those who’ve actually been out there, which is why our prompt quotations this month are all taken from the Space Poetry page, at the Encyclopedia Astronautica. Please visit the page for the complete text of the poems I’ve chosen.

Here are YOUR submissions:

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Option One: Timed Writing

1. When I was a kid…, by Jessie
2. When I Was a Kid, by Becca
3. When I Was a Kid, by Snack BPC

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Option Two: Seven Things

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Option Three: Pick Three

1. Musings on a Golden Eagle, by Gemma
2. The End of a Flight, by Niebla
3. Urban Warfare, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

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Option Four: Can You Picture That?

1. Through the Binoculars, by A~Lotus

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Option Five: Poetry

1. Unhallowed Ground, by Melanie BHD
2. Space, by Richard Wells
3. PV=nRT, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

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Option Six: Fiction

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Happy Writing, and Happy Stargazing

Here, at long last, are the Spring/Summer participants for May/June/July (The Magic of Milne).

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Option One: Fiction

1. Cuppa Joy, by Carl
2. Let Us Have Cake, by Bobbi

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Option Two:Timed Writing

1. Anticipation’s Desire, by J.C. Montgomery
2. Café Writing: Anticipate, by Floreta
3. I Swing Closer, by The Lightbearer
4. Anticipation, by Bobbi

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Option Three: Seven Things

1. Bear, by James Steerforth
2. Star Child and Azure Moon, by Lissa
3. My Mama Done Told Me, by Miss Meliss

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Option Four: Pick Three

1. Journey, by Anu

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Option Five: Can You Picture That?

1. Images, by Jeeves
2. Caterpillar Cub, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
3. Bear Haiku, by A~Lotus
4. Café Writing June Project, by Mrs. Shields

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Option Six Poetry

1. The Game of the Friend, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

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

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.

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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.
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~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.

Happy 2009!
These are the submissions for the January 2009 Project, “Fresh.” Please visit them and leave comments if you haven’t already, and look for the February project sometime in the next week.
Submissions for “Fresh” will be accepted until the next Project goes live.

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Option One: Pick Three

Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some.
~John Keats

1. Down the Rabbit Hole, by Bobbi
2. Losing Faith, by Jane Doe
3. Frugal Fusion, by Little Wing
4. Untitled, by Becca
5. Nadir, by Paisley
6. Poem in Draft: Somebody Watching You, by Gautami Tripathy

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Option Two Can You Picture That?

Photo Credit: Rana K. Williamson

1. Haiku, by A~lotus
2. Cardinal Totem, by Bobbi

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Option Three Poetry

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs.
~William Arthur Ward

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1. Peace, by Bobbi
2. Wanted: Contralto Solos, by sister AE
3. I Prayed for Peace, by Pretty Prats
4. A Piece of Peace, by Ginger
5. Grace in Autumn, by diatribalArts

Option Four:Fiction

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
~Erich Fromm

1. Break of Day, by Medhini
2. The Effort Life Implies, by J. C. Montgomery
3. January Project, by Jessie

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Option Five: Timed Writing

Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a perpetual succession of miracles rising into view.
~Joseph Addison

1. Words of Passion by Hand, by A~Lotus
2. A Short-Lived Passion, by Rebecca Reid
3. Ice, Ice, Baby, by Melissa A. Bartell

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Option Six: Seven Things

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write..
~Pearl S. Buck

1. My Writing Space, by ell
2. My Writing Space: A List of Seven Things, by Rebecca Reid
3. Seven Physical Spaces of Writing, by A~lotus
4. My Writing Space, by Bobbi
5. Seven Things in My Writing Space, by Mike G.
6. Components of my Writing Space, by Ginger
7. Seven Things, by PinkNic
8. Hiding Space, by SlyGly
9. 7 Things, by Tamy
10. Seven Things, by Janet
11. Seven Things, by Bonni
12. Seven Things, by Becca
13. January Prompts: Fresh, by Michelle
14. Desk Set, by Melissa A. Bartell

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