Day 22 - Betrayed

Being betrayed can be one of the worst feelings in the world. Knowing someone you love has wronged you and broken your trust is something that is hard to get over. Even worse is deliberately betraying someone you love and care about, whether that person is a friend, a family member, or a lover.

One unfortunate effect of betrayal is the feeling of guilt that accompanies it. If we are the ones who have been deceived we look for reasons why and eventually we might blame ourselves and carry the guilt with us. We tell ourselves it must have been our own fault, something we did wrong. And, if we are the ones being unfaithful, the guilt can eat at us and cause us to become angry and defensive. Guilt is the chain we shackle ourselves with.

Forgiveness is the only way we can ever remove those chains and free ourselves, even if the person we are giving freedom to is ourselves. 

Poetry prompt:

At some point we have all experienced betrayal. Write about the experience, whether you were the one betrayed or the betrayer. How did it make you feel, and how did you move past it? Or did you? Alternately you may like to write about showing yourself or someone else mercy in the face of betrayal.

Word prompt:

betrayal

deception

dishonesty

duplicity

lying

Alternate word prompts:

forgiveness

mercy

grace

loyalty

honesty

Suggested Form:

For today, try a Palindrome, a type of mirrored poetry. For an extra challenge, work it so that the poem reads as betrayal one way and forgiveness once it is mirrored.

These are only suggestions and you may write in whatever form or subject you wish. And please visit three other participant sites and leave comments on their poems!

Song prompt:

Poetry Prompts Day 12-Tortured

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “tortured” in connection with love? At first, we might be inclined to think of those intense feelings we associate with loving someone so much it hurts. Young love is fraught with the feeling but as we age and mature does it grow in a different way? And if so, how?

Torture is defined as “the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. “ But how often are we the ones inflicting pain upon ourselves in the course of growing or maintaining our relationships? Have you ever deliberately hurt someone you love and thereby tortured them, whether through passive aggression or a more vocal/physical action? Have you ever reacted in anger without thought how it would hurt someone else, especially yourself? And did you apologize or make amends?

Prompt:

Love doesn’t always go well. There are bumps and holes and even chasms we have to figure out how to get across or around lest we fall, or else stay where we are. The hard and painful parts of love are necessary for the relationship to grow. Explore the feeling of being “tortured” and how it is a necessary part of love.

Word Prompts:

Afflict

Excruciating

Torment

Agonizing

Distress

Alternately

Appease

Aid

Comfort

Heal

Soothe

Relieve

Suggested Form:

A Senryu is basically a haiku but it deals with human nature and emotions rather than only the natural world. For those of you wanting more of a challenge try the Terza Rima.

Song Prompt:

Merril Bainbridge-State of Mind

Make sure to leave a link to your poem in the comments here so we can all visit and leave constructive/positive comments. Try to visit and comment on at least three different participants if you can. Thank you.

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you. 

Day 9: Love

When I thought about today's prompt so many things came to mind to write about that it was almost overwhelming. I could pick the Pepé Le Pew type or Shakespeare's or rom-coms and love songs.

Instead, I remembered the Love Is... comics I used to read as a child. Every day in the paper there was a different idea of what love was. Do you remember? I even had a transistor radio (there's a blast from the past) shaped like the couple holding hands. I loved the silly thing!

What those comics taught me, though, is that love has many different facets. Its not just one thing. There's romantic/passionate love, which is the most common one we think of, but there's also platonic, familial, charitable (think compassion; love for strangers/animals/etc), and self-love (think self-esteem and confidence). And that's just the main ones. Each one is unique unto itself and comes with its own set of rules and boundaries, and even consequences.

But what is love?

Shakespeare wrote that it was about acceptance and not changing each other, that it lasts to "the edge of doom", or death, and that it's still there even through the storms and hard times. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote that not only was it ethereal but in the everyday things. Pablo Neruda says that it is neither I nor you but that we are one. But I think love is indefinable. I believe that it is whatever it needs to be for each person and each relationship. I believe you can love many people and many things and that to limit your love is the greatest tragedy you can experience.

We exult in it when it's new. We absorb it and get comfortable in it after we've been in it for some time. We mourn its loss and the loss of those we love.

So many different ways to write about love and what it is. The Poetry Foundation even has a section about it. What is love to you?

Explore love today. It's all we need, right?

No suggested form. Why force love into it? ;-)

Word Prompts:

infatuation

romance

affection

friendship

devotion

cherish

delight

Alternately:

indifference

infidelity

impartiality

cold-hearted

Visual Prompts:

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions. You can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you.

*photos courtesy of Pexels.com, a free stock photo site, and picture quotes have their sites listed on the picture.