In 1828 Isidore married Miss Arabel Gumpert
So much clamor and noise was made by the by-standers
The murmuring swelled to a buzz
She had gazed at them with her heart beating in her throat
Behind her on a bright white wall was an old map
Yes, I said, I am afraid of being up high.
We entered
He was standing by the fireplace
She went up on her knees.
My lady grandmother knows all about us.
This was just the kind of thing she would have expected him to do
as the story progressed
The central cult object of Israel was a palladium called the Ark of the Covenant;
The other sects call them the History Monks.
There’s a time in infancy when they will take you in
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
My lady takes this discharge like a wise woman
Not tonight; it’s a party, remember?
Damn you.
Nobody with any sense walks onto a strip of swaying planks stretched over a twenty-foot drop
A small black-and-white television parked atop a refrigerator:
I could feel Gazarra shrug over the phone line
We’ve just been somewhere elsewhere, I told her
But she was not her sister, nor his wife
So he determined to get the better of him.
Senneth glanced up at him.
I slipped through to the audience chamber
She let me wear them once, for an hour.
People were rarely sensible about anything
And here I sat a prisoner to a pack of petty thieves on a stinking ship.
No-one is arrested
What if I take too much?
We really must be off.
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This turned out well, didn’t it?
I took the first phrase or clause of every submission, stripped out punctuation and added some back in, and then arranged things according to my fancy. Would somebody like to take this over next week?
Good one! :)
Fun to read.
It has something, very good about it. Though. Suddenly feel like talking fragments. Wonderful, dreamy. Good.
It reads like a poem or the words to a Nina Simone song.
Amazing given all the lines we put in.
In the interests of pushing my boundaries, here is my shaky hand going up for the next exercise. Gulp!
Could we make it the opening line of everyone’s favourite novel or one they have recently read and enjoyed. Perhaps I will just take the first clause like you did but want to keep my options open….
I should have asked this question first… how long did it take to come up with your Voila piece?
Sherryl —
It took me about twenty minutes total, not too bad. And thank you for taking the plunge. It’s actually a lot of fun.
Opening lines — I have my doubts about this, but I guess we could try. But it can’t be favorite novels, because then there won’t be enough contrast. YOu need a plumbing manual or a history of underwear in there for flavor. That’s why the “first book to hand” rule is important.
Also, these community stories are often really funny (this one didn’t turn out that way, but it usually does).
I just found this groovy new feature…
Rosina – thank you – I am happy to be guided by you. Maybe we make it any book as you suggest and then people can open it to any page (go randomness) and then find the sentence that begins closest to the 10th line down on the right hand page. I am happy to make it the 15th which will half be my 16th (I am in Hong Kong) and then I can finalise on the 16/17th.
Wasn’t sure how this would turn out. Pretty cool!
This came out good! It does read like a poem.
I loved this idea, but next time could you give a little more time to do it? I cannot get to my computer every day and really wanted to do this!
That’s a good idea, Nancy. Do you think starting on a Wednesday morning and ending on Thursday evening would be enough time?
I’m shocked that it makes some weird sense, in that wonderful way of poetics. I’d like to try the assembly sometime but I’d have time to do it only on the weekend, and I don’t think anyone would wait that long given it’s on Wednesdays.
I think a weekend would be good. Most people have more time then.