It's that time again.
A new challenge was posted by the gals at the WEP. Write...Edit...Publish
Flash fiction at it's best! Are you game?
Then join the fun!
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A Hard Rain
She gazes and sighs
at the angry clouds
the surprisingly calm ocean
and the horizon so far
A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall
she questions her motives
is she validated
or just an attention seeker
all she wants
is freedom
independence
a life less hidden
but to achieve that goal
others will suffer
many will shake their heads
and say, what’d you expect
the girl's been off balance
her entire life
never did know
when she had it good
always seeking
never satisfied
I swear
even in death
she'll look for a third option
unsatisfied with Heaven
or Hell…
Yolanda Renee © 2022
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Your turn, just give it a try.
A poem, a short story, flash fiction, or another artistic expression!
A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
has been described as the ‘most idiosyncratic protest song ever written.’ Bob Dylan, the Nobel Laureate and another 60's icon, wrote,
composed and sung it in 1962 when he was only 21. It’s been covered by many
artistes including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and has never really stopped being
sung ever since. Dylan has sold more than 125 million records/albums
making him one of the most popular artistes of all time.
The form is
modelled on the traditional ballad in the question and answer format, the
themes being human suffering – pollution, warfare, isolation, angst. Sixty
years after Dylan presented it at a performance at Carnegie Hall, the lyrics
are striking in that how relevant they are still, how contemporary their feel
and the depth of their appeal. Read more about the song here
and here.
This one is
wide open to all kinds of interpretations. Because human suffering – it’s as
wide, deep and long as life is, of a trillion takes potential.
Use it to
zoom in on our current ‘hard rain’ of covid. Chisel out your own pandemic flash
from what’s going on around you.
Or weave a
tale of some other woe – bleeding hammers, broken tongues, dead oceans, homes
in the valley meeting damp, dirty prisons. The lyrics are epic, apocalyptic and
offer rich pickings. Set your tale around the climate issues; the refugee
crisis; the endless hardships that the hard rains of bullets and bombs,
volcanic eruptions, oil spills have brought.
Or bypass
all the bleakness and melancholy and simply spin a conversation between a
parent and a child on some deep life issue. Or a light-hearted one. A million
directions to go. The possibilities are endless.
A freehand is what we give you, you give the song a listen and see what
happens...
Copied from the WEP Challenges page
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