“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything.” — Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Kick back with a warm cup of your favorite beverage and read something new. Each is inspired by the latest weekly writing prompt. Read alongside your neighbors and friends and don’t hesitate to add supportive comments on the work that resonates with you!
Untitled by Anna Welsh
Moving hereStraight or queerBlack or whiteLeft or right,Decidedly. Indoors or outSilent or shoutSki or hikePaddle or bikeDifferent,Alright!
SEASONS CHANGE AND SO MUST I by Lourdes Santiago
You wear a coat of many colors, And You sit up on the mountain side, painting a path throughout the earth, across the Great Divide…
Autumn by Diane Cuff-Carney
Sights and sounds of nature trigger connections memories, associations. Geese honking in the sky A perfect inverted V points the way of their path/ an…
A Sudden Convergence by Lo Boutillette
Walking sunspots through the yard, the light inviting me to warm my shoulders. It seems the garden snakes have the same idea. Down beside the…
The Apparition by Lourdes Santiago
September 30th: He stood outside in the cold autumn wind. Leaves flew circles around him and swooshed away afraid to land at his feet. They…
A Supernatural Experience by June Kosier
“The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.” Elbert Hubbard I have never seen a ghost. I lived in a house built in the 1870’s…
Crow’s Encounter by Duane L Herrmann
It was not a dark and stormy night, but it was night, or nearly so, and dark, but not completely. What set this evening apart…
Starting At My House by Glenn Linsenbardt
Starting at my house and zooming out you’ll see some cows in the field across thestreet. Next there’s a town office building that was built…
THE LEGACY A FAMILY TRAGEDY By Lourdes Santiago
It was a short dream. My great grandmother handed me a map and told me “this is the proof that the land is ours. Fight…
The Vindication of Mrs. Connor by June Kosier
“It feels good to finally have the closing and get started on the remodeling,” she spoke. “Remodeling a house built in the early 1800s with…
The Kudu Horns by Susan Hahn
I had a pair of kudu horns (note the past tense). They hung over my front door, a spiral sculpture that arched upward, tapering to…
Along Came a Spider, Who Sat Down Beside Her by June Kosier
“I thought I saw a spider, but it was just a piece of yarn. It’s dead yarn now.” Writing on a shirt Like most girls,…
Two Definitions of Noise by Allen Guy Wilcox
Two Definitions of Noise by Allen Guy Wilcox We awake in a four-poster to the gradient sheen of atomic light, a static conclave of still…
The Dinner by Katerina Canyon
Without conversation there is a nod between us at the restaurant. The table is a sea rocking us in different directions. You are unsteady. I…
Wrong Phone Call by Duane L Herrmann
This happened over fifty years ago. I was in my late teens. I was living for a few months with friends. One time, when I…
Childhood Remains by Duane L Herrmann
Relics from a childhood found in a time capsule buried in 1969 when I left home for college and life on my own at age…
WHAT I SEE (poem of a parent’s love) by Duane L. Herrmann
On my window sill are dirty broken pieces, obviously “trash” to anyone but me. I, the father, see bright and shining eyes of my daughter,…
A Negative Becomes a Positive by June Kosier
“If you can see life as a learning experience, you can turn any negative into a positive.”- Neve Campbell. It was the summer of 1971. …
A DIFFERENT ME by Duane L. Herrmann
I was in a foreign country, in a bookstore. There were books in several languages, not grouped by language, but by content. Some of the…
Next Big Trip by Duane L Herrmann
The only destination I want for a vacation is to see the restoration of buildings, life, and hope in Ukraine. They did nothing to deserve…
A BUILDING REMEMBERS by Duane L Herrmann
I was clean. I had a good reputation. I was enjoyed by all kinds of people. I was a favorite destination. Now, people only speak…
Buttonmas by June Kosier
“Jaydee, the button club will have a booth at the Atrium in Troy this Christmas. We are going to sell button crafts to make money…
Not a wish for you by Frederick Schmitt
I’ll not send you Best Wishes. Though you are someone special in my heart. Wishes as defined seem bold and hopeless Hope as defined seems…
I Love You, Max by June Kosier
Those big brown eyes and the long, soft, dark brown hair! You meet me at the door when I come home making me feel welcomed. …
She kicked ass the quiet way by Anna Edinger-Revette
Not with fists, or screaming, or some movie-scene revenge where everyone claps at the end. She did it on a Tuesday morning with swollen eyes…
The Perfect Vacation by Susan Whiteman
I live where people come to vacation. I ask myself, quite reasonably, why I need to go anywhere. The quiet woods and the ever-present mountains…
A NEW CHAPTER by Lourdes Santiago
I have a vision of what my life can be, If I follow my heart and believe in me. Make a list in a bucket…
My First Donation by Glenn Linsenbardt
A short time later something impossible happened, I donated blood. I always thought it was a good thing for people to do that. I’d had…
SPRING PEEPING by Duane L Herrmann
I know spring is here when it’s warm enough when Spring Peepers chirp the whole night long. When air warms they sing briefly but then…
My First Job by June Kosier
In the Spring of 1971, I started thinking about where I should go to work upon graduation from the Nursing Department at Russell Sage College.…
The Road Test by June Kosier
“I don’t aspire to be like other drivers – I aspire to be unique in my own way.” Lewis Hamilton The Road Test The…
Going outside by Fred Schmitt
I went outside about evening time. There was a north-wind making the chill single digits. An afternoon squall had dusted crusted snow …
My Own Kind of Hell by June Kosier
“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”- Andrew Mason Like Dante, my mother had her own idea of…
Gretel of the Button World by June Hannay Kosier
I am Gretel of the button world. Let me explain. A few years ago, I was to drive my car in the Troy Flag Day…
Punxsutawney Phil by EDLS 307ers (spring ’26)
Beautiful Blue Skies; The sun shining in my eyes; Snow in the forecast. We’ll still have a blast! Can’t wait for the sun to last.…
MISSING YOU by Lourdes Santiago
In the arms of a loving God, Over the rainbow you crossed. A host of angels came, And they carried you off. From the day…
I Love You, Max by June Kosier
Those big brown eyes and the long, soft, dark brown hair! You meet me at the door when I come home making me feel welcomed. …
Ode to Lucy by Anna Edinger-Revette
Lucy, gentle giant stitched from snowfall and thunder, you arrive like weather; all presence, all sky. Your paws, soft anvils; announce you before your shadow…
Early Spring Obscures the Graves of Winter by Dorothy Cantwell
From the road the ravine looks like an old crime scene Dead vines coil like ropes around the bare bones of fallen trees, leafless skeletal…
S.A.D. by Dan Slavin
Like a cocoon transforms the caterpillar to goo, before it then changes to its ultimate form My apartment encloses me until I can’t move, a…
“Thaw” by Anna Edinger-Revette
Winter does not leave all at once. It lingers— in the stiff corners of morning, in the brittle hush of branches still remembering the weight…
Return by Laurinda Lind
It’s February now but weird-warm here where the ice shovel stood in the garage all winter and the cat, shedding, is so over it now.…
winter lets go… By edwin h. balder
The world softens in small degrees, long before we notice. A patch of ground loosens its grip, a single branch remembers color, and the air…
“America” by Anna Edinger-Revette
The flag hangs quiet, but it feels too loud, like it knows something we don’t say out loud. Porch lights flicker on streets that used…
Circle Drive by June Kosier
Many years ago, my parents bought a house at 8 Circle Drive. “So, what?”, you say. Well, the name was a misnomer. The street only…
What if? by Lourdes Santiago
What if I could be myself, Not someone placed on a shelf. Not be judged by society, Raised according to propriety. What if I took…
A Fictional Version of Me by Anna E. Revette
If I wrote myself into a story, some things would stay the same. I would still carry words in my pockets like small stones collected…
A COLLAGE THAT IS MY LIFE by Lourdes Santiago
I believe that we are a collage of all the people we meet and the influence they have good or bad in our lives. During…
A Negative Becomes a Positive by June Kosier
“If you can see life as a learning experience, you can turn any negative into a positive.”- Neve Campbell. It was the summer of 1971.…
What I Thought I Lost by Anna E. Revette
The day everything unraveled felt like the last straw— heartbreak already heavy, grief sitting quietly in every corner of my life. It felt like another…
STUCK IN THE RAIN by Lourdes Santiago
It was my first vacation, visiting with relatives, to the little town of Fajardo, Puerto Rico. I was born there but had never returned. We…
To Shovel or Not to Shovel by June Kosier
Back in the early ‘80s, my husband, John, worked on the grounds crew at the Albany County Airport. That meant when it snowed, he drove…
Inset by Laurinda Lind
Stuck between panes and walls, here is a prophet poet in a church so packed I can’t reach what he says from inside myself in…
Should Have Listened to Naomi by William Gole
It was Sunday evening and I was returning to my Army barracks just north of Boston from my girlfriend’s apartment in Pittsfield, Mass. I was…
Remnants of You by Lourdes Santiago
Out by the pool on a summer day. perusing Pictures that were stowed away, I smile to myself “how I have aged,” imagining you still…
Ode to DeRuyter Lake (as told by a Very Good Dog) By Anna E. Revette
Oh DeRuyter Lake; you are the biggest water bowl I have ever seen. You sparkle. You move. You absolutely refuse to be fully fetched. I…
Writing prompt submission by Addison Mead
A ship‘s greatest adversary, long vast and blue. Mighty its depths, warping of time, fossils those who once knew, an expanse of such a great…
A Story Full of Horse Manure by June Kosier
“Money, if you should pardon the expression, is a little bit like horse manure. It doesn’t do anyone any good unless it is spread around…
Ice Coating by Duane L Herrmann
Coating everything: ice has come. Gentle mist at night coating, freezing all. When sun shines and refracts light: an astonishing sight, but treacherous for walking,…
Signs of Joy by Duane L Herrmann
Joy for the flowers continue to bloom, joy for the clouds sail silent by. joy for the breeze continues to caress, joy for sunsets that…
The Art of Nursing by June Hannay Kosier
I have been retired from nursing for six years after having nursed for fifty years. I tremendously miss caring for patients. However, I am…
Illumination by Laurinda Lind
On the days I don’t drop dead I see the scope kept in wild vines, voles, every vein, roots, stubborn rhizomes driving deep light as…
Watching Me by Duane L Herrmann
I went out to the farm that is not a farm, no fields or buildings, not even a driveway, I have to walk in cross…
The Power Of a Chance by Eleanor Stanton
45 years old, with a body shouting “I have a desk job,” I was near the top of a thirty-foot telephone pole before I thought…
REAL UNREAL by Duane L Herrmann
In my hands, I held, was it true? How could it be true, and real? Could not be true, not real. Yet, I saw and…
“Thank you, sir.” by Duane L Herrmann
“Fat, lazy, asinine,” were my mother’s most common words about me to me. I had no idea what she said to others about…
I BELONG by Duane L Herrmann
I belong to a group,community embracingall people and the world:“The earth is one countryand mankind its citizens,”prominent theme explains.No one left out,no one ignored.Leaders chosen…
alone… by jsburl
…i wandered… the woodland my dog my sole companion on the quest for painlessness aloneness healing but it remained illusive, just beyond the…
What I Want at 59 by Jon Raimon
I want to carry everyoneto haul water up the hill to youto open doors for the world as they stumble in, grocery bags tumbling I want…
Music Memory by Diane Cuff-Carney
Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Seven musical notes taught by Maria/ Julie to the children, Von Trapps’ And to us, all Sounds of music’s syllabic system Do…
I Missed the Award by Duane L Herrmann
I had registered, and paid, for the convention banquet. It, and the rest of the convention, was held in the city were my daughter and…
Folding Poem by various authors
1a A chicken was going to a b-day party! 1b The chicken got lost along the way. 2a The chicken found a dune buggy and…
SUMMERTIME by Duane L Herrmann
Heat AND Humidityoften up to threedigits each,are all I can thinkof summer…plus ticks, Lyme’s Disease,chiggers and mosquitoes,and illnesses they carry.Watermelon, cold,a rare treat,and endless garden,with…
Doughnut Day by June Kosier
“As you ramble on through life, Brother,Whatever be your goal.Keep your eye upon the doughnut.And not upon the hole.”- Margaret Atwood Doughnut Day Until recently,…
Greek Yogurt: The Real Deal by Leslie Sittner
On the road again traveling around Greece on our BMW motorcycle, I see these low sided ceramic pans out on the ground or on patios…
The Hidden Door by Duane L Herrmann
I was walking in the house where I grew up. No one lived there now. It would be demolished soon. My youngest brother was going…
Writing Prompt Submission by Mike Spotswood
I took a journey as a 7-year-old boy I once was, catching pollywogs with my bare hand’s and putting them back into a stream so…
Writing Prompt Submission by EJ Smith
A mixtape passed down for generations would very easily define each era. All songs have a meaning behind them. Snce mixtapes were made in the…
Weekly writing prompt about a sound by Mike Spotswood
Every morning of my youth I heard the coffee percolator next to my bedroom perk. It was an alarm clock of sorts that announced to…
Crossing words by Duane L Herrmann
R E V E A L A T I O N crosses N O R M A L going down and E V E R…
City Apartment Living by Jay Liebowitz
Three hundred dwellings in one buildingTwenty apartments per floorMost keep to themselvesPeople rushing in and out from their daily chores. Elevator staring,People shy or afraid…
Dear Lucifer by Ali Dojer
Dear Lucifer, Some angels must fall in order to illuminate the shadows of the earth and self. Remember you are an angel so as not…
House Therapy by Juan Colina de Vivero
I’ve been thinking about this question for a very long time, and I’ve concluded that summer is my favorite season. Yes, even though I have…
The Toll of the Fourth Bell by K.M. Bordeau
The first bell at the fire station tolls at 6 o’clock, accompanied by a long, wailing siren. It rises and falls like an angry yowling…
Prompt response by Ava Kanninen
Write a six-word story about an unexpected connection: He slammed my drink, “checking for roofies”
Prompt response by Sue Moy Bergquist
Write a six-word story about an unexpected connection: You and me now are we.
Prompt response by by June Kosier
Write a six-word story about an unexpected connection: Salesman from Utica, my cousin’s friend.
DANIEL’S Kitchen by Venera Lokaj-Smit
It is RomanticDANIEL’s Kitchen It is QuietDANIEL the unpaid PoliticianWatching History on his computer3 very tender light bulbs plugged in wallSlightly transparent white and disciplinedStanding…
My Most Embarrassing Cake by Janie Davies Fitzgerald
My mom could not bake a cake to save her life. Even if she used a box cake mix the cake would fall, burn, crack,…
My Cooking by June Kosier
Mom never taught me how to cook. She told me that my schoolwork was more important and she wanted me to concentrate on that. I…
SEE IT NOW by Duane L Herrmann
I can see the coloris deepest, most intense,in the center spacethen lighter, lighter,as it tapers to the edge,so gently it seemsnot to change, yetstill, there…
MY FIRST DEATH by Duane Herrmann
Just days before fivemy great granpa died,my special buddy – gone.“Old age,” I was told.but that confused –all my family was old,would they all die…
MY PERSONAL HARDSHIP by Diane Cuff-Carney
When this prompt was presented by ACW yesterday as a topic to write about, my first thought was, “I never experienced hardship”. Unlike so many…
Rooms in my head by Mike Spotswood
Truth be told, did you know you keep a rental house in your head? You rent it room by room to tenants who seldom agree.…
Loss of social media by Mike Spotswood
Its five AM time to rise and shine, and open my laptop for the news of the day. As I scrolled through my apps to…
Rubies and Fool’s Gold by John Henningson
Folklore says that the red crystals,from Gore Mountain’s wooded slopes.Were originally peddled as rubies.To uninitiated downstate folks. This was somewhat similar to the mistakesmade by…
Untitled by Mike Spotswood
Young fingers cling to an old brick building on a ledge three floors from the ground where only youth had no fear. This building is…
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