Be Inspired - A writing challenge on Facebook

And so there I was, online and with loads of time in my hands, as usual. I was on Facebook, idly watching friends' statuses popping out and and scrolling down, clicking "likes", watching this, reading that...as usual. I was bored. AS USUAL. It was bound to be like any of my first 300 Facebooking or so days in the outgoing year. Until...

Hubber Shalini Kagal, the good friend that she is, came to my rescue. She had some bright idea up her sleeve that should reacquaint me with the concept of busy. I think I must have spelled the word boredom on my wall or something. Anyway, she suggested that I start some sort of a writing challenge that I did here on HubPages in the distant past. She said, like I did before, to come up with PhotoShop-ped images and ask friends to write something, anything - poetry, fiction, whatever - based on any of the images that I would be creating and posting. It proved to be a success back in the day here, and if it should prevent me from pulling out my hair...why not?

I came up with 20 images, hurriedly, and the writing challenge was to be a competition. The rules are simple - write anything, use a pseudonym to avoid partiality when voting for the winner comes, there is no limit to the number of entries a participant can submit and, most importantly, Pulitzer-acknowledged writing credentials are not required. So far, there are 25 submissions and they range from (mostly) poetry to poetic prose to short stories. And, one friend is actually in the process of writing a song.

Below are some examples (excerpts only) of my friends' wonderful writing and my (ahem) beautiful images. And oh , I called the challenge "be inspired" by the way.

Desert Rooms (by Auvergne)

Standing air branches through

the desert room,

As Vultures gather nearby soon;

Cirrus vapor snares

the spoken art -

• For the same image, this poem:

Agony (by Lily)

As I sit beneath

the hanging doom

on wood way past its day

I search for hint of stars

or peek of moon

oh only the sun away

The image above also inspired the short The Devil's Omen by Tom Cornett which he has published here on HubPages.

Scourging of a Woman's Love No More! (by Auvergne)

Dost thou not put thy hand of affliction upon me O God?

For I feared not in my arrogance thy great reprisal,

Not a fear of God at all, but through my contemptuous vanity

Scourged thy woman's love thou gave to me...

• For the same image

My Best Friend's Wedding Redux (by MV)

You looked radiant in your

Vera Wang, strapless.

Your alabaster shoulders

showing like new moons

in Spring.

Ahh your lips rivaled

the reddest roses

in your bouquet

I shouldn't have

worn my black Chanel...

Parable (by Lily)

Said the caterpillar, “oh bird of flight

your exquisite colors

my many eyes can partly see

my one heart only can dream you

your wings flapping

promise flights and landings

Total Recall in the Key of F (by Jon Snow)

Today I stumbled and fell headlong into a pocket in my mind

A place I had forgotten even promising to forget

And found it full to brimming with the music of you.

Of us.

• For the same image

  
  
  

I Turned Off the Radio When Roberta Came On (by Onomatopoeia)

Johnny wanted to

play kickball and I

told him to get lost

He pulled my hair and

ran to his bicycle

The flower you brought

me fell to the floor.

I remember wishing, too

that they'd play

Roberta Flack next

you killed me softly

the first time ever

i saw your face

The White Queen's Gambit (by BadHubbit)

It’s in her eyes, the passion for a win

She wonders, should she play the Italian game?

The Ponziani opening, will it work?

Within her rages wild the battle flame.

Distance (by Dark Knight)

I will go forth, one alone

In the barren, nameless unknown

In places secret as forest

For no grief of loss so heavy so true

I will find the enemy in his nest

Where they have taken you.

• For the same image

  
  
  

Home (by LO)

Together we rise as a single beat

From beneath the devastation and death.

Together as one in the love we built

Never to break like castle of this hill.

I am overwhelmed by the success of the challenge and much more so by the talent of my Facebook friends who graciously allowed themselves to uh be inspired by the images I created. So to them, my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation. May their writing prosper and touch more hearts. As for determining the winner, well, I've had a change of heart for I now think it's no longer neccessary especially when I consider that the thrust of the challenge was, is, to inspire and not to out-wordsmith the next writer. Not to mention the mind-boggling difficulty it should and would entail for the voters should there be a poll.

Aside from enjoying the pleasure of creating the images, I've realized a several things in the course of the challenge (it is still ongoing by the way): That one and the same image can evoke different emotions for different people; that people who can put those emotions, whatever they may be, into writing are truly blessed with the gift to inspire and entertain others; that to share that gift freely is grace.

The great Ernest Hemingway could have never been more, to put it bluntly, correct when he said "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Indeed. But then again, a spark of inspiration would be most helpful in jumpstarting the bleeding. A bleeding of the most glorious kind.