Dragon

Ok, It's Canada Day and I'm just ready to head down to the park to see what festivities there might be going on so I'll post this and get going. A few of these words I had picked out a while ago in case I ever got to bear this torch again and a few are just off the top of my head (with a little help from my fella) hope you enjoy this list.

Word Count is 232 and I'm going to say no penalty on this one, just use the words as they're presented.

moondance
oasis
shiver
solstice
breeze
clutch
wandering
empire
classic
n autical

Have fun, I'll pass the torch by midnight TD time on Wed July 8/09. Looking forward to reading all your entries

midnightpoet

love the list. I think this is my favorite one so far.

midnightpoet

"Outcast"

I’m wandering at sea with no nautical knowledge and no boat.

I don’t know if I’m in the water or on the water…or if I am the water.

I’m lost beneath the surface or somewhere in the sky.

My oasis has long vanished.

I clutch my chest, trying to hold myself together.

Am I even here?

Moondance made me shiver when his long, pale fingers brushed my skin.

Now he, too, is forever gone, and I shiver in a different way as the breeze hits me.

I must be solid. I can feel wind.

But I can’t feel myself breathing.

Am I still at sea? I’m not wet.

Was I ever there?

I get this way every spring solstice.

They’re voices are still ringing in my ears.

I destroyed the empire, and was cast out.

Many springs have passed since then.

Yet here I am now, reliving it.

I ruined everything.

A rush of air fills my lungs. I claw at my throat. It burns.

Where am I? Where’s the sea?

Where’s Moondance?

He was always the one to hold my head above water, until I held him under.

It’s all my fault.

I’m wandering at sea, filled with a classic hatred.

Yes, I hate myself. I yearn for what I lost.

I’m at sea. Real or imagined, I’ve found it.

I go under, with no intentions of ever coming back up.

anotherronism

Well dang Midnight. That's going to require a re-read on my part.

As far as criticism goes - I can say this confidently - I did not understand it... On first pass anyways. But "I'll be back!"

anotherronism

Great 1st line... I love being at sea with no boat. Just jumping right into it there

But I honestly have no idea what this is about.

It reminds me of Anne Rice in Queen of the Damned when Jesse becomes haunted by the past amd Claudia begins visiting her...

I have no constructive criticism here. Cause I don't understand.

I would beg you to ellaborate and explain this one...

With all due respect and admiration,
Ron

midnightpoet

I guess it makes sense that you don't understand.

It's about an overwhelming loneliness causing a spiral into insanity.

All the "story" in there is the narrator's troubled thoughts, not based on events that actually happened to her.

It's about losing a love...not by drifting apart, or differences, or anything like that. But because she pushed him away, and damaged the relationship forever.

And she's so lonely. She feels as though all have abandoned her, and there's no one to help keep her together.

The insanity existed before the loneliness, but being alone pushed her over the edge, to this place where she's trapped inside her mind.

And she knows it's all her fault. She hates herself so no one else can love her, and she's alone in her insanity because of that.

I don't know if that makes any more sense...

anotherronism

It actually does make sense now... I just read too much into the sea references and missed the metaphor (as I so often do)...

Nice work on this one.

I need to llok at the word-list again when sober before I attempt anything...

But I do have a nugget of an idea already. We'll see

midnightpoet

Thanks, Ron.

I want to write another one. A "lighter" one. I'm in one of my insomniac stages again, so I'm awake and bored out of my mind.

But I'm coming up blank.

midnightpoet

"reality is for people who can't handle fantasy"

Colleen sat alone among the trees, about a mile up the path from her house. The night was black, the sky filled with unseen clouds, blocking the stars.

She rested her head on a nearby tree, and let her mind go wandering into the fantasy world that she preferred over reality. There she lived in a forest community, her house at the top of a tree. In her mind, the peaceful community was slowly turning into a corrupted empire, and she was prepared weave the energies around her, using her magic to stop the evil from changing the home she loved.

A breeze made Colleen shiver and clutch her knees to her chest. It was nearing December and the solstice, and soon she wouldn’t be able to come to her oasis in the woods.

The sky opened up and beams of moonlight danced among the branches above her. A man stepped out from between two trees, and in her mind she immediately named him “Moondance”, like a character from her world.

His name was actually Jack, he was wearing dirty, torn classic nautical clothing. He told her that his boat had gotten stuck on the shore of the river, miles away, and he’d been lost in the woods since.

He was tall, tan, and actually cute…for a human.

She smiled shyly, wondering if maybe reality could be just as good as fantasy.

anotherronism

Midnight: Me too. It's a nice list but it's not sparking too much. Yet I'll find a flow. Just not tonight. I might have to do another "personals" just to get the juices flowing again...

midnightpoet

This list is challenging for me, because the whole list could probably come straight out of a series of books I read, and I'm trying to separate my ideas from those books.

Dragon

Hope the list isn't too challenging, I don't want to discourage anyone.
I liked 'Outcast', I didn't fully understand it until you elaborated but I had an idea and was quite sure it was a metaphor. There was a certain quality about it that just sort of spoke to me. I really loved "reality is for people who can't handle fantasy'. I think the title could be the motto of my life and I have spent a lot of my time wandering in my own little world in my mind.
Can't wait to see what you come up with Ron. (As for the word moondance, I've been listening to a lot of Van Morrison lately and that word just stuck out for me, I wanted to use it i a word list as soon as I heard it. I suppose it wouldn't be bending the rules too much to use it as 'moon dance' I know I cheated with the word toothbrush a few challenges back and I thought my story then was much better for the cheat!)

Dragon

A Bewildering and Rather Distressing Problem

When I woke this morning it was with a deep soul shiver that wracked my spirit and I knew my shadow was gone again. The first time it had happened was on the winter solstice when the light isn’t great to begin with and it took me most of the day to figure out where the vaguely disconcerting feeling I’d had since breakfast was coming from. It was quite a shock, I’ll tell you, standing in front of the projector and realizing that I couldn’t so much as make shadow puppets against the screen.
Her return was completely unannounced; she simply slipped back up to me sometime in the night and insinuated herself back where she came from. I was so terribly relieved I didn’t even ask her where she’d been just welcomed her back and wished I could clutch her to me and never let go. I like to imagine her doing a moondance on some oasis in the desert, wandering a distant empire or floating on a nautical breeze across warm seas and shifting sands. Sadly those classic images are the things I’ve always dreamed of but never have the time or money to do.
As romantic as all that sounds I hate when she leaves. It happens far more often lately, and for far longer. I wonder if she’ll leave me for good. Can one live without a shadow?

midnightpoet

"a deep soul shiver that wracked my spirit"...theres something about that I really like.

Very interesting story...and leaves me wondering...where do shadows go?

charityb98

Great list!! I'll write something soon...but first, Midnight, I really liked Outcast after your explanation, I think the metaphor was a little lost because I never saw a connection to what you were really talking about...usually a metaphor is easier to identify if given a glimmer of what you're comparing. Which is why after your explanation the piece was really cool! Your second one was much more light-hearted, a fun fantasy piece...oh those late-night lost nauticals...dreamy *sigh* lol!!
Dragon, ok, long story short, but I played Peter Pan once in the musical (it was a long time ago, yeah it feels good to be an 18yr old girl cast as a 12 yr old boy ) and you know the whole beginning is about him losing his shadow!! Your story was very fun! Especially the shadow puppet part...great stuff...

kmkagle

I was feeling sad, “what do I do”? It was a beautiful, sultry, summer night. There was a hint of a breeze.

Feeling restless, I jumped into my Pontiac Solstice and headed for my favorite Oasis.

Once there, I glimpsed the area, I felt a shiver as I stepped from the car and glimpsed the area. There was this classic, nautical feel in the air. So familiar to me. The beautiful, rippling water as it splashed against the rocks lining the shore. The gritty feel of sand under my feet, the sound of the sea gulls. All bringing a sense of release.

As I was wandering this wonderful place, this small empire that I call my own, the urge to move possessed me. A wonderful, haunting melody kept running through my head. It was then that I broke into my moondance! A euphoric feeling coming over me, I felt the wind and water’s clutch. It was a feeling of abandonment. I was free, free as a bird. Running, jumping, twisting and turning to this never-ending music. It was a feeling never experienced before.

I was at peace, I could go back. Return to finish my drawing on TD!

IamAnonymous

km, I'm very glad to see you post here! What a wonderful story of freedom and peace. Everyone needs an escape like that. The only small problem I had with it was "Once there, I glimpsed the area, I felt a shiver as I stepped from the car and glimpsed the area". Bit repetitive, and you probably could have done without the first "glimpsed the area".

But the story spoke to me. It made me feel the peace and freedom you were describing.

midnightpoet

wow, that's really weird.

I tried logging into Iam yesterday, just to verify the whole not being able to vote thing...and it wouldn't let me.

Or rather, it logged me in and then when I went to look at anything, it told me I was logged in under my name again, so I just shrugged it off and forgot about it.

Then! it randomly logs me back into Iam this morning...weird! 0.o

Anyway, km, that comment was from me.

lilalee

Kathy, loved your story, and it reminded me of a wonderful moment I had once and now I'll have to draw it!!!

That feeling of freedom is a blessing to behold!!

Good story!!

Dragon

I enjoyed that too km, it had a lovely flow to it and very nice imagery. I actually missed the repetition until I read it again. I had to chuckle at the way you used Solstice (Pontiac Solstice) as that was actually where I got the word in the first place. It's one of my favorite cars.

charity I did think of Peter Pan on that story and I actually wanted to put a little mention of her wanting Wendy Darling to stitch her shadow back to her feet to keep it where it belonged but I was already over the word count. I was actually most inspired by a tale we read in high school english class about a man whose shadow goes off on its own. He eventually 'grows' a new shadow but his old one comes back (in the form of a pretty skeezy guy) it had used it's incorporeal nature to slip unnoticed into people houses and listen to their deepest secrets then blackmailed them and became rich. I can't remember how it ended, the guy who lost the shadow in the first place was quite horrified by the whole affair. Anyways, it's always stuck with me.