Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Hosted by Denise, ruled by a single rule: To use the prompt word and keep it to six sentences in length.
The prompt word:
VALET
“Have you seen Hunga?”
The tall, thin man emerged from the seemingly permanent darkness that filled the hallway at the end of the bar, on the right-hand wall farthest, in a straight line, (one of only a few), from the entrance of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.
The Sophomore, sitting at what he hoped suggested a totally random choice of tables in the empty Café, put down his copy of ‘In and Out the Garbage Pail’ and nodded towards the double swinging doors that interrupted the rows of liquor bottles running behind the bar, “I saw him, a few minutes ago, headed towards the kitchen, probably to help Tom prep for the lunchtime crowd.”
“Where are you going?”
Holding up his left arm, draped with what appeared to be fifty eight-and-a-half by eleven sheets of paper, the Proprietor shrugged and smiled, “At four-forty-four this morning, my first thoughts did rhyme: ‘The spoken word reflects the past, it reads from a written script, the future lies in our thoughts if a desired reality we are to slip; print the flyers, tell all who might read, a poetry slam next week this Café does need’.”
“Sophomore to surprisingly old Proprietor… there is something called the internet and valet is not quite the right word, for the service I might offer; I’ll get us a stapler and join you, the better to inform those of next week’s event,” the young man with the old eyes stood and as the two men walked past the bar, called out, “Tom, Hunga, we’ll be back by noon”.
*
About clarkscottroger
Nice!
‘kay we’re enjoying your serial, if you can’t participate directly, we’re totally counting on your being to smoke unfiltered cigarettes and snap your fingers*
* or acceptable counterpart in terms of cigars to, say, Players and, rapping knuckles on the lacquered tables is an acceptable substitute
As long as I have Hūnga by my side, I am all set.
I will disappoint you though on the cigarette front; never had, never will.
Cigar is a whole different matter.
The Gatekeeper is always present.
Poetry Slam at the Café next week?!
Be there or be…
Nice one, Clark. I posted recently about this event myself… well, the words are from a mysterious Observer, but you know what I mean!
https://wp.me/pVkLb-7oH
Will you be linking it in at this week’s ‘hop?
Already linked, Clark (both of my Sixes this week!).
I’ve suggested a poll after all performers have performed 🎭 instead of judges… so everyone can have their say… what do you think?
totally
” Look up, streighten your body…they kept saying
Never have they paused to wonder why
I kept looking down.
Look up, why bowed…like a mantra their insecurity repeated
Never have they stopped and see how
Bowed was not but bent.
Look up,look up
Never have they questioned the one color of their ways
For down, bent, is the only way to see what every one throws away and forgets.
The broken shells, the scarred driftwood, the edge of the ocean
The abandoned promises, the shattered echoes of voices unheard
Residual footprints destined to oblivion.
Unless…
I don’t look up.
Never have they fathomed
By not lookin up I have seen more sky they ever will.”
(Do I get a seat?)
yes, yes you do.
(err, you might want to go read my comment over at Tom’s Six (his link is in his comment here)
Ty. But please…no judge duties for me…conscientious objector.
The cafe has just about everything – and now a poetry slam.
Why spend time in a virtual world if you can find unsuspected variety?
So, the big question I have as I scramble to present something more organized and useful than just the Flyer at the top of my Six… (big thanks to Tom for mentioning ‘further details to follow’) is should we ask everyone to incorporate ‘the setting’ into their Six. I know we have Nick onboard (both as performer and, as word has it, a frontrunner in the voting for one of the three judges) I’m assuming that, at least with freeform poetry, the need for punctuation is kinda optional… so, I imagine one could have a pretty substantial poem without exceeding the sentence limit. Of course, what I gather in my five minute education on poetry slams, the idea was to have a 2 or 3 minute length for the performer, so I suspect we won’t have the Iliad turning up.
Any suggestions, let us know.
With freeform poetry punctuation, rhyme, meter and sanity are all optional. Unless the poet is whining about something the poem doesn’t even have to make sense.
I’ll see if I can come up with something next week in addition to the end of my current story.
Cha…ching!
(see above: sense;lack of not a negative)
Sounds like quite the event!
does seems appear so (lol)
Save me a chair, ‘cos I’ll be there with poems and haikus and verses to share!
be here next Thursday I’ll try not to choke; but the rules might permit me to present my words as a joke
How exciting! Shall we call us ‘The Dead Good Poets Society?’
(I will only observer this time).
lol (my own participation in the Slam might come back to bite us with lawsuits for literary mis-representation and (since we’re dealing in literary…) rhetorical malfeasance)
Mmm. That’s a point 🧑⚖️
Oh hot damn
a poetry slam!
my pen is all a-fluster
in hopes of passing muster
but no matter what comes to pass
this event’s sure to be a gas.
there once was a blogger from…
lol
Damn! Thanks for the reminderation of the fact of styles of pomes in addition to freeform* there’s also haiku** and limerick***
*freeform poetry motto: ‘mumble and be sure to have at least two Thesaursaurin-level words‘
** haiku motto:
the evening wears on
houselights dim, the audience
whose idea was this
*** limerick motto:
‘If you’re determined to write yourself a bawdy limerick,
then we have a solution that will surely do the trick
for bawdy language to carry the day
call up your scottian friend and simply say ‘Hey!’