Word Prompts
51) We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”
~ from "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard
52) “Silence is exhilarating at first - as noise is - but there is a sweetness to silence outlasting exhilaration, akin to the sweetness of listening and the velvet of sleep.”
~ Edward Hoagland
53) "I want warm summer nights, to lie in a hammock, staring at the stars, telling you stories. I want to dip my toes in the water, to dangle my feet off the edge of the dock and sit leaning forward, looking at you, laughing till our stomachs hurt, that’s the summer I’ve always dreamt about."
~ Anonymous
54) "The smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us..."
~ Proust
55) "If you could only see the beast you've made of me
I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free
Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart
drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart"
~ from "Howl" by Florence + the Machine
56) “Clouds of black birds rose up wailing and screaming, like the thoughts of my heart.”
~ Mary Renault
57) "...poured thick batter from a pitcher onto a soapstone griddle. The hot cakes rose like little hassocks, and small volcanoes formed and erupted on them until they were ready to be turned. A cheerful brown, they were, with tracings of darker brown. And the kitchen was full of the good sweet smell of them.”
~ from "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
58) “Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
Be not afraid of my body.”
~ from "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
59) "Of all the things I wondered about on this land, I wondered the hardest about the seduction of certain geographies that feel like home - not by story or blood but merely by their forms and colors. How our perceptions are our only internal map of the world, how there are places that claim you and places that warn you away. How you can fall in love with the light.”
~ from "The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky" by Ellen Meloy.
60) “I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows. I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes.”
- from "Pepper" by the Butthole Surfers
61) "Dogs really are perfect soldiers. They are brave and smart; they can smell through walls, see in the dark, and eat Army rations without complaint."
~ from a blog post in The New Yorker by Susan Orleans
62) “She said she knew she was able to fly because when she came down she always had dust on her fingers from touching the light bulbs.”
~ from "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger
63) "How can we enjoy
The flavor in our mouths,
When already we're dreaming
Of the taste of the next bite?"
~ from "Now" by Jason Webley
64) "Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice."
~ from "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens
65) "The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...”
~ from "The Art of Eating" by M.F. K. Fisher
66) “They sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sounds with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth. I had never heard harmony before.”
~ from "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant
67) "Lying in bed with the radio on
Moonlight falls like rain
Soft summer nights spent thinking of you
When will I see you again
Soft and low the music moans
I can't stop thinking about you
Thinking about you"
~ from "Nights Are Forever Without You" by England Dan & John Ford Coley