Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Compromise


“Compromise is a stalling between two fools.” 

"Politics and governing demand compromise.” 

“The body can endure compromise and the mind can be seduced by it. Only the heart protests. The heart. Carbon-based primitive in a silicon world. ” 


“I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.” 
― Ayn Rand

“Instead of either/or, I discovered a whole world of and.” 

“Disagreement is part of being a person who has choices. One of those choices is to respect others and engage in intelligent conversation about differences of opinion without becoming enemies, eventually allowing us to move forward to compromise.” 


***



Midweek Motif ~ Compromise


Who can hold out the longest? and why?  
What determines whether 
a compromise feels 
right or wrong?

Your Challenge: Write a new narrative poem about a situation in which participants reach(ed) compromise.  

(Can you include dialogue?)

***

Related Poem Content Details

Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table 
Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step, 
She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage 
To meet him in the doorway with the news 
And put him on his guard. ‘Silas is back.’
She pushed him outward with her through the door 
And shut it after her. ‘Be kind,’ she said. 
She took the market things from Warren’s arms 
And set them on the porch, then drew him down 
To sit beside her on the wooden steps. 

‘When was I ever anything but kind to him? 
But I’ll not have the fellow back,’ he said. 
‘I told him so last haying, didn’t I? 
If he left then, I said, that ended it. 
What good is he? Who else will harbor him 
At his age for the little he can do? 
What help he is there’s no depending on. 
Off he goes always when I need him most. 
He thinks he ought to earn a little pay, 
Enough at least to buy tobacco with, 
So he won’t have to beg and be beholden.
“All right,” I say, “I can’t afford to pay 
Any fixed wages, though I wish I could.”
“Someone else can.” “Then someone else will have to.”
I shouldn’t mind his bettering himself 
If that was what it was. You can be certain, 
When he begins like that, there’s someone at him 
Trying to coax him off with pocket-money,— 
In haying time, when any help is scarce. 
In winter he comes back to us. I’m done.’ 

‘Sh! not so loud: he’ll hear you,’ Mary said. 
. . . . 
Read the rest HERE.
Short Speech to My Friends

Related Poem Content Details

A political art, let it be
tenderness, low strings the fingers
touch, or the width of autumn
climbing wider avenues, among the virtue
and dignity of knowing what city
you’re in, who to talk to, what clothes
—even what buttons—to wear. I address
                                                                        / the society
                                                                        the image, of
                                                                        common utopia.

                                                                        / The perversity
                                                                        of separation, isolation,
after so many years of trying to enter their kingdoms,
now they suffer in tears, these others, saxophones whining
through the wooden doors of their less than gracious homes.
The poor have become our creators. The black. The thoroughly
ignorant.
                  Let the combination of morality
and inhumanity
begin.
. . . . 
Read the rest HERE.







Please share your new poem with Mr. Linky below and visit others 
in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Sumana's Motif will be ~ Absence)


27 comments:

  1. Hey Poets! I'm here. I'm trying to fix the end of a poem that is eluding me. Not the poem, the end, that is. I'll be around soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok. It's sort of done, though it may be an essay instead of a poem--or an idea for a poem that still needs dialogue and images to grow up. Hmmm.

      Delete
  2. Thank you for another pantry - and i apologise for what is probably a stark poem - i think it was one that wrote itself..

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    Replies
    1. I think you have got to stop apologizing. It makes me happy when a prompt here gets you going . . .

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  3. Hey everyone,

    Hope you're having an amazing day so far :D sharing my poem "faire des compromis" its Eid ul Fitr here :D

    Thank you for the wonderful prompt, Susan :D

    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  4. Thanks for the GREAT reading so far. I now have a date with a Philadelphia court about a parking ticket ($55) and tow ($175). Wish me luck. I'll be back richer or poorer.

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    Replies
    1. I entered another appeal. This one had a man read the ticket to me and say I had to pay. Maybe the next one will feel more like an appeal.

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  5. Thanks for the wonderful prompt, Susan. And wish you good luck :)

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    Replies
    1. There was no compromise. Funny, now I could write a poem about that.

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  6. Ouch! Those parking tickets hurt. I remember getting many in New York. Hope it gets reduced. Good luck.
    My poem is small and simple ( a lot like me). But my muse has been dormant. Still I've been away a while and wanted to join in.

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    Replies
    1. No such luck with the parking ticket, but I am appealing again. Today's poem is a great way to welcome your muse again.

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  7. I was so excited about the prompt I wrote mine last week and linked up today! Lol! I wrote about a different type of compromise that we have to make in these times every day.

    I have not been able to read much lately and I am so sorry! Life got in the way but I will be catching up. It makes me feel bad when I don't keep up. I hope this finds everyone good.

    I've been trying to catch a feral kitten in the parking lot next to ours and not sure I can do it. I got it in my hands once, but it scratched me and went nuts so I had to let go. Now it's very scared. It's black, tiny, all by itself and may have a bad eye. I want to keep it but it's so wild. Been trying to rent a kitten trap but so far not even the Human Society is helping. I don't know how such a small kitten got there by itself but I must help it. Wish me luck!

    I wanted to drop a link for Sherry and Rosemary (and anyone else who is interested) about sleep. On my interview they asked how I learned not to be an insomniac and I promised to leave the link after I wrote my post. Here it is: https://bikewithbekkie.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/sleep-101/ Have a great rest of the week.

    Hugs! Bekkie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Bekkie, and good luck with the kitten. I wonder, if you held some kibble in your hands and just sat still if it might venture near.........

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    2. I see why you were excited. It's like blogging. How many of these pets do I know in person? Zero. Here is a wonderful gathering. What if we could do it in person? Would we?

      Delete
  8. Hi kids, some good reading in here this morning. I am working on something, but have to go out for a bit....will be back.

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    Replies
    1. Looking forward to seeing you later Sherry.

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  9. I had to join in this... been a long while since I wrote for a Midweek Motif....

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  10. Susan, I know, I have twisted your prompt again, but, there's no compromise, to the subject matter that I have written about.

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    Replies
    1. I don't find this twisted at all. It's right on the theme. Some compromise is just plain wrong.

      Delete
  11. Compromise a good tug and pull of the "human condition"

    ReplyDelete

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