New Prompts

Date	Prompt	Contributor
January 24-30, 2010	Sunny Days	Silence Is Poetic
January 31 - February 6, 2010	Blowing the Curve	Why? What Have You Heard?
February 7-13, 2010	Single	Figments of Imagination
February 14-20, 2010	Gold	Ambrosian Ecstasy
February 21-27, 2010	Insomnia	Confessions of a Philosophy Junkie
February 28-March 6, 2010	Running	Jim's Little Photo & Poem Blog
March 7-13, 2010	Hesitation	Spaced Law
March 14-20, 2010	Murmur	Following A Rainbow
March 21-27, 2010	Aura	The Self-Love Project
March 28-April 3, 2010	Avatar	Virtual Tea House
April 4-10, 2010	Cognizance	For U . . . From Me
April 11-17, 2010	Vicarious	My Heart Up Close
April 18-24, 2010	Mask	Dreams Are My Reality
April 25-May 1, 2010	Fissures	If: La Palabra Diminuta
May 2-8, 2010	Enigma	Wild Goose Scoops Moon
May 9-15, 2010	Reign	Nickers and Ink
May 16-22, 2010	Trembling	Genre Cookshop

Be sure to drop a line to Andrée if you find any errors or if you think the dates should be rearranged. The calendar and sidebar links will be updated within a day or two. Don't forget to subscribe to the OSI Calendar below:

Click here for the XML link for any RSS reader.
Click here to subscribe in iCal or Windows Calendar.
Click here to view the calendar in HTML in a browser.

The calendar now has links to all of the contributors.
However, the links are not clickable. Google has yet to implement this capability.

♥ Thank you all so much!

Prompt 98: Indurated

Thanks to Kuyerjudd of My Heart up Close for this week's prompt, indurated, and for this wonderful poem.

Tempered Pebbles

Holding steadfast on to rusted metal
Bare knees shiv’ring in the Midwestern breeze;
The clouds as soft, as tender as petals
Sweet be the voices, still cannot appease

Sprawled across the rotting wood, do I lie,
Floating adrift on Thy fiction-less sea,
List’ning to cries, for they ne’er do but die;
Amongst the stale winds, beguiling be

The ocean taketh me through cave and mire,
Through storms and spires—indurated I stand,
Bare on the raft, holding dearly and dire
The sound of your voice in bottles of sand

Memories, they would stand the test of life,
But would only cut through me like a knife

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 97: Wings

Thanks to Sherri of Sweetest in the Gale for this week's prompt, wings. Here is her poem:

My imperfect wings
With flaws in plain sight to see
Their scars part of me

Photo Credit: here

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 96: Wanderlust

Thanks to Tammie Lee of Spirit Helpers for this week's prompt, wanderlust. Her are her image and poem.

wanderlust a call from the soul

in obvious and subtle ways
our world effects natural rhythms
yearning rises
to merge with depth
opening to roam a path where energy is clear
wanderlust honors a call from the soul
a journey to sync with personal rhythms
something deep
truly vital
let the moment
the wild touch soul

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Call for Prompts

It's time again to extend our list of prompts. Please send one suggestion to us in a comment on this post. We will update the schedule and post it so you can write as the spirit moves you. Also, we like to post a poem and image each Sunday with a link back to the poet who suggested the prompt. We need to have your work by the Friday before that posting date. Of course, if you finish it any time before it is schedule to run, we can prepare that post well in advance, too!

Acrostic Only

Here is a long-over due post about Acrostic Only, a wonderful poetry meme hosted by One Single Impression's longstanding friend and participant, Amias.

Amias says on the blog's homepage:

I love writing Acrostic; it is a true art form. To me, it’s the only style of poetry that one can make their own. It takes time and dedication, and a good knowledge of the English language to achieve success.

I love encouraging poets in their efforts, and always hope they would put more time and thoughts into their creations. Acrostic is a poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence. It’s not easy to master, but it’s not impossible.

As micro-blogging and other forms of fast and easy communication become more popular, it's nice to take the time to carefully craft words in the best works of art we can offer from week to week. It's also nice to support others in the blogosphere who value craft as much as communication.

We are grateful to Amias for her poetry as well as the encouraging, thoughtful, and often challenging comments she leaves each of us. Please visit Acrostic Only and see the good work Amias fosters.

Haiku Bones

Haiku Bones is a brand-new weekly haiku meme, with prompts changing every Sunday, created by brother and sister haiku aficionados Bruce Miller and Nancy Bea Miller The meme address is: http://haikubones.blogspot.com/ The name Haiku Bones was coined by Bruce Miller; it comes from the idea that haiku are like flexible, respiring "bones" or structure, which support the poet's ideas. Both Haiku Bones creators believe that the haiku format (three lines, of approximately 5-7-5 syllables) is an admirable platform for this creative task. Haiku Bones is a sort of drop-in haiku coffeehouse. We hope haiku poets will stop in to see what's on the weekly menu, visit their haiku friends, and join in if the prompt interests them. If you have any weekly prompt words you'd like to suggest, please send them in: haikubones@yahoo.com We hope you will enjoy this new opportunity to share the pleasures of haiku! Many thanks, Bruce Miller Nancy Bea Miller http://haikubones.blogspot.com/

Prompt 95: Junction

Thanks to Jeeves of Silence is Poetic for this week's prompt, junction. Thanks also for the poem and image:

Cocooned in the
Junction of
Vast expanse
Of your love.
And my overstretched arms.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 94: Spider Webs

Bobbie of Constant Current brings us this week's prompt, spider webs.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 93: Lighthouse

Geraldine of My Poetic Path brings us this week's prompt, lighthouse. Click here to read her poem. Thank you, Geraldine!

Photo Credit: Sandy Lawrence

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 92: Migration

Gabrielle of Wild Goose Scoops Moon brings us this week's prompt, migration.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 91: Creative

This week's prompt is creative from Mindful Mimi.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 90: Reincarnation

Thanks to Gautami Tripathy of Rooted for this week's prompt, reincarnation, and for this poem to get us started:

I am now the future-
present merged with past
scents of you nurtures
me, I am born again fast

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 89: Departed

Thanks to Loch Rob of A Small Look Inside for this week's prompt, departed. Here is his poem:

My Old Chair

There’s a room to the north
Where the snow comes in
The cracks invite the wind openly
As the windows relent to the winter
The panes long ago traveling into warmth
Allowing the room and elements to become as one
With paint chips curling and dropping together

A dusting knocks at the door, invited
Surrounding my ol’ comfortable chair
As a relic forgotten, in a move long lost
And into the grip of empty, cold abandonment.
Are the depths of this early chill
Already visible in the washed out image of winter?
As a harrow, through the fields I wander

Back to the house and bare room entered
From a recollection acquired in childhood
I step over the sill, cautiously walking in
And the moment is captured in a frozen image
Printed for all to see as a sacrifice from the shutter
As my warmth overcomes and recollects
This mid-October memory; back home

Photo source: here

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 88: Shift in Time

Thanks to Nathalie of Spaced Law for this week's prompt, shift in time. Here are her image and poem:

Hours after minutes after seconds
Every single blinking moment
A subtle shift
No more than a sleight of hands
From the clock
Stealing time from under our feet.

We turn around
And tomorrow isn't quite
That other day any more
Too busy becoming yesterday.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  


• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.


• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  


• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  


• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 87: Elusive

Thanks to Leo at Figments of Imagination for this week's prompt, elusive.

To clear mind clutter
I seek with desperation
Some time to myself
THAT ELUSIVE SOLITUDE
Some time to myself
I seek with desperation
To clear mind clutter

Photo Credit

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

OSI Is A Top 10 Literature Blog

Sandy and I got an e-mail recently that informed us that wikio.com has ranked OSI as a Top 10 Blog in Literature at their site. We were given a badge to put on the sidebar — you can see it on the right.

This is exciting for all of us who contribute and link to One Single Impression. We are proud, as all of you are proud, to be a part of this cooperative endeavor.

Please go to Top Blogs Literature at wikio.com to see what you have all accomplished!

What is Wikio?

Wikio is an information portal with a news search engine that searches press sites and blogs. With Wikio you can very easily create pages to follow the breaking news that interests you. Our info is continuously updated! Wikio is a participative service: you can publish an article directly on the site or comment on an existing item. You can also vote for an article or a group that captures your interest in order to increase its visibility on the site. Each page offers an RSS feed that allows you to subscribe to receive the information that appears there in the reader of your choice.

I have taken some time to compile a couple of simple statistics about OSI for the past year and a half we have been in existence. We are growing! It is a slow and steady growth. You can see the data here at Google docs. There are three sheets to the spreadsheet: the participation data, the chart that graphically shows our growth and the measures of central tendency.

From March 2008 to the end of December 2008 we averaged 43 poets who participated weekly.

From January 2009 to the present we are now averaging 52 poets weekly.
That is 21% increase! I guess we are all doing a lot of stuff right.

Here is a chart demonstrating our growth —

I thank everyone of you for your participation and congratulate all of you for your award!

♥ Andree

Prompt 86: Conquer

Thanks to Tea Leaves 'n' Honey, who offers this week's prompt, conquer.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 85: Talisman

Thanks to Joseph Harker of Naming Constellations for this week's prompt, talisman. Here is his poem:

Odds and Ends

We are making a religion out of Small Things,

weaving significance from yarn and whiskers and wire.

These inkstains are our sacred books, telling stories

of the first kiss, of cat's eye marbles and baby teeth.

Our pockets hold cowrie shells and birthday candles,

feathers to burn like incense for a mackerel sky.

We are finding the religion in Small Things,

the luck in a penny from the year you were born,

the mystery in a drop of mercury sitting sly on the table,

the sanctity of a dandelion, untouched and unblown.

Our amulets are rhinestones and peach pits.

Our reliquaries are hollows in the trees that gather water.

We are trading old religion for Small Things,

for they are everywhere and just as important, too.

They hold us together like a chain of paperclips,

and our prayers have dwindled into punctuation.

Thank us for the beauty in tea leaves and eyelids;

bury us in graves that have been measured in inches.

Photo used with permission © M. A. Enriquez
view the Flickr photostream at urbanwoodswalker

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.

Prompt 84: Descent

Thanks to Sue of Sunflower Roots for this week's prompt, descent. Here are her beautiful poem and photo.

Autumn=Fall=Descent

angle of sun

creeps slowly towards

the horizon,

afternoons shorten,

shadows lengthen

cross lawns,

first one leaf

then another

flutter gently,

spiraling earthward,

evening chill

comes early,

as earth

prepares

its descent

to winter.

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How to Participate in One Single Impression

• Post your poetry on your blog. This does not need to be today. You can post any time during the week.
  
• Come here and enter your link into Mr. Linky. Other participants can easily find you by clicking your name in Mr. Linky.
• Enjoy the beautiful poems of the other bloggers.
  
• There is a new Mr. Linky each week so you always have to sign up on the current one. Please do not sign your name on Mr. Linky unless you are participating in One Single Impression.
  
• Mr. Linky will remain here forever. A list of past themes is on the sidebar. You can check back at any time for information on a past theme.