Borrow the Lyrics Challenge ~ Tupelo Honey

I’ve been tagged by Rory of a Guy Called Bloke for a fun new game. 😀🎶🎉

Rules (as copied from the creator):

1. You need to choose a verse from a song and use it in an original poem or story.
2. You must include the name of the song and the singer at the end or beginning.
3. You need to challenge someone else and invent ONE rule they need to follow.
4. You must credit the person who started this challenge (a.k.a. PJ) and the person who challenged you.
5. You must include the rules of this challenge.

Rory’s extra rule is “free thought.”

My song is the beautiful “Tupelo Honey” by Van Morrison, and here is a gorgeous video for you, with lyrics on screen:

Tupelo Honey

Fred threw the final bag onto the boat. It wasn’t all the tea in China, but it was a lot, and he’d reached the weight limit. Each burlap sack contained paper bags full of tea leaves, all bought for a fair price, in various shops along the coast. He planned to sail alone, to maximize the amount of tea he could bring, but at the last minute he’d hired a small crew member who could communicate in English.

“Where are we going?” Liane asked.

“Welp, first we sail right around all seven oceans.”

Liane gaped at him. “You’re shitting me. In this boat? I quit!”

“Okay, okay.” Fred tried to calm her down. He really didn’t know much about sailing. “Maybe we skip the Arctic.”

“It’ll be monsoon season in India soon.” She rolled her eyes.

“Fine,” Fred said. “We won’t go there either. Can we do five seas? That’s close enough.”

“Close enough for what?” Liane checked the rigging.

“To drop all this tea straight into the deep blue sea.”

Liane stood up straight and glared at him like a furious five foot tornado. “Why the fuck would you want to waste all this tea?”

“Because she’s as sweet as Tupelo honey.”

“Who? And what’s Tupelo?”

Fred sighed. “Just this girl who broke my heart back in college. I’ve never gotten over her. She was very sweet. And Tupelo is a city in Kansas. Supposedly the best honey comes from Tupelo. Not that I’ve ever actually had any.”

“Hang on,” Liane said. “How sweet can she be if she broke your heart? What did she do?”

“She dumped me for a rock star.” Fred’s eyes filled with tears at the memory. “I was only ever going to be a boring poetry teacher.”

“We need teachers here,” Liane said. “She sounds like a twat.”

Fred took a deep breath. “That doesn’t matter now. The important thing is to keep my vow about the tea. I always told her she was worth all the tea in China. And she was as sweet as–”

“Tupelo honey.” Liane rolled her eyes. “I get it. But hey. How about instead of doing this dumbass tea-dumping thing, we open a poetry and tea shop? My aunt has a small space we could lease. And by we I mean you. I know how to make tea though. You’ll be in charge of the poetry.”

“Hmm,” Fred pondered. “A new road to freedom?”

~*~

Okay then! I tag Jim Adams. Jim, please follow the numbered rules above with this additional instruction: use any song with the word “kiss” in it. Have fun!

~*~

PS: I see Tupelo is in Mississippi. Whatever!

PFF6 ~ Forgettable

Welcome to my Friday Flashback! This post originally appeared here on July 12, 2017, a mere two years ago. Some people (women) are unforgettable, larger than life, and you retain vivid memories of them decades after your last meeting. Even if you’ve only met them briefly, something about their looks or vibe is utterly captivating.

I’m not one of these women. People forget me instantly. They forget my name and that they ever met or knew me. Men who slept with me don’t even recall it. I’m bland and ephemeral. Light as air. I should have been a spy, blending into the scenery wherever I roamed. I do like staying home though.

Windsong

I can’t seem to forget you…
Your Windsong stays on my mind.

Remember that commercial for the Prince Matchabelli perfume from 1980? I thought about it tonight when I unexpectedly ran across someone online from years ago and remembered him, but he had no memory of me at all. It was so vivid for me too, that connection we had during a time that was intense and painful for both of us, about a decade ago, and yet… it clearly meant nothing to him. Nothing at all. He apologized for failing to remember me, but it’s happened before, many times.

When I messaged this man, I was so… buoyant. I think that’s a good word for the emotion I felt earlier today. I had to shop at Target, and the whole time I was a bit floaty, thinking to myself how wonderful it would be to chat with someone who knew me from the time before… before the divorce, before my mother was gone. Why this is important to me, I don’t know. But it is. And so for a couple hours I felt light and happy, certain that my life would take a new direction as the man and I renewed our friendship.

I came home, put my stuff away, fed my kitty, fed the feral kitties (all three were around tonight!), got a snack, logged back on, and after a little while a message arrived. The man did not remember me. Oh well. Then that old commercial jingle popped into my head and I wondered if it would be possible to find it on YouTube. Of course… first hit.

[I replaced the dead video with a new one.]

The Quiet Life [fiction 325]

“There she is!”

“Oh, my God! She’s really alive.”

“Can you believe it? After all these years!”

The Countess waved gracefully to the crowd gathered on the lawn. She had agreed to answer a few questions and pointed to a reporter near the edge of the stone steps. Two armed guards stood at the bottom of each side of the steps, ostensibly to deter anyone from coming too close.

“Countess Greta,” the reporter said. “It’s so good to see you again. What inspired you to emerge from your solitude?”

Greta smiled and indicated the perfectly maintained grounds. “I wanted a fresh lemon for my afternoon tea.”

Everyone laughed politely. It wasn’t a real answer, for they all knew the Countess could summon a servant to fetch a lemon.

Another reporter asked, “We were used to seeing you dressed in mourning black. Does your more colorful attire signal a change in your lifestyle as well? Will you be entering society again?”

The crowd murmured. It was a bold question, to indirectly refer to the death of the Count. No one really knew what had happened, though of course there were many stories and rumors, some of them bordering on the scandalous and vile.

But Greta appeared unfazed. She touched the lace of her heather pink dress and said, “Oh, thank you for noticing my gown. It is springtime after all. But I do prefer the quiet life of reading poetry and painting watercolors in my studio.”

A few more questions followed regarding her taste in poets and such. One of the guards subtly shifted position, at which point, the Countess said, “It’s been lovely chatting with you all. We shall do it again soon.” With that, she disappeared back into the cavernous castle.

“She has so much class.”

“So ephemeral.”

“Such a great beauty, even now.”

“How old is she? Does anyone know?”

“The guards seemed more concerned with keeping her in than keeping us out.”

~*~

Written for The Daily Echo

An Award! 🌸

Lovely Linda has lavished me with a Liebster! Thank you so much, Linda! 💖

First, I’m to present 11 facts about myself. Yes, the dreaded 11… why 11? I don’t know. But there’s nothing to be done about it. Off we go.

1. I’m a single mom of two fabulous adult daughters, and I do take a lot of credit for the fact that they’re both wonderful people.

2. I’ve worked for the same company for 18 years.

3. I’ve been married and divorced twice.

4. I was born in Sleepy Hollow, NY, but I never saw the Headless Horseman.

5. I lived in Chicago, IL for several years, and it was freezing. 🥶

6. I tried to find my soul mate after my last divorce, but nothing worked out, so now I just write all the time.

7. I’ve self-published 6 books of poetry and fiction as Paula Light. 😀

8. One of them will be available in audio shortly.

9. I’ve also self-published 2 romance novels and several short erotica stories as Anna Fondant. 🔥

10. Someone is narrating my first romance novel right now, so it should be available as an audiobook soon.

11. I have a bazillion more novels, novellas, short stories, and collections planned out to write, edit, and self-publish before I die. 🙃

Okay then. Now I’m supposed to answer some specific questions. Guess how many there are? Eleven again. Yeppers.

1. How important is Wi-Fi for you? Is warm running water or wireless internet more important?

This looks suspiciously like two questions to me. Can I get a ruling? Wi-Fi is very important, but obviously warm running water is more important. I don’t want to be boiling pots of water on the stove to wash my hair in the sink. Annoying! 😠

2. Name your favourite blogger (any genre).

Whoever gives me compliments is my fave.

3. If you have to pick a place to settle down forever, where would it be and why?

I’d like to be, under the sea, in an octopus’s garden, in the shade… 🐙

4. What is one silly moment you’ve had that you’d like to share?

I went to CVS yesterday for eyedrops and saw they were having a greeting card sale. I got so excited by the cute cards I forgot my vow to quit buying cards because they’re a waste and I picked out three. Then I forgot to notice if the cashier gave me the third one for free like the sale said. This morning I checked my receipt and of course she charged me for all of them.

5. What is your favourite trait about yourself?

I’m so good at sticking to resolutions. 😜

6. What is your favourite time of day?

Lunch!

7. Tell us your favourite food/cuisine.

Seafood with pasta. I guess that’s Italian.

8. Name three destinations you would like to visit once in your lifetime.

Yellowstone, Taos, Boston. 🚊

9. If you could change something in the world, what would it be?

Get rid of parasites. So gross.

10. What are you most passionate about?

Writing.

11. What is so special about your blog?

It reflects my creativity and my life; it’s not a regurgitation of headlines or clichés. I try to offer fresh and interesting content to keep readers amused. I hope I succeed, at least sometimes.

And… that’s all she wrote! 🙃

Thursday Inspiration 12

Welcome to Thursday Inspiration! This is my weekly prompt post and hopefully it will inspire you to write something creative, perhaps a poem or a piece of flash fiction. If you’d like to share your writing with the community, please indulge me and tag your post with #p0eticlicense and/or #lightm0tifs, and of course link back if you wish. I will try to visit everyone who participates. 🙂

This week’s theme is garden and the picture is below. Here is the song snippet from “Octopus’s Garden,” written by Richard Starkey in 1969:

I‘d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’ garden in the shade
He’d let us in, knows where we’ve been
In his octopus’ garden in the shade

Photo found on Pixabay

In Other Words, voices…

Loud voices, soft voices, voices all a-buzz…

Sweet voices, sad voices, voices that I love…

Voices singing, yelling, cursing, praising,

Barking, humming, meowing, blazing…

WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP PLEASE SO I CAN WRITE IN PEACE!?!?!

FPQ31: Highlight

Fandango provocatively asks…

“What do consider to be the highlight of your life so far? Do you think it’s something that you might be able to exceed in the future?”

At the risk of sounding sappy, I’m gonna say the highlight of my life has been raising two great daughters. Now, to be clear, I’m not saying the highlight is “being a mom.” In all honesty, there was a lot about being a mom, especially to babies, that annoyed me. I don’t like noise or mess, and I don’t have a huge amount of patience. I’m not one of those women who gets all goopy over every baby and their silly antics (though my granddaughter is the cutest, just saying).

No. What I’m saying is I hung in there and did all the right things for them as best I could, despite being sometimes annoyed and imperfect… like my other post says, I fought for them because I loved them more than anything. I struggled to be better for them and to make sure I gave them all I could to be the best they could be. And they are wonderful people, if I do say so myself. They’re smart and resourceful and kind and loving. They’ve both chosen great guys for husbands too.

I’m so proud of both of them! And I do take some credit for how they turned out, though they worked pretty damn hard themselves.

Could I exceed this achievement of raising two sweet little girls into wonderful adults by… what? Writing a best-selling book? Meeting some man to love this late in the game? Solving some pesky riddle? I can’t even imagine. I’d have to say no.

One-Liner Wednesday: Struggle

I love Mark Manson. I think I’m finally going to treat myself to his first book, and probably his new one as well. I went through a period of not liking him so much when he became ridiculously popular, since I had discovered him before that and liked “knowing” this secret, niche, edgy writer, but whatever. Can’t hide a light under a bushel, or something. (What the hell is a bushel?)

Regarding the main point, I’ve only really consistently loved and fought for one thing in my life: my children.

Can’t say I’ve really struggled for anything else. I just let things go when they’re hard. It’s my way.

~*~

One-Liner Wednesday

Espresso Cupcakes

Shout-out to Jim, for letting me know about a new (to me) series of prompts from a fun and interesting looking blog. Thanks Jim!

If I have ever tasted an espresso cupcake, it has not been recorded in a blog, at least not one with archives.

Could one of these be espresso?

That second one looks a bit suspicious. But I just don’t know. I think they were bought and nommed up in Berkeley, so they might have been any weird thing.

I would definitely try an espresso cupcake, especially with vanilla buttercream frosting. Mmm! I love coffee flavors. Love coffee ice cream, with hot fudge or chocolate syrup or just plain. I used to pour Baileys over it, but I’ve given up alcohol. God, that was good!

Coffee cake isn’t coffee-flavored though. Isn’t that confusing? You’re just supposed to eat it with coffee (or tea). I used to love Starbucks coffee cake, before they removed half the crumbs to make it “healthier.” Pro tip: it’s still not healthy, but now it’s not yummy either.

Back to cupcakes. Sprinkles has a Cuban Coffee cupcake, available Wednesday and Sunday. That sounds pretty darn close to espresso and I may just have to try it now.

For science! 😀

Money Honey 🍯

Since none of today’s prompts have woken my creative beasts, instead I’m going to fall back on an old classic: the bitch and moan.

Today’s rant is about money. Now, I get that just because people ask for some doesn’t obligate me to give. My feelings are my own issue to deal with. If I feel guilty because I can’t donate to the animal shelter or the Alzheimer’s organization as I would like to, well, that’s my problem. They don’t have to quit sending me stuff.

People have the right to advertise and market. I do, however badly. Occasionally I say hey buy my books, and no one does, so like whatever. But at least I’m offering a product. I don’t say hey send me some money because I exist. See, that’s what I have a problem with.

I really resent being asked for money just because someone is there and I’m here. I have a blog, which I’ve paid for by the way, not that I have to, but I wanted to get rid of the ads, so if you read it in a browser, I’ve made it a nicer experience for you. Some people actually seem to enjoy reading my blog, yayyy! And I enjoy other blogs. Then… I’m asked for a donation? Wtf why? How about you give me one? That seems as fair as me flinging money out at some other blog for no reason other than it exists too.

I’m not a cheapskate. I actually overtip in most cases. But that’s because someone has provided a service. When someone comes up to me on the street or online and asks me for money for nothing, I feel like saying wait can I have some because my rent just went up. I mean, really. I work all the time, and this crap does make me mad.

If you don’t want to write for free on the internet, don’t! Very simple. Package up your beautiful precious words in a book and offer them for sale instead. Just quit begging for donations. It’s gross. If I have extra money to donate sometime, it’s going to real charities as I mentioned above, not to bloggers.

I know they’ll keep asking. But grrrr I am having a problem staying my usual calm and serene self about it. 😡🔥💥