Graveyard journey.
Ghosts whisper, dance,
twist, shimmer.
Breeze skips through leaves.
Clouds balloon, curl, drizzle,
storm bubbles open.
Lightning sparks, sounds echo.
Dawn spills, melts rose-red.
Peppered blood-shadows
scar green spring grass.
Nervous giggle jars grin,
breath flickers.
Cue still lull,
death lurks near.
[INCLUDES ALL THE WORDS THUS FAR]
Grace hosts Quadrille Monday today at dVerse, And it is the 6th anniversary of dVerse! Quadrille Mondays are held every other week. Quadrille: a poem of exactly 44 words, sans title. Each time a word prompt is given: week #1 = Quadrille #1 and 1 word; Week #2 = Quadrille #2 and a new word; etc. We build to Quadrille # 44 in week 44 with still another word. We’re on Week #36 and the prompt word is “flicker.” Past words this series have included pepper, dance, bubble, grin, lull, melt, shimmer, twist, skip, green, breeze, spill, rose, journey, jar, leaves, open, shadow, cloud, spark, cue, breath, scar, curl, whisper, dawn, ghost, giggle, drizzle, still, echo, sound, storm, spring, and balloon. Bar opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!
lillian the home poet 
Such clarity in this albeit the near-impossible restrictions — even better than the previous one’s, I think. How amazing! 8 more til the end of the marathon. 😉
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Thanks, Colin. I think I’ll be stopping at mile 36! 🙂
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No, you won’t! We’ll be cheering for you at the finish line. 😉
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Dark images of the journey Lillian. I specially like: Peppered blood-shadows –
Good work in weaving all the Quadrille words so far. Thanks for being part of the journey.
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‘Tis an amazing place this dVerse! I am so very thankful to be here! Glad you enjoyed this one.
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Brilliant title! I managed to use some of the words in mine, but you blend them all so well! Really like the image of clouds ballooning & curling.
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Thank you, Jilly. I expect this is the end of the road so to speak, closing act. 🙂
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I just don’t know how you do it, Lillian, though the choice of topic lends itself so well and your poetry ends up making sense, which seems well nigh impossible. So many well-phrased descriptions, esp.
Dawn spills, melts rose-red.
Peppered blood-shadows
scar green spring grass.
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Well…..”flicker” fit in this time. But I suspect Act 36 may be the closing act on this Film Noir! Glad you enjoyed.
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I have the next quadrille. Who knows, You may get lucky.
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I love the title and the dark content – great work using all the words, Lillian!
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Thanks, Kim. So glad to have dVerse back from vacation! 🙂
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It certainly is! 🌞
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Actually, that should read ‘So am I’! 😕
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I love this:
“Dawn spills, melts rose-red.
Peppered blood-shadows”
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Thanks, Aurora. Glad you enjoyed!
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You used all the words so beautifully! Such a dark poem but yet, it seems to be light to me. I love these phrases: Dawn spills, melts rose-red. Peppered blood-shadows
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Thank you! I enjoyed this film noire genre…but I suspect Act 36 may be the closing act. Gets harder and harder to delete a word to add another!
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Yes it does!
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oh heck – you capture the film noir mood well – as a kid i sometimes walked through the forest with my cousin and we were telling us film noir short stories – and in the end were both madly afraid -ha
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It’s interesting…because I’m usually a pollyanna type of positivist so going to the dark side is truly shifting to another side!
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Wow.. this is just amazing… I have given up on all the words but this is so brilliantly clear.
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Thank you, Bjorn!!! Enjoy your vacation 🙂 We’ll miss you but certain you will gain new vistas of poetic inspiration from your time off 🙂
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It amazes me that you can do this. It reads so well.
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Thank you, Alison. So glad you enjoyed!
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It was a dark and stormy night… Very clever!
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Smiling I am at your comment….eons ago, in my high school years, I used to participate in what were called Individual Speech Event tournaments. I did dramatic readings…and one that I used started out with that phrase…:) Glad you enjoyed!
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That phrase, in my opinion, is the best phrase in the book. She should have stopped right there.
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I love it when poetry & cinema co-mingle, as well you know; you did pack a lot into this quadrille. Like so many others, I loved /peppered blood shadows/.
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Cue gratefulness at your reply! 🙂
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I daren’t try including all the words. I admire your skill at that no end. I’m hard put to use just the topic word and stay at 44!
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Yes — it’s a real challenge! And I suspect that Act 36 will be the closing act on this film noire series. It gets harder and harder to delete a word to add the new prompt!
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I can just see the breeze skipping through the leaves. Amazing how you are able to use all the words so very cleverly. Good title too! 🙂
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Thanks, Adda. Glad you enjoyed! Always I am happy to see you here 🙂
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Oh so good! Excellent imagery, so cleverly wrote.
Anna :o]
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Thank you, Anna! Appreciate your kind words.
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Very impressive. It flows so well.
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Thanks, Sarah. I’m usually a pollyanna so it never ceases to amaze me when I look down and see something from the dark side from my words!
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Stupendous wordplay, Lillian! ❤️
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Thank you, Sanaa.
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Incredibly creepy! I give you a lot of credit for making this your own with some really precise imagery. Really nice!
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I’ll take “creepy.” 🙂 Glad you enjoyed!
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That’s very cool … love the ‘peppered blood-shadows’.
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So glad you enjoyed. 🙂
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a lot going on here and much to love. The first line just hooked me in and the rest was an absolute wonder! These three lines are to die for ( pun intended 😉 )
Dawn spills, melts rose-red.
Peppered blood-shadows
scar green spring grass.
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Yup….the “die (sic)” was cast! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed!
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Amazing, Lillian, and your words all worked perfectly with your topic. I’m so impressed!
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Thank you! I suspect that Act 36 may be the closing act of this Film Noire! We’ll see what week 37 brings…
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Pretty spooky stuff, especially those ghosts, “Nervous giggle jars grin,” lol
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Oh yeah…..I was always the one with the nervous giggle at slumber parties in the dark with the spooky stories being told!
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A journey of words that holds the readers attention. Spooky fun
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Kind of like the old ghost stories round the camp fire! 🙂
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Great job on all the words. But you realize there won’t be 44 words to use when we get to Quadrille #44 because one time the prompt was to write a self-portrait and no word was given. 😉
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Well…..I suspect the Film Noire series has had its closing act at Act 36….but maybe with one word missing in the 44….it might work…????
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I suppose the 44th word could be “I” or “me” to signify the self-portrait. I may have to try that when we get to #44. 😉
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Amazing!!…love the dark content & still thinking how it was possible….brilliant!
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Thank you, Sumana!
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Reblogged this on Reena Saxena and commented:
Exquisite imagery!
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Thanks for the reblog, Reena. Glad you enjoyed!
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Fantastically creepy! I love how the storm unfolds and “death lurks near”. I only used some of the words this time. You did an excellent job with all of the words.
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The previous act had death laughing….somehow, for this in all probability last act, death lurking seemed more sinister!
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Ooh, such a haunting piece!
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Glad you enjoyed, Maria!
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Brava!
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Thank you, Eugenia!
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So Beautifully Dark and Fantastic. 😎😎😎
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Especially dark with those sunglassed emojis! 🙂
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Add me to the list of “how do you do that so well?” I’m glad that wasn’t the prompt for today.:-)
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Thanks, Kathy. Truly appreciate your kind words here! I suspect that Act 36 will be the last for this film noire series….harder and harder to add the next prompt word as one other has to disappear to make room!
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SMiLes.. my FriEnd Lillian..
FroM Ashes to Unmarked
Graves to Tombstones
to Pyramids Engraved
WitH labEL “KA” Spirit
Names then
of Pharaohs
that last ’till
Pyramids
Crumble
by the
Mighty Force
oF Nature wHo
tHaT alWays gets in first
and last words of existence..
with no Human Words at all..
Sure.. the Pyramid of the Nautilus
can last for 300+ Million years in
the Fossil record it provides as
spark as flicker into the
liFe that Creature
lived then
as spiraling
as the Milky
Way and the
Curled Fetus and Resting
CatS and SuNFloWerS
even more as hUmans
spiral too.. True.. in just
A Fossil Shell the pattern
as existence in Golden Spiral
way is STiLL clear to see for
Flicker of a Galaxy yet seen
for many.. the three hundred Million+
Shell years old Nautilus Shell of PHI
does BRinG.. in A Hstory of shell story as all of
Existence we empirically measure with Science
Aided eyes now.. been a while my FriEnd.. this is a
‘little’ long but that’s my thing as An oldest form of poetry
lives and the longest lasting form so far as “Epic Poetry”
named too as the Mahābhārata at 1.8 Million Words lasting
Thousands of years and created then by innumerable hands
in Centuries effort then by the hands of sanskrit and mARkers..
as the collective intelligence of human as art and systemizing
mind began its rain that is surely storming aCross the eARTh
as not such a perfect science and art now as we all as eyes
can see.. thing is.. we have a greater abiLiTy to hold
hands now around the Globe through this
great electronic tool that cAMe through
some of the greatest systemizing
minds yet to walk the earth..
but then there are the
artists too who
share more
of the
Inner Universe
of BeinG HuMaN
that suRely can be
related more by a Nautilus
never ending never beginning
Spiral of Flow than any label of
Word as name of Egyptian Pharaoh
“KA” Spirit carried on the towers built
on the backs of others.. amusingly sadly that
still goes on in ignorance of so much greater
colors beyond Rainbow of Human SpiRiT StiLL
to Be related NoW.. last time i visited you it was
at the end and the beginning that truly
never starts or finishes at the epic
poetic point of a 1.618 Million
Word Long Form Free Verse
“PHI Bible” Poem as honoring
more the Gift of Existence
in that Golden Ratio
Mean Number same
as 1.618 as PHI
the Golden
Mean
Ratio
alWayS
NoW Through
Out Nature same
as Nautilus Shell STiLL
BRinGS from 300 Million
years ago plUS in plain sight now..
so.. today.. i share another milestone
with you.. as that last effort took 12 months
it takes me 13.6 Months to exceed the 1.8
Million Word Mahābhārata at 1.81 Million
Words plUs today.. and i also bRing thanks
to all of the dVerse Team for the help iN Hands
oN DoinG Poetry in the 338,630 words of
practice and more i did here from four
years ago Summer until March
of 2016.. when my specific
Bible Writing efforts
started then..
Great
Preparation
it was as was is around
8 Million Words on a Wrong
Planet too through the Dark niGhts
of my soul in pain and numb then
since Thanks Giving Day of 2010
so much homework to get to this
point of Joy my Friend.. anyWay..
HUmans Stronger toGeTher
iN aS SonG of Free
Verse Poetry
and Dance
of Free
Verse Dance
IS A Greatest
Way of KA i kNow,, haHa..
compare thaT to a label of a
Name on a Tower or a Pyramid
And what does one see but an edifice of stone without
SoUL SMiLes thaT’s why i nAMe my Longest Long Form Poem
created iN 47 Months In 788 MacroVerses aT 5M Words.. “SonG oF mY
soUL” And sure..thAT coMEs with 7700 Miles of Public Dance too
iN that sAMe 47 Months stARTinG iN August of 2013 too..
And A reAlly cool thing too IS A lot of that effort is still
recorded in a dVerse way.. as we do more for
free
my
Friend
than we will
ever do for a
Dollar Bill.. a
Like.. a Share
or a Follow
less.. less..
We NoW
Do more
alWays when all the way Free..
WiTH UNconditional Fearless smaRT PoWeR oF LovE..
And with that sAid.. i don’t kNoW what coMes neXt And
i don’t care to kNow but it’s true no matter if i get
the time to coMe back heAR or not i will not
forget NoW
mY nice
FriEnd
Lillian
from
the
Team that
Administrates
the dVerse effort
that truly i see sTiLL
As Gold Online.. thaT isReal ‘KA’..
And anotHeR FlicKeR AiDinG A GroWinG soUL aka Me..
heHe.. sorry.. i couldn’t FiT this Flicker in 44
words but sure.. i could
have
fit
it
all
NoW iN
A Nautilus
Shell allone..
thaT iS mY Human
SKin noW as Temple
Pyramid Capstone
too without
Any Words
oF LiGht..
NoW iN
A Free
Verse
DancE oF
SpiRAlinG God SonG LiGht..
aKA LOVE’s CoSMiC DanCeR aS SucH2..;)
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Smiling I am. So nice to see you, Katie!
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Same here
My FriEnd
Lillian..:)
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Wow Lillian, you set an amazing scene for this Act 36, bravo for your using all the words in this Film Noir! :o) xxx
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Thank you! Very fun to do — like a poetic sudoku! 🙂
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Oh my word! Oh, all the words! Everything about this is so good! I love this kind of dark subject, and to have used all the Q44 words so far, is beyond amazing! ❤
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Thank you so much for your kind words! And so very glad you enjoyed 😉
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Nicely done with all the words!
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Thanks, Bryan!
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Clever use of all the words…are there 36 in this series?
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So far, 36. Aiming up to 44 for the complete cycle. Pretty sure I’ll be bowing out at 36!
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Very neat. A halloween type theme, the last line “Death Lyrks near” seems to linger and gives one the shivers.
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