Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Writing Prompts...A Blast from the Past: Memories...Democracy Spring in DC



Sometimes, when I am not doing all the 5000 things to procrastinate the actual process (...yes..with the pause and the long "o", please...), I am a writer.

Earlier in the year I even committed to a Writer's Group. We meet monthly. 12 of us. It is great fun, and our April Meeting is within days. Our "homework" assigned last month still just notes jotted in a notebook. I work best under that "Oh Shit. 6 hours until Deadline" pressure. Maybe that is MY process.

I also start each day with my favorite "Writer's One Minute Prompt".  In fact my Fiction Novel budded from one such prompt. Next year I have even applied for the take-over Admin. position. Our current Admin. has held the position for 4 years and wants to retire.
Wish me luck.

Today's writing prompt was Dance. Seems fairly innocuous doesn't it. Must have been caught in some fugue mid-morning state because the flash of a Memory rushed in so quickly...filling me so completely...I later shared it on her prompt site, but also spend a big part of the day "feeling" that moment again. I felt compelled to share it here.

So, anyway, that is why we've taken a detour from Virgil's Poetry and Tomb...and Pizza Margherita as well. Perhaps Tomorrow. I think Virgil (given the circumstances) would have totally understood and approved.

The Dance

A flashback to a tiny hole in the wall bar.
Years ago, in Danville.
It used to be called Patches.
 

It is long since gone. So is he. 
I looked for it once
when I out was chasing memories.


The place was basically a hallway with a long bar down one side

and this postage stamp sized dance floor.
Now, the space has morphed into a "yuppie" watering hole.
I can see his glowering disapproval from here.
 

Riding (well hanging on, anyway) a motorcycle together
when a storm blew in suddenly. 
We were soaked.
Best steak dinner I ever ate,

then or since.

We slow danced to Ronnie Milsap's
"Lost in the 50's, Tonight"  

Both, still slightly damp from the rain. 
Him, smelling a lot like wet leather and cigarettes.
Holding me close. Our body heat mingling.
My long hair a Medusa's tangle.

It has been oh-so-many years
but, it seems, I still have the smile
he gave me
that night...





 https://youtu.be/ycRwYLcVAs8



Funny business..memories.
Sometimes they sneak up on you and leak out of the corner of your eye.


And so proud of Cenk Uyger (front and left-center) from TYT Network. check it out...you'll never go back to MSNBC or CNN or FOX again.


The third day of Civil Disobedience and a week long sit in protest at
The Capitol...re: Getting Big Money OUT of Politics...and Restoring Democracy to The People. Growing to thousands strong. Monday there were 400 arrests. Cenk was among them. They had to be processed and moved in buses. It took 11 hours just to process and release all of them (not held overnight...just fined and released) and Cenk was back out on the line with everyone the next morning!

As he said in his post arrest video...the crowd is reaching thousands. Eventually they will be unable to arrest us all. They HAVE to listen at some point.





The crowd represents a cross section of Americans, young and old, all races, straight and gay, vets and pacifists. It has been remarkably peaceful...even the arrests. Most wearing them as a badge of honor. Saying to the world:

"I am Speaking Out"


It seems The Hippies have re-awakened! 


So onward to Virgil tomorrow!


Still Lost in the 50's, Tonight