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22ehope
A long young adulthood, and longer childhood is growing me into a crazy artist, and deep thinker with a young heart and an old soul.
19 Posts • 18 Followers • 7 Following
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Challenge
Quitter?
Write something about quitting something or someone. Good or bad. No rules. Have fun.
22ehope
9 reads

No Degree

So I thought a degree would raise my intelligence, spur me to greater things, open up proverbial doors in my future. I thought I could get out debt free -or nearly. Thought I would do something and be someone. Thought this would be the beginning of the rest of my life. I thought I'd thought it through.

Turns out I flunked on a life lesson before I hit the classroom; no degree can offer the degree of change I needed in my life. College doesn't teach common sense, just common core. No deep morals, just assumes itself to be morally deep. No genuine reflection, just reflecting on generalization. So, I thought again.

I thought of what my money could buy, that would be of true use. I thought how with agency and hard work, I could come up with a thing or two to do without the to-dos of college. And then, when I lost my scholarship, I thought maybe I was gypped.

No degree. No career. No time. No energy. My early twenties spent on double days of work and school. No recognition for three-fourths' completion. No one cared about my GPA. No. No. No.

I quit.

Maybe next time I'll think better.

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Challenge
Lovely
Something nice and sweet and clean. Show me something that feels like this :)
22ehope
29 reads

New

This little one is soft and sweet and smells like calm between the cries. She's plumping up and cooing sweet as all the world awaits her time.

Nothing wrong had happened yet. She's pure and innocent and safe. Her heart is growing stage by stage as mind and body change their shape. She's happy now, and sleeping sound. Her skin is soft, her face is round. The plush pink cheeks will giggle soon as eyes wide open scan the room.

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Challenge
Paradise
What are you looking forward to when you reach paradise? In 15 words.
22ehope
32 reads

Days in New Heaven

Running amok without responsibility, shoes, or splinters. Just grass and sky and and feeling high.

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Challenge
Hook Me; Part II
Write the beginnings to the next great novel. Must start with the sentence: "Once upon a time is such a cliche way to start a story, but here we are." Tag me!
22ehope
22 reads

Not the Story I Want to Tell

Once upon a time is such a cliche way to start a story, but here we are; chewing up letters and spitting them out. I'm still an amateur ink-blotter, so I can't run the machine by myself. They've only given me the crummy stories to work on, until the pen stain on my pinky is deep enough to qualify me for "Punctuation and Prowess." That's the workshop I need, only then can I start my own tale. The one that keeps me up at night with the creeps. For now, I guess I'll have to settle with telling you how I got here. You see, I never wanted to work at the talking words factory.

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Challenge
Write about a stranger that caught your eye
Please, help me fall in love with this mysterious person. Let me be caught up in the mystery of why they're here, and where they're going! Please use whatever style fits your stranger!
22ehope
21 reads

Not From Around Here

My eyes lift from the screen as he walks up to the cafe counter, twenty feet from me. I can't make out the details, and it's rude to stare. Eyes back on my work. I glance again. He is looking for a seat. Maybe when he's settled I can study the odd nuances better. Someone sets a laptop on the table next to mine. It's him.

Silver to brown tight cornrows thread from his scalp to his shoulders, half tied back in a controlled pony tail. His dark skin isn't common enough around here, and I'll be caught gazing if I'm not careful. A crystal around his neck, fastened with wire to a gem-stone rock above it doesn't shine, it just sits there softly. He's not too thin in build or personality. He has a presence, and I'm unsure what it hold.

I ask him how his day's been. This should be interesting.

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Challenge
What is your relationship with religion?
How would you describe your relationship with religion and spirituality? Any format, all beliefs welcome. Tag me and please be respectful of others :)
22ehope in Stream of Consciousness
23 reads

Slowly waking up from a dismal world into a place of peace. Ah peace. Peace is not quiet, just the result of blowing up all the mess between me and God. To get to peace, I've had to walk through all the vacancy and peril painted up and down my past. I wanted it ignored. I wanted my sins to disappear.

Nailed to a cross, and the mess still lingers? Perhaps I missed something. Ah yes, I've spent a lot of time trying to pull them off the wood and stuff them back into my life. At least God's not just one man.

First He made me. Then He threw His life between me and death. And now...

Now is the hang-up. I'm still a mess, and I shouldn't be. Should I? Well, there's one more part of God, the One that's stuck around to pull the crap off of that I've insisted on wearing. He won't strip the strife without permission though. So I have to mend this cruddy relationship with me, too!

And there's another rub. I really am not always my biggest fan. In fact, I've avoided my soul as if it's paparazzi and I've misbehaved in the spotlight. So I snuggle into a dark shadow where I think I'll die alone. Alone from myself and from God.

Then? A nightlight comes on. No one makes me leave the shadows, but the Light lingers softly, changing the length of shadows until I finally feel ready to move again. But where can I go? I feel like I've burned all that was once green and good in my life.

He offers a hand, and says He'll take me to a new land. One I haven't marred. A place I can't dream of, control, or contrive. My rap sheet of wrongs will melt as we get closer, and He'll give me something nicer to wear.

I guess I'll go. I'm so curious.

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Challenge
In 15 words, capture a recurring moment in your life.
Happy, sad, funny, mundane, frightening. Anything goes.
22ehope in Stream of Consciousness
9 reads

Books

Open paper, smell the page. Bend the binding. Here is safe. Become a Sage. Breathe. Begin.

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Challenge
Apology Poems
Write a poem in which you apologize for something. Feel free to go as deep as you like.
22ehope in Poetry & Free Verse
7 reads

Oops

So there it is

Where it should be?

I put it away

Really, I swear

Oops. I shouldn't swear

Anyways, it's nice

Just a little smudge

A tiny smear

I guess I'm still sorry

For the gum beneath your chair

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Challenge
When I close my eyes
Freestyle whatever comes to mind when you read “when I close my eyes”
22ehope in Poetry & Free Verse
6 reads

Life?

Darkness must fill.

Void cannot stay . . .

Here light can spark

Only in pureness of night

The sparks are sharp

I must leave or see

A wave tosses sand

Water wells in waves

Erasing all land

My soul cannot sustain

Lost in emotion

Held in one place . . .

Peace?

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Challenge
Anger
Describe vividly how you feel the emotion 'Anger'. Does it spread like wildfire in your body or does it start with the slow increase of your heartbeat. Does it urge you to create chaos or do you push your demon down back into its cage. I'd like to read all responses :)
22ehope in Poetry & Free Verse
41 reads

Help

My jaw screws tighter, and then I let go. My scream feels fresh and free, and the tears, oh the blessed water of my purging soul. No one around me matters in the longterm; for this moment, I see only now. The throb building in my gut sickens me until I scream. I just want them --all of them-- to know my pain. The words are sweet on my burning tongue before I can part my lips . . .

This is how it feels. And when loyalty does not forbit, this purge spills into reality.

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