Friday, August 15, 2008

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 26

Please scroll down for Skywatch Friday.)

This is week 26 of the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Thanks again to Jeff B for supplying this week's words/phrases. I continue to enjoy the break from making them up myself.

I had a hard time this with this week's words. Hemoglobin, Jeff? What were you thinking?


The words for this week's ten word challenge were: exponentially, Nightshade, braces, impossibility, the beginning of time, barracuda, playful banter, delve, automatic, bewildered And for the Mini Challenge: fragment, hemoglobin, insipid, flourish, juxtapose


Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Marybeth sat bewildered looking in the mirror. Much as it had seemed an impossibility to her that she could look any uglier than she had since the beginning of time, the braces, besides being uncomfortable, made her feel exponentially more hideous. They gave her, she believed, the look of a chubby barracuda. She could hear the so-called playful banter of her family as they delved ever more deeply into the heart of her pain, twisting a thousand knives and making jokes at her expense. But she would show them. She would kill herself with nightshade also known as bella dona or beautiful woman. How better to kill her ugliness? Her pain would be gone and others would suffer. They would never be able to mock her ugliness again.


And here's my mini challenge:

Lance Langmulchen waved away the last fragment of his fear with an insipid flourish of the wrist. Meredith needed hemoglobin and he would supply her with as much blood as he could, no matter what it cost him in anxiety. Juxtaposed against the possibility of losing her, his terror of needles and tubes was nothing. “Proceed,” he whispered to the nurse, “I do this for my Meredith,” and promptly fainted.


For the mega challenge
: I went with a poem on this one. And I repeat. Hemoglobin, Jeff? Hemoglobin?

The Broken Heart

Sweet Nightshade I call you
You are poison to me
Still
I have loved you
Since the beginning of time

Bewildered by the depth of it
Ashamed and confused

I brace against each pathetic, insipid flourish
Of attention I instinctively - automatically -
Direct to you
Although the impossibility of us -
Of you and me -
Becomes exponentially more clear
With the passing of each breath,
Each day, each week, each year

Juxtaposed against my agonized love
Your playful banter,
Not meant to be unkind

Delves deep
Like a savage barracuda
And chews on the fragments
Of my broken heart
Oblivious - which makes it so much more cruel -
You suck the hemoglobin from my blood
And my iron will melts to nothing
Sweet Nightshade
Your poison is in my blood and I cannot resist
I can't stop loving you while there is any hope
Yet even rejection would be better
Than being so unseen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: mush, ping, kaleidoscope, software, pillbox hat, parquet floor, skinny woman, Venus flytrap

Ruth Jones felt like she had mush for brains and hoped that booting up the computer would ground her and bring her back to center. She felt comforted by the pings and beeps and grunting start-up noises as the software (or hardware - she was never sure which was which) brought the screen to light. From the other room she heard a thump, followed by hissing, followed by the thundering sound of cats-paws on her beautiful parquet floor and then her usually agile and well-behaved cats came tearing into the room knocking over a small shelf which held a large violet, two Venus fly-traps, and her brand new kaleidoscope, all of which crashed to the floor in a jumbled mess of leaves, glass and dirt. As if that weren't enough, the doorbell rang. Ruth frowned. "What now," and peeking through the eye-hole on her door saw with dread, a skinny woman in a pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat, and of course WHITE GLOVES. "I am in Hell," she sighed, forced her mouth into a smile and opened the door. "Mother! What a lovely surprise."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Special thanks to Jeff B for this week’s words and phrases (hemoglobin!????) and the following for next week. (By the way, Jeff... just kidding. I love a challenge.)

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tiramisu, transfixed, evacuation, Queen of the Nile, pillowcase, grammatical, voice inflection, pacified, microclimate, swami

And for the Mini Challenge: maggots, thermal pocket, industrial, bovine, feminized

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Mr. Linky has been known to play hide and seek on occasion. On the off chance that all you see is a little square instead of the Mr. Linky logo, just click on the square. The little guy should be there. I don't have sufficient cyber skills to know why this has been happening. And maybe it's only happening on my computer which has been acting very odd of late.

16 comments:

Carletta said...

Always, always, you hit the mark so well. Then, it is your challenge and that's fitting!
Your mini challenge made me laugh -I could just picture the scene with someone I know and couldn't help myself.
I LOVE the poem. Love given and not taken is heartbreaking.
I feel like I've been in Ruth's shoes when it comes to feeling the computer grounds me - blogging is good for me on days I need grounded. "I am in Hell" - great ending.
I don't see Mr. Linky or an 'X' -only your note so do you mind linking me - I played - a little. :)

Anonymous said...

Hmn... I love your take on the words - funny how we all see them differently. Thanks for another opportunity at this fun challenge/exchange!

Akelamalu said...

Oh I loved the first one Raven, in fact I loved the second one too, but my favourite was the poem - you're so clever!

So Jeff was to blame for this weeks words was he? Just wait until I see him! ;)

Richard said...

Two stories and a poem, a poem in which you use the word hemoglobin. I'm with Lance, I'm about to faint.

Rich

Melli said...

Ohhhhh good grief! I saw this over at Carletta's and thought I WANNA DO THIS... but look at those words for next week! Holy cow... Well. We'll SEE what I come up with! This is NUTS!

YOU are fabulous!!! So you didn't come up with the list of words for this week? WOW! You did sO well with them! That poem is absolutely AMAZING! But the stories are great too! You are GOOD!

Dianne said...

I can't write poetry when I get to choose the words and none of them are hemoglobin!

I loved the 'chubby barracuda' - I have an anorexic barracuda ;)

and Lance Langmulchen!! sounds like a garden disease, poor chap fainted.

I think though that the vanity is my favorite this week - I could see her running around, the cats being cats and then - Mother!

great stuff Raven

and thanks Jeff for more great words :)

DivaJood said...

Oh, yes, I love the chubby barracuda. Terrific stuff.

Jay said...

Both of the Wordzzles were great, but the poem? Wow!

You totally rock!

jaycoles@gmail.com said...

Oh, I agree. I have been waiting in anticipation until I finished mine. I thought of trying a poem again but not this eek. My mind is too numb and my brain to dumb.

You are the best!

Jeff B said...

OK, OK...bring it on, I can take it.

Bwahahahahaha!!!

Can I assume that the word hemoglobin will never grace the likes of Wordzzle again?

Still, you pulled it off beautifully. The poem was out of this world.

I honestly thought when I sent these words over that you were going to pick and choose from the list, so please, in the future if I send some your way, feel free to veto any you like (or should I say don't like)

And don't worry about teasing me, I love it.

Raven said...

carletta - I'm so glad you played again this week. Wish I knew how to solve the Mr. Linky problem. He's behaving here on my end this week.

mommywizdom - I think that's really part of the fun of this exercise... first that our imaginations kick in and find ways to turn them into a story and second - how many amazingly different ways we come up with to do it.

akelamalu - yes. Jeff did it. He's to blame for next week's words too. It's all on Jeff. I think your Scrabble exercise this week was pure pure genius. It may go down in history as one of my favorite every wordzzles.

richard - LOL... please don't faint. I love your twisted intrigue in your stories. McCool & Co are way to macho to faint.

melli - I'm so glad you are going to play! It's always fun to bring in new addicts. It's pretty amazing how the mind can find a way to string stuff together.

diva jood - thanks. I'm so glad you've joined the party. I enjoy your worddzles.

jay - Thanks. Do I really rock? That's so cool.

jay simser - you came up with brilliant stuff for a numb mind. I loved what the sisters did this week.

jeff b - glad you took my ribbing in the spirit it was intended. As for hemoglobin. It probably won't show up again any time soon, but you never know what the words will be. I kind of use whatever springs into my head. The only time I edit myself is if my brain churns out two or three things that are too much alike. I think it's fun (well and awful too) to have words like hemoglobin that are pretty rough to put into a normal sentence. Make my mind work and that's always good. Now I'm off to read what you've come up with.

Kimmie said...

Oh My, I am so moved by your poem Raven. I so could relate to it. Sad, but true.

You did a wonderful job on all of them this week, but you always do. A writer you most definately are.

Hugs,
Kimmie

Clarence said...

Poor Lance - such a trooper! Am glad to be doing the wordzzles again, even if they do include haemoglobin. :)

Unknown said...

In a world where I used to be able to say it was a "figment" of my imagination, today it has become a mere fragment of that same imagination. Imagine that! Not to worry, though. It isn't a matter of a spike in my hemoglobin, or my insipid laughter. No! Raven helps me flourish in the blog world by her ability to juxtapose reality with humor!!!!YAY RAVEN!!!!! I celebrate you! :)

Raven said...

kimmie - thanks. I fear too many of us can relate to that poem. Glad you played again this week

clarence - better late than never. I loved your contributions

michael - you closet wordzzler you! On the spot, way clever and with compliments to boot! Yay Michael!!!!!

Anonymous said...

"Live as big as the sky." I like that.

I too have a demon that visits me when I receive too much praise -- or at least I used to -- my head gets too big for my hat and I grow very impatient with people not as wonderful as I. So -- since I am really not any more wonderful or talented than the next person -- I have learned to step back and disassociate myself from praise directed my way. I realize praise does not make me "more", instead too much of it induces me to make myself "less".