6/4 Weekly creativity contest winners & new prompt

For last week’s prompt, “the ocean,” there was no way to pick a winner between two outstanding submissions: a poem and a painting. Picking a winner was a foray into the proverbial apples and oranges. So, they both win. Why not? I’m allowed to make up the rules, after all 🙂

The painting was submitted by Penny Boyd of Poppy Jane (where you can read about Penny’s submission). The painting is gouache, watercolor, and ink on wood. Penny says the piece is “still in its rough, early stages.” Well then–we can’t wait to see the final.
 

 

And a beautiful poem by regular Creative Construction commenter, writer Cathy Ann Coley, appearing here accompanied by a photograph by the author:
 

i could write an ocean on the ocean

the ocean is my solace
i grew up in a beach town
she is coming home for me

feel her salt drying on my skin in the sun
smell her in the breeze tangling my hair
waist deep
hips pulled in her rocking motion
mother my comfort

my boys play in the surf
tumble ass over tea kettle
and come up grinning
now we live near a big wave beach
just like me
can’t keep them from the water

my daughter, just born from my salinity,
will return to hers, the one who rocks the earth
and all of us
in her constant tidal embrace
shhh-shhh upon the shoreline
rock me to pleasant sleep

Nice work! Thanks to both of you. Your $10 amazon.com gift certificates are on the way.

Just to show how low the bar can really go, after the jump I add the haiku I wrote for this prompt–written in my head during the course of about 10 minutes. If that’s all the creativity you can manage right now, then that’s plenty. Just keep the embers alive.

This week’s prompt: “The crow.”
Use the prompt however you like. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by midnight on Tuesday, June 10. The winning entry receives a $10 gift certificate to amazon.com. Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly contest, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) Remember, the point here is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. For more info, read the original contest blog post.

The Ocean

The ocean is wide
and dark between us; full of
salt and jellyfish

~Miranda Hersey Helin