Due to all kinds of things, this project is on an indefinate hiatus. Perhaps at some time in the future, I will pick this back up…so I’m leaving the site active for a little while. If you come across this and are interested or have any ideas to make it better, email me. Thanks to everyone who’s shown interest and participated thus far!

Haitus

For the month of November, I am attempting to participate in Nanowrimo and PAD Chapbook Challenge, so-

I won’t be posting prompts on here. The blog is still open to comments and you are still welcome to send in your responses, which I will then post in a timely manner (because that really takes very little effort on my behalf-it’s your response, you did the work!).

I plan to be back in December, posting more poems and recruiting more participants!

Until then,

Rebecca

Project 4 Prompt, Week 3.

What’s Really Missing From Our Saving Accounts (by Rebecca Chasteen)

Save the earth!
Save prayer in schools!
Save “Merry Christmas”!
Save our rights!
Save our money!

Save our asses!

Save business!
Save healthcare!
Save welfare!

SAVE OUR COUNTRY
from liberals and conservatives and socialists and terrorists!

Save the children! (in a third world country)
Save the memories!
Save the system on a separate hard drive!
Save animals!
Save your virginity!
Save your waistline!

Save your paint job,
your dye job,
your favorite pumps!
Save your corsage from your first dance!

Save your sanity…

SAVE.
YOUR.
SELF.

Because we sure as hell
aren’t saving each other.

Project 3 Prompt, Week 3.

Haiku (Bleed out) by Rebecca Chasteen

Sitting here with you

Is letting a wound bleed out

All the poision.

Project 2 Prompt, Week 3.

Mecca Tastes Like Coffee (by Rebecca Chasteen)

Cloud cover is heavy today
drive fast enough to outrun the rain,
make the pilgrimage to that place you’ve always liked,
where it never hits you, where you feel right.

I feel the fog clear when I walk in
the way absolution gets rid of sin,
I like everything I see and hear,
I feel my blood flowing and my lungs fill.

Kiss these necklace beads like a rosary,
touch the walls, drink the sound,
nothing here brings me down

Sacred, I appreciate
sacred can take so many shapes
and is only as sacred as we make.

I don’t speak prayers right now
not that I can’t, or don’t know how,
not that I need stained glass windows, or hymns-
because I don’t and I never did.

Once I’m here, I have room to feel,
sometimes just feeling feels like enough
and it’s all you have to offer up;.
there are some things words just can’t touch.

Sanctuaries exist
wherever little altars appear,
lifting precisely the thing you kneel;
perceiving creates, and makes them real.

Nobody said church bells had to ring,
Mecca can taste like anything.

Project 1 Prompt, Week 3.

Shine (by Rebecca Chasteen)

moonshine
sticky on your fingers…

what was lost wasn’t even real;
passionate
creative
fantasy
girls in women’s bodies choose to believe

and now you’re flat on your back
moon shine on your face and on your tongue,
it’s a different shine
and it’s not so bad

who knew you had it in you to take it like you did?

“Petition” Response

Following the poem, you will find the response

Petition (by Rebecca Chasteen)

I’m still
wondering why this is still so hard; managing, breathing
why there are still days I can’t get past survival

I’m still
wanting more than that

I’m still
missing something, it seems
to hold me together

still
cracked
glass
pilgrim

I’m still
petitioning for a stillness of peace to piece me back together,

for assurance, still assurance
glazing me, and filling in the cracks
to glorify every little fragment

to tint me, stain my purpose, arrange my story
and sit me, completed, in the light

so I am a masterpiece
and not a constant mess

I’m still,
waiting
I’m still
wrestling
I’m still

here

This is a series of photos titled “Promise”. The photos are Catherine Phillips’s. I felt Catie had a story, and photos to go with it, that connect with the idea of “Petition”, so with her consent, have responded with them here.

“Promise”

The Before submitted By Catherine Phillips, photo by Courtney Bell

Rain's Reflection by Catherine Phillips

Nineteen Weeks by Catherine Phillips

“What I heard when you moved me” Response

Following the poem prompt, you will find the response.

What I heard when you moved me (by Rebecca Chasteen)

separate yourself

give more
give more

keep a safe distance
because there are no safe places

let your heart
break
in that quiet place
in that solitude

work hard
to maintain
that feeling – okay

let the
heaviest
thoughts
lay
still

make room
make room

let the easy words
through
let the easy things do

be cautious
and don’t care

balance it

let go
let go

and hold on

nothing,
nothing’s
wrong

“Let Me Go“ By: Rachel L Brooks

Leave me be
Let me go
Your the last one i want to know
Your betrayal still haunts me
Your lies still linger in me
Your face is everywhere i go
Why wont you let me go

Why do i still think of you
Why do i still want to know how you do
Why do your sweet words make me miss you
Why did you do what you did

You know how i am
You know how i hold to every word said
You know that i’d end up this way
You knew that i was in your trap
You knew that i couldnt be helped
You knew i was in too deep

So why wont you let me go??

Set up from the start
You knew exactly how to break my heart
You knew that if you got beyond my heart and into my head that i could never forget you existed
Its all an ego trip for you

To know that you have someone completely
To know that they will never be able to function as well as they use to
To know that your always gonna be happier then them
To know that you still have control
It wasnt enough to break my heart,but the least you could’ve done was leave me completely

And to think that all this time i thought it was me who couldnt let go of you,just another one of your ways to make me feel less then you
But its time now to spit the truth,its not me who needs to let go
Your the one who dug your fingers into me so deep,just to make a dent,just to make sure i didnt forget

I never did that to you,
I just played the inlove fool
So you leave me be
Let me go
Why wont you just let me go??

“Pilgrim Heart” Response

You will find the response following the poem

Pilgrim Heart (by Rebecca Chasteen)

I’ve got a pilgrim heart-
it gravitates
to caverns
and mountains.

move,
Spirit-
move.

I seek You
in every place
I ever go,
In every face.

Faith and love and light and rest
coincide with
darkness and
dirty hands.

Deliver,
design,
guide,

my heart’s travels.

Keep me close-
and in the perils,
substantiate
Every Thing.

I dive in
to lakes
and graves,
seeking every permutation
of beauty-
every version
of love and faith.

You are Every Where-
I am set on
finding You there.

Pilgrim Dog by Jonathan Pike

Pilgrim Feet by Jonathan Pike

“Bluest Rains” Response

You can find the response following the poem

Bluest Rains (by Rebecca Chasteen)

I’ve waded too far in dark waters-
pinprick of light
flickers,
I stop fighting the undertow
and just float

why was I fighting so hard?
churning my legs
going no where
drinking salt
losing air

when I could have
just let go-
bluest rains
smooth over me,
best sunrise
I’ve even seen.

Cascade by Julie Walz

Calm Reflections by Julie Walz