Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Rodeo – Six Sentence Story

This wasn’t Timothy’s first rodeo, but the corruption went deeper than he suspected. The interrogations after the fall of Headquarters led to the whereabouts of additional missing people, mostly children, more than he had anticipated.

“Do you think we’ve found all of them?” Helen asked.

Helen first met Timothy when she was investigating the kidnapping of his own daughter a decade earlier. She remembered him telling her during their month-long search that his prayers left him convinced that his daughter had always been in stronger arms than his own even before they found the body.

As to whether they located all of the victims, Timothy said, “I hope there will never be any more.”

Denise offers the prompt word “rodeo” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Story. This story continues from Kaleidoscope – Six Sentence Story. Next part is Theory – Six Sentence Story.

GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon — GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Solid, Liquid and Gas

Solid Plants in Gaseous Air Against a White Wall Waiting for Liquid Rain

One photo looks a tad too odd.
The other one does too.
To compensate I’ll make both small
and hope that that will do.

Dale offers the theme of “solid, liquid and gas” admitting this encompasses just about anything for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

My Feet Below a Glass Table Where What’s Solid Looks Hopefully Like a Gas or Liquid.

Sunday Walk 29

I first heard this song on a post by Geri Ungurean. I like the deep sound of their voices as well as the message.

Fortune/Walker/Rogers/Isaacs – The Lighthouse

I am also grateful to Geri Ungurean for suggesting Brave browser with the Duck Duck Go search extension as an alternative to Google’s Chrome and search engine. The goal is to allow open searches and cut down on tracking and ads.

I installed Brave, took the option to let Brave copy over my bookmarks from Chrome and then searched for Duck Duck Go from the Brave browser where I found a link to install it as an extension.

I did some other tweaks to the home page like disabling fake news feeds. So far things are working all right. I am also looking at the Opera browser now that I’m in the mood to try new software.

Champion

Wealth or wits aren’t what it takes
to stop that giant, curse and all.
God alone transcends and shakes:
One river stone, one sling, one fall.

Eugenia offers “champion” for this week’s prompt. I am thinking of 1 Samuel 17.

Kaleidoscope – Six Sentence Story

Helen laughed when she heard Headquarters claimed Bill was killed in the raid. “They don’t even know who Bill is,” she said. “The agents we arrested in that kaleidoscope of tunnels made plea bargains before Headquarters heard anything of it.”

“I wonder when the rats will start running.” Timothy added, “I hope they think it’s safe to implement the spider protocol.”

An hour later Helen smiled, “We got them!”

Denise offers the word “kaleidoscope” for this week’s Six Sentence Story. This story continues from Plow – Six Sentence Story. The next part is Rodeo – Six Sentence Story.

Whirl – Décima

The water in the coffee’s hot.
The sand upon the beach is too.
When simple duty will not do
temptations offer what they’ve got.
So, should I stray or should I not?
A vortex has much snow to hurl.
With stormy wrath the wind will whirl
me where I do not want to go.
I see the signs. They tell me: “No.
Rejoice and stay. Let faith unfurl.”

Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “whirl” to be used a C line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.

Ronovan's Decima Poetry Challenge Image — Ronovan’s Decima Poetry Challenge Image

The Cold Light of Day

Dale offers as a prompt “the cold light of day” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Sunday Walk 28

I am trying to learn Hebrew. I hope to get far enough to be able to read Genesis. I thought I knew the first verse already, but with a little exposure to what I don’t know even that verse remains a mystery.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
Genesis 1:1 Bible Hub, Westminster Leningrad Codex

The first thing one needs to learn is the alef bet. Here’s a song to help with that which I found among the many helpful videos on the Hebrew with Mayim channel. One can also learn these letters from the Learn Hebrew With Daniel channel, and many other places. Although that eye makes me suspicious, I figure if I ever understand this video I would finally know the alef bet. I’m not there yet.

Aleph Bass, An alef bet song by Darshan, Darshan Project

One approach to creation is to think of God creating the Hebrew language first and then using that language to speak reality into existence out of nothing. That seemed to be Rabbi Mordechai Kraft’s message. His talk fascinated me from the beginning to the abracadabra at the end.

Rabbi Mordechai Kraft, The Hebrew Language The DNA of Creation, The Jewish Torah

Rabbi Michael Skobac goes into this in even more detail. Perhaps there is also a code in the Torah as Rabbi Moshe Zeldman suggests. All of these people have convinced me that Hebrew is a language set apart, a holy language, perhaps very close to the “Edenics” spoken in Eden according to Isaac Mozeson.

So I’m trying to learn Hebrew and combine whatever I might ultimately learn with a Christian perspective.

Mountains and Valleys

Love comes when the mountains ring
and valleys rise to roar.
They rang, I fear.
Oh, can’t you hear?
I love you more and more.

The prompt for Chel Owens’ A Mused Poetry Contest is to write “a funny love poem inside a greeting card”. Eugenia’s Weekly Prompt is “romance”. It is Valentine’s Day. I am only hoping the above is romantic and funny enough.

A very short story of mine, “Moon Walk”, was published in Whispers and Echoes. It also has a Valentine’s Day theme. I am grateful to the editor for selecting it.

Plow – Six Sentence Story

Back in freezing Chicago as snow plows uncovered a buried street, Timothy learned at Headquarters that the raid in Miami killed his partner Bill. He delivered the zip file and reported the compromised safe house.

Timothy hoped Bill’s raid was successful, but he knew that any intel he’d receive should be viewed as psyops. Still, scraps of it might be true. From his back door to their communication system he identified and then disabled the assassin they hoped would take him out once he left the building.

Walking down the street with fresh snow falling Timothy smiled to think that those whiz kids at Headquarters wouldn’t believe how few bits he had to flip in that zip file to plow away their covers and expose them.

Denise offers the prompt word “plow” for this week’s Six Sentence Story. This story continues from Mark- Six Sentence Story. Next is Kaleidoscope – Six Sentence Story.