#VSS365 (Very Short Stories 365/days/year)
#VSS365 #prompt is “a daily word game designed to feed the creative muse inside all of us.” All are welcome! You can do it, too!
I tell you all about it when you Click Here. The purpose of this Sampler page is to share mine (below) and to quickly point you to where, on Twitter, you can find mine and then those of other writers.
@NancyKnowsLife Has ’em All
I’ll be posting more of my daily quick creations on this page as I write them. However, you can see all of them on my Twitter page, @NancyKnowsLife, since Twitter is the host for these challenges. Some are poems, some are in Haiku style, and some are prose. You should check out ALL the writers’ work – it can be fascinating!
Below Is a Sampler of My #vss365 #prompt Submissions
I’ll Add New Ones Almost Daily – Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!
Here’s How I’m Coping With Having Gotten Behind In the #vss365 #prompt Postings!
Like you, I often have more things to do than time in which to accomplish even the most important basics. So, I’m going to share with you the posts that I have created in the format of weekly Samplers of what I submitted for the last few weeks. This might be better anyway because it makes this page shorter for you, offers occasional tips with examples, and shares (briefly) how you also can participate! Here we go!
November 2021
- #vss365 #prompt #10/24 – 10/30 2021
- #vss365 #prompt 10/17 – 10/23/2021
- #vss365 #prompt 10/10 – 1/16 2021
- #vss365 #prompt 10/3 – 10/9 2021
September 2021
- #vss365 #prompt 9-26 thru 10-2 2021
- #vss365 #prompt Sep 18 – 25, 2021
- #vss365 #prompt Week of Sep 12-18, 2021
- #vss365 #prompt Sep 5 – 11, 2021
August 2021
- #vss365 #prompt #Aug 29-Sep 4, 2021
- Empower – Note: this entry is from an accomplished author and Guest Contributor, Katherine Gotthardt, who is gracious enough to share her work with us, as she gets time. (We’ve just started doing this. She has a family, employment, and many community activities, so have patience and come back monthly to see what she may have added.)
- #vss365 #prompt #August 22-28, 2021
- #vss365 #prompt August 15-21, 2021 Note: the individual items are listed below, as well as in this link, so you can stay here if you want to and just scroll down.
- Jump-start Your Writing #vss365 #prompt This is an article I wrote about how to participate in all this fun!
Signaling a Left Turn Now!
Dateline: 11/13/2021
When I started this project, my intention was to add daily posts to this page. However, that makes the page ENDLESSLY long, so I’ve now opted for the weekly summary posts (above).
I’ll leave these individual items (below) on the page – at least for a while – so that folk who are new to #vss365 #prompts can see samples without opening the weekly blurbs. They go all the way back to July when I first discovered #vss365 #prompt challenges.
Is that okay with you? I hope so, cuz that’s Plan B for now.
September 22, 2021
vss365 #prompt #aloud #Haiku
#SECRETADMIRER
We met because I
accidentally spoke my
thoughts of him #aloud.
September 21, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #contemporaneous #rhyme
My response was spontaneous
To the challenge word, “Contemporaneous.”
Things that don’t rhyme became extraneous.
Converging thoughts became simultaneous.
This result is temporaneous.
September 20, 2021
September 19, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #choir #anothertruestory #shortStory
September 18, 2021
The artisan crafts,
Meticulously loving
the French desk gold splat.
September 17, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #alight #glib
I don’t want to sound #glib, but,
When I #alighted on my behind
After falling off the ladder
While cleaning the gutter of leaves,
I thought
I’m gonna set this blasted house #alight!
Signed, Too Many Floods Later
September 16, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #glib
No strict rules. Having been too busy to do one on the 16th, I combined this #prompt with the one for the next day. See above.
September 15, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #gore #Haiku
She hates you for me.
Hopes I will gore you through that
Damn bloody red cape.
September 14, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #lore #tanka
In the lore of the woods, she is mysterious ~ a “witch” or a “queen,” depending on whether you are a gnome or a fairy.
September 13, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #door
I left the #door ajar
In case it locked behind me
While I searched for the key.
Yes, I got back in easily.
So had the mice.
Sob!
September 12, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #score #anothertruestory
On the SAT
In English, my score was 98%
In math, my score was 12.
Guess I won’t be an architect!
September 11, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #shore
I believe I lived on or near a sea
once upon another lifetime.
Why else would I cry
in emotional recognition of coming home
upon seeing the ocean from the #shore
after having been raised only in mountains and cities?
September 11, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #shore
You come from a distant #shore.
I didn’t think it would matter.
But one culture values the community;
The other values the individual.
Even our love could not overcome the fact that
The water tastes different on different shores.
Yet, I love you still.
September 10, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #store
September 9, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #war
Endless war throughout human history
On every continent; among almost all societies.
Makes me doubt the evolution of humankind beyond barbarity.
Yet, still, I strive as if that truth were untrue.
September 8, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #sock #tanka
Alone in my mountain cabin,I wait for the coming blizzard to #sock me in my arthritic joints as I shovel slowly.
September 7, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #mock
They say you’re a “Triple Threat.”
You can teach, preach, and sing,
And adoring congregants follow every word!
From our hideaway, I mock you.
I know your hypocrisy.
Our big secret.
September 6, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #lock #Haiku
Carbuncle-crusted
treasure chest brines in the sea.
Fish swim. The lock rusts.
September 5, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #jock
All she sees is a #jock
With a temporary talent that lets me
Treat and be treated as if I were special.
She thinks I’m dumb, but accepts it since I’m popular.
Not interested in my backstory of dyslexia
And being “toughened up” by a brutal father.
September 4, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #rock
September 3, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #dock
What’s going on?
What time is it?
Where are my photos?
What to do in an emergency?
Got movies?
Got music?
Got emails?
Only if you have a #dock on which to charge
The love it/hate it phone!
September 2, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #shock
We worked together all day, every day
With lots of overtime in the evenings and on weekends.
We spent most nights together and made plans together.
So, imagine my #shock when you, inexplicably, put me in a taxi
And said you’d call me later.
When you didn’t, and I called you twenty times, finally, you answered and …
I heard a woman’s voice in the background laughing and telling you to get off the phone
At 3 a.m.
September 1, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #clock
August 31, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #drift
I’ve been on hold long enough
For one phone’s battery to die.
My thoughts #drift so far away
I almost can’t remember whom I called or why.
I think of lost loves …
What’s for dinner …
“All representatives are currently helping other customers.”
Oh yeah, “payment overdue” on a bill I already paid. Damn!
August 30, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #stare
The doctor said she was sorry to inform me I have AIDS.
All I could do was #stare.
No more words were audible as I fell down a whole into total the total and turmoil darkness of fear.
Endless moments later, I saw a pinprick of White Light. Just a small dot. I concentrated on that dot and watched it grow as I took control of what was left of my life. Recovered from addiction. Played music again. Died knowing I was dearly loved.
August 29, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #flaw
#VANITY
She scans the visage for a #flaw
And finds that one blemish
Makes her beautiful face ugly.
He scans the visage for a #flaw
And finds all that makeup
Makes her beautiful face ugly.
August 28, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #portrait
Was She the One?
The Portrait
Was She the One?
How did she capture it?
The luminescent sparkle in hazel green eyes
That captivated me into loving you?
How did she capture it?
The easy grin that sets everyone at ease
And flashed nightly in my direction?
How did she capture it?
The power of your magnetic charms
That doomed fidelity to just one.
August 27, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #shallow #haiku
You see their stories.
Undaunted, you laugh and play.
Too shallow for me.
August 26, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #dust #haiku
I love the red dust
I splash it all over me
It keeps skin healthy.
Parasites are gone
Insects crawl out of wrinkles.
It makes great sunscreen.
Image by Kirsi Kataniemi
August 25, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #space #tanka
(A tanka has 31 syllables in one sentence. Related to Haiku. Of course, if you have a certain kind of accent, you will find more than 31 syllables in this sentence!) 
Teachers insist on two spaces between sentences, but the internet requires one #space and disrupts formats when you use two.
.
August 24, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #history
Our history is like that of two continents
Experiencing continental drift.
Two forces of nature
Crashing into one another
My shore subsumed under your shore
As we erupted your mountains stupendously high.
Your fame, your fortune.
I pushed you up/am buried under the pile.
August 23, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #note
That weather-beaten tan
Turned your face into crinkles.
The blue of your eyes
Were always full of twinkles.
When you return from sea,
How will you ever find me?
I don’t know where I am.
#NoteInABottle
August 22, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #pocket
Shame on you!
You greet the customers lavishly
With faux care for their satisfaction
While you #pocket the change
I earned as their server.
August 21, 2021
#Vss365 #prompt #face
I love Rodney Yee.
He introduced
My #face to my knee.
August 21, 2021
#Vss365 #prompt #face
If you knew,
When you were young,
What life would bring you,
Could you face it
And go on?
Could you? Would you? Why?
August 20, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #sea
My thoughts are as granular as the sand
As if the #sea had tumbled, abraded, and molded each one
For thousands of years
Into minimalist specs – separate –
But creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
August 19, 2021.
August 19, 2021
August 18, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #song
#vss365 #prompt #song
My Soul #Song
Wails Oboe
Watching the Inhumanity of Humanity.There was an interlude
During which
It lilted Flute.But that was short-lived
In comparison
With my long life. https://t.co/9DG2FZf8E0 pic.twitter.com/P707j1HkJu— Nancy (Ayanna) Wyatt (@NancyKnowsLife) August 18, 2021
August 17, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #time
3,000 miles of separation made no difference.
It was merely space where there is no #time.
When you were sad or afraid, I was sad or afraid.
When you were surprised, happy, and free, I was surprised, happy, and free.
ESP is the conjugation of two Souls wed in infinity.
August 16, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #search
I found the man.
I found the career.
I found money.
It was the wrong #search.
August 15, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #surge #tanka
Raw anguish #surges
As I contemplate my life
Without your presence.
Forgotten are many tools
Metaphysics I have taught.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1426904984311017475
#vss365 #prompt #surge
Cicadas #surge
Every 17 years
Engorging the atmosphere
With deafening sound
Frenetically flying into faces
Of gardeners and tourists alike.
August 14, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #empower
A homeless person once said to me, “I used to think you were here to take care of me. Now I know you are here to model for me how to take care of myself.” My job, as a volunteer, was to #empower people to take care of themselves.
August 13, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #mend
#vss365
ARE WE DISPOSABLE?
We no longer #mend our clothes
Broken dishes, furniture, even tools.
We just get new ones.
Truth: we no longer mend relationships
As if we were eternally, inextricably bound,
As if we will not find the soul energy exactly where we left it – next time.
August 12, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #reave
I knew I was bereaved when 3 of my cats died during the pandemic. We each also were #reaved when I had to hand them over, as they scream-cried and cage-clawed, terrified on the vet’s porch. I was not allowed inside – mask or no mask. Heart-broken I remain.
#vss365 #prompt #reave
I knew I was bereaved when 3 of my cats died during the pandemic. We each also were #reaved when I had to hand them over, as they scream-cried and cage-clawed, terrified on the vet’s porch. I was not allowed inside – mask or no mask. Heart-broken I remain. pic.twitter.com/bLIBaVbfQ5— Nancy (Ayanna) Wyatt (@NancyKnowsLife) August 12, 2021
https://twitter.com/i/status/1425879575754575874
August 11, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #pacify
Intubation
Nothing will #pacify
Parents of children dying
Or anyone staring at doctors with pleading eyes
As they breathe their last breath of “freedom” not to be vaccinated
August 10, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #revive
THIS IS NOT A POEM; IT IS A FACT
(After a life in the business world)
It lay
abated, terminated,
repressed, and suppressed.
Not until I discovered #vss365 #prompts
Did that latent pretense at talent
Revive as I attempted to create poetry.
Thank You!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1425211147968552961
August 9, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #condemn #haiku
My beautiful plants!
Grazing deer #condemn me. Thus,
Silk flowers now rule.
Image by Barry Nicholson
August 6, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #defy #Haiku
I don’t defy you
For the sake of defiance
You simply are wrong!
(To see the accompanying GIF I chose, go to the Twitter link https://twitter.com/i/status/1423646244220674053
August 5, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #decoy
That beautiful Turquoise vase
Was just a #decoy to lure and entrap me
In the luxury furnishings department.
Of course, I fell for it.
Home Goods is my museum.
August 4, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #sunder
August 3, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #eclipse
I was with my “little sister” from the Big Brothers program, and I had a hard time explaining what we were witnessing. We wanted to talk with him but, out of respect for his privacy, we did not go to where he was when he stopped at the water’s edge.
August 1, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #prompterchallenge #gloom #haiku
#vss365 #prompt #ignites
August 1, 2021
Why is it that I can feel tired and “done” after hours upon hours of work from morning well into night. Yet, as soon as I prepare to sleep, just one creative thought #ignites stirrings in my mind which leave me sleepless well into the early morning hours?
July 30, 2021
#vss365 #prompt #art
GOD’S HANDIWORK
July 29, 2021
Today’s #vss365 writers’ #prompt word is #coincidence
Karma is not Coincidental.
July 28, 2021
#VSS365 #Farewell
To all those people
Who populated my life
And caused me Grief
~ Even the primal scream
~ And clawing my pillow kind of grief
No matter how our #farewell ended,
I hope you fare well in the end.
#vss365 #farewell #writingcommunity
Click on the link to see what it looks like on Twitter with a GIF of a woman waving farewell. https://twitter.com/i/status/1420353876407029761
July 27, 2021
#VSS365 #Illegal
World View
None are #illegal.
Ask any astronaut.
#vxss365 #illegal
July 26, 2021
#VSS365 #Permission
We don’t have #permission to love.
Semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla crème skin tones
Reveal us instantly as verboten.
The world reels at our union
As if the aliens had landed
When, in fact, it shouldn’t matter to them at all.#vss365 #permission #writingcommunity#DoItTheWriteWay pic.twitter.com/uDnjZZUl0k— Nancy (Ayanna) Wyatt (@NancyKnowsLife) July 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/i/status/1419638657661739014
July 24, 2021
#VSS365 #Butter
No mineral oil?
Then, slather him with butter!
Lights, Cam’ra, Action!
Ha ha! Did I cheat? I don’t know anyone who pronounces all 3 syllables of camera, so I took a chance. Happy Saturday, All!
@vss365official #vss365 #prompt #Butter #writingcommunity #haiku #poetrycommunity
July 23, 2021
#VSS365 #Technology
I don’t need #technology to fly.
But my spirit is free and needs no devices.#vss365 #technology #FreeSpirit
July 23, 2021
#VSS365 #Technology
It was #technology that brought us back together. The one with the long hair everyone envied, the class bully, the “square” intellectual. For all the litter on FB, still, it enabled class reunions across the miles after years of absence – some of which was for the better.
#vss365 #technology #writingcommunity
I hope you’re having fun with #vss365 and that you’ll join us on Twitter. For other kinds of writing services and tips, Click Here. To contact me for classes, consultations, and/or writing and editing projects, email me at MyPersuasivePresentations@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
In the meantime,
Do It The Write Way! Let My Fingers Do Your Talking!
