That last post wasn't enough for one day, so I'm adding a bookshelf, too.

Image courtesy Korianne Speaks

I just found out about another really interesting prompt site called Poetry Tow Truck from my poetry pal, Pamela.

(Like the alliteration?)

Anyway, this site, hosted by Donna Vorreyer, provides some truly esoteric writing ideas on Saturdays.  Today, the exercise was to look at a bookshelf, make a list of 6 or 7 books on that shelf - and then write a draft of a poem using the titles in the list.

I wrote my 'draft' in free verse, which is unusual for me since I normally write in (mostly) rhymed poetic form, but I did that way because it was the only way I could figure out how to make it all work.

An Investment in Fine Art

Ogden [g]nashed his teeth.

He stood and glared

at the large,

somber-toned oil painting

which was hanging

on the south wall

in the old, silent drawing room.

The sisters reluctantly

followed him

into the drawing room

in a nervous huddle.

They too stopped

and stared at the painting -

which Betsy, 

the youngest sister,

had just acquired.

It was simply titled,

‘The Riverside.’

“Shakespeare himself

could have written

a perfect sonnet

about such a masterpiece,”

said Betsy,

in an attempt to explain

her reasons for purchasing

that particular piece of art.

“It was a waste

of precious funds,”

snarled Ogden,

adding,

“There’s a reason Father

made me Executor.

No one in America,

much less anywhere else,

would have spent so much

on this trash!”

“Well, I –

yes I, Toto, like it!”

declared Thomasina,

the eldest sister,

whose nickname

(which, by the way, Ogden despised)

was the same 

as a certain famous

Cairn terrier.

“I like it too!”

exclaimed Midgie,

the middle sister.

“Although, to be honest,”

she continued with a sly grin,

“I would have preferred

a signed manga cel

of something like Nausicaä -

instead of some

priceless piece of

early 17^th century art...

like this.”

Midgie, Betsy and Toto

all giggled

as Ogden stormed

out of the room.

###

The books on my list were:
1.) Ogden Nash, The Life’s Work of America’s Laureate of Light Verse by Douglas M. Parker
2.) The Old Silent by Martha Grimes
3.) The Riverside Shakespeare
4.) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America
5.) Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind – Hayao Miyazaki

6.) The Sisters – The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell

7.) I, Toto – The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto by Willard Carroll