A personal prosery prompt
I am certainly not one to stop and smell the flowers, let alone photograph them, but several weeks ago a tree beckoned at me, its leaves purple at the top, flaming in the middle, and healthy green below. How beautifully leaves grow old, how full of light and color.
‘Are their last days painless?’ wondered I.
“Purple leaves,” asked I, “are you feeling any discomfort?” But the purple leaves were too far gone to respond.
“Orange leaves,” tried I, “you too are darkening. Are you distressed?” But those bashful ones were blushing too fiercely to give heed.
Finally, turned I to the hearty green leaves. “Green leaves, look at your siblings’ fiery glow. They are burning out, just as you will. Are you… at peace?” The green leaves rustled at me, but I could not make out their hushful mouthings through the Autumn breeze.
d’Verse is taking a break for the holidays so there won’t be any prompts for a while…
So I’ll be trying out some prompts born of my mind instead!
I considered the idea of responding to prompts from other groups, but d’Verse satisfies my creative curiosity more than well enough – and I don’t want to spend all of my time responding to poetry prompts.
The rules of prosery are simple:
- Use an assigned line in the body of your prose. You may change the punctuation and capitalization, but you are not allowed to insert any words within the line itself. You can add words at the beginning and/or at the end of the line; but the line itself must remain intact.
- Your prose can be either flash fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction. YOU CAN NOT WRITE A POEM for this prompt. AND, your prose should be no longer than 144 words, sans title. It does not have to be exactly 144 words. But it can be no longer than 144 words.
The line I assigned myself was:
How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
–John Burroughs (1837 – 1921)
I came across this quote, inspired by the above photograph that I took several weeks ago at a local park in Jerusalem. As I wrote in the prosery piece, ‘I am not one to stop and smell the flowers, let alone photograph them’, but the prismatic colors of the changed and changing leaves moved me rather unexpectedly to capture those vivid traces of time.
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
David, such a wonderful piece of prose. The tree is going through its changes and you stopped to embrace it.
Thanks so much, Lauren!
As you can see, I don’t only write about poo 💩
-David
Hey, a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do even if it involes poo.
I love what you did with this David! The leaves speaking with different voices, just like all of us in our ongoing stages of life! Well done!
I will choose to be the colorful leaf rather than just dry up, turn brown, and blow away!!
Dwight
You seem to be doing that quite well, Dwight. I aspire to your attitude and approach to life.
-David
Thank you David. I want to go as intensely (which is not as much as it used to be) as I can for as long as I can.
In my humble opinion, that’s the best way for all of us to be.
Yes, I agree!
Yes, I agree with so many comments..the image is beautiful and it shows me you have the soul of a poet..prompt or no prompt, the picture spoke to you. It made you ask questions and it produced this deep and sensitive concern about how the leaves might be taking their different stages…Is their a pang of envy from the purple leaves..or are they now all almost saints, are the green leaves wasting their youth? This poetic thought, because it is poetic, is beautiful. One out of a very few would see in those color striations, a deeper meaning to Life in all its forms…
You are very, very sweet, Karima.
Thank you,
David
That’s a beautiful tree and a very poetic quote! This was quite a green write!✨
Yes, it’s true! I’m very green at writing such pieces. 😉
Very beautiful, both the verses & the concept.
Thank you, Jennifer! The writing wasn’t entirely spontaneous, but the photo and the subsequent quote-prompt were 🙂
Yours,
David
Very interesting conversation, David. Love the title too.
Thanks, Punam 😁
You are welcome!😀 I am so enjoying your fine experiments with various poetic forms.
Reblogged this on Nelson MCBS.
This is wonderful ben, and absolutely heart-warming to read that you have taken to speak to trees. I hope that this won’t be your last rendevous with nature, in particular the flowers and tge trees, oh but the grass, the long and the reeds have their own verse and lines to inspire you or prompt prosery, truly they have called you. I feel a flower or nature whisperer flowing tgrought these lines. The personification of colour and petals is a masterstroke.
Now those green ones, you better get them to speak.
Don’t get your hopes up too much, Abi… I’m not usually one to go around photographing anything. That was my father’s passion – he never went anywhere without his camera (you can see him with his camera in the banner at the top of my blog).
Thank you❣️
David
Oh i never lose hope my dear. Hope is an ever present guide and teacher.
Yes i thought that the man holding the camera is your dad. Hopefully you will venture out more with your camera as another arm for your poetry.