It’s a Jungle

  • It’s a Jungle

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    It’s a Jungle

    By Marlene Cullen

    It’s a jungle out there. I’d like to peg Bumbling Unreliable Gardener, aka Bug, on a hook and let him hang until cured.

    Except, I wonder, is he at fault for my jungle of a yard? Should I have been more forceful in not allowing him to install a plethora of plants in my pursuit of a peaceful place?   

    I discovered Bug on social media. He answered my gardening questions as if he was a landscaping guru. So, I hired him. Big mistake. Huge.

    He handed me an extensive questionnaire to compose my heart’s desire in a garden. Winding paths. Check. Whimsical. Check. Calm, serene. Check, check. I envisioned a landscape of pleasant plants flowing in meandering paths. No white plants.

    What I got was spiky plants here, there, everywhere. Festucas are so overgrown they barricade the path from the sidewalk to the storage shed. I need a machete to get to the innocent outbuilding. It stands sentinel, even though the fescue threatens to obliterate it.

    The sweet-sounding lamb’s ears look like aliens landed in my yard and vomited.

    Guara, taller than skyscrapers, threaten to overtake the clothesline with white flowers. White! Didn’t I say I did not want white flowers?

    Pause. Take a breath.

    I transplanted seven Guaras. They are majestic in their new location, waving their glorious flowers like a princess atop a float in a parade.

    I successfully transplanted three festucas. I was as excited as a rabbit in a field of carrot tops. But then, the green stalks turned yellow. When I pulled on them, they came right up, as easy as pinching a wad of cotton candy from its paper cone holder. I stared at the clump in my hand. It looked like something a scarecrow could use to stuff himself or herself with. The roots had disappeared from the universe like a black hole.   

    The irrigation system has misbehaved since Bug installed it. There were leaks in several places that spurted water like they were errant fire hydrants.

    One zone completely stopped squirting water, as if we hadn’t paid our water bill.

    The sad but not neglected yard is a gardener’s nightmare. To repair the leaky irrigation tubing my husband and I had to disturb the calm bark mulch, forming it into mounds, so we could access the misbehaving parts. We plugged them and prepared to move on to the next laborious step: Removing 27 plants that are overcrowding, overproducing, and just not wanted. Sorry, not sorry, plants.

    Step One. Sharpen the machete.

    Step Two. It’s hot in the jungle. Go inside. Get a cool drink. Check email. Check Facebook because, you never know, there might be something important there.

    Step Three. It’s the middle of the afternoon. Nap time.

    Step Four. Dinner Time.

    Step Five. Plan to tame the jungle another day.

    Epilogue: Twenty plants have been re-homed. The lamb’s ears became mulch to help other plants live long and prosper.

    Freewrite inspired by the writing prompt, Metaphors and Hyberbole on The Write Spot Blog.

    Marlene Cullen grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco where she visited the library weekly, carrying home as many books as she could carry. She has always been fascinated with words and language.

    Marlene Cullen is a writing workshop facilitator and founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma. Her Jumpstart Writing Workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.  She hosts The Write Spot Blog, where memorable writing is featured on the Sparks page.

    Marlene C

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  • My Heart

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    My Heart

    By Karen Handyside Ely

    My heart is a newly uncluttered closet. Organized and cleared of discarded outfits that smothered the floor, made movement impossible, allowed no forward progress.

    The air, once static and heavy with body-image accusations, is now peaceful and fresh. Eerily quiet with a hanging row of color-coded dresses that don’t hurl recrimination and neatly stacked t-shirts, crisply folded and segregated. Controlled. Smelling faintly of the lavender sachet I’ve finally replenished on the bottom shelf… now that I can reach it.

    Favorite sweaters, unworn for ages, have been lovingly salvaged, gently removed from their hangers, and boxed for consignment shops and resale. Traitorous pants and blouses, once thought to be friends, are stuffed haphazardly into hefty bags to sit out on the sidewalk for donated pick-up.

    My heart is a freshly weeded garden, no longer raucous with errant fruit and thorny, overgrown blackberry vines.

    The vines must be cut back. They have overrun the garden. Sweet berries have been harvested, the memory of their syrupy tang still coating the back of my tongue. It is hard, punishing work, leaving bruised and bleeding hands inside scruffy gardening gloves. I love my berry bushes, but they put up a fight when I try to tame them. They take up precious space. They have run their course.

    I’m sad but content in this season of my life – rethinking, regrouping, reprioritizing. A process that is painful but cleansing. A surgical and focused attempt to remove what doesn’t serve. Saying good-by to illusions of “what was” that have piled up on the closet floor. Illusions that are now choking new growth in the garden.

    This is not a personal rebuke of friends and family, who have disappointed my idealistic expectations. Just a reshuffle of who and where and how I spend my time. I’m saying good-bye to my own hurt feelings and the painful disconnection that is muddying my water, over-running my closet, dominating my garden. I am losing my fear of letting go of what has already changed to make space and sanctity for what is to come.

    “My Heart” was inspired by the writing prompt, Metaphors and Hyberbole.

    There are some who say that Karen Handyside Ely was born with her nose firmly planted in a book. She is a life-long lover of unusual words, lilting phrases, and absurd stories.

    After a brief stint as a credit analyst in San Francisco and New York City, and a 30+year career as a mom and “professional” volunteer in Scottsdale, AZ, Karen retired to her beloved hometown of Petaluma, CA.

    She delights in difficult crossword puzzles, singing with the Petaluma Choir, and anything baked by her husband James.

    Karen has been published in “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries,” “The Write Spot: Reflections,” “The Write Spot: Possibilities,” “The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing,” and “The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.”
    The Write Spot books are available from your local bookseller and on Amazon (both print and as e-readers)

    Marlene C

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  • Metaphors and Hyperbole . . . Prompt #853

    Prompt One

    Make a list of things that surprised or astonished you or made you feel uncomfortable. Something from a long time ago or recently.

    Just a list for now.

    Prompt Two

    Using your list, make a list of emotions you felt either during what you experienced or emotions you felt today or are feeling right now.

    For example: Fear, anger, surprise, annoyance, joy, angst, acceptance

    Prompt Three

    A metaphor compares two unlike things to show a relationship without using “like” or “as.” Metaphors imply that one thing is another.

    Examples of metaphors:

    Chaos is a friend of mine. —Bob Dylan

    You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time. —Elvis Presley

    Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream. —Taylor Swift

    My heart, a church where no one prays. Lonely pews and smudged stained glass. The Forever Workshop

    Writing Prompt: Choose an emotion from your list.

    Write what happened that caused these emotions.

    Use sensory detail.

    Sight. Sound. Touch. Taste. Smell.

    Use metaphors.

    Just Write!

    Prompt Four Hyperbole

    Use hyperbole to describe an emotion. You can expand upon something you have written or use a new topic to write about.

    Hyperbole is exaggeration to the extreme.

    No one is going to judge you nor your writing. So you can exaggerate as much as you want.

    Examples of hyperbole:

    Cry me a river              

    Enough food to feed an army

    He has the memory of an elephant

    I could sleep for a week

    I died of embarrassment 

    I had to walk to the ends of the Earth to find it

    It’s a jungle out there

    It’s so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk

    Writing Prompt:

    Choose something from your list. Write what happened as if you are telling a gullible listener.

    Or:

    Expand upon one of the above hyperbole examples.

    Or:  

    Write whatever is popping up in your head.

    Idea for this prompt inspired from The Forever Workshop.

    The story of Pinocchio, as metaphor:

    Gepetto, a woodcarver, prays that a puppet he carved could become a real boy. According to Phil Romo, a “real boy” is a metaphor for being an autonomous individual, not bound to ideologies or to existing institutions. “To think for yourself . . . Don’t be bound to the strings you are born into.”

    The Blue Fairy grants life to Geppetto’s puppet. This is a metaphor for human birth, the ‘miracle of life.’

    Excerpted from “Life is a Beautiful Ride” by Phil Romo.

    Future writing: Choose something from one of your lists and Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • Customer Service

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    Customer Service

    By Su Shafer

    Mr. Wright came hobbling in today

    Leaning heavily on a cane

    He needed to pay his bill.

    His good knee has gone out

    His bad knee has been watching from the sidelines

    Still wondering about the replacement

    Promised a few years ago.

    But he had to have bi-pass surgery

    On a heart which has been hobbling along too.

    He had come straight from the dentist

    But was smiling anyway

    The droopy smile of a weary man

    “Getting old is so hard,” he said,

    Stroking the sparse fuzz on his head.

     “Is it really worth it?”

    “It is today,” I said smiling back.

    In the way someone

    Who is really glad to see you smiles.

    He nodded,

    his mouth drooping a little less.

    Su Shafer is a creative crafter, fabricating bits of writing in poetry and short stories, and other bits into characters that appear in paintings or sit on various bookshelves and coffee tables. She lives in a cottage on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, where the tea kettle is always whistling and the biscuits freshly baked. One never knows who might stop by to share a rainy afternoon. And all are welcome!

    Marlene C

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  • Fast Drafting

    Zarien Hsu Gee offers “fast drafting” as a creative process:

    Fast drafting is a way to break through creative paralysis, to see what might be possible with an idea or writing project. When you commit to writing fast without judgment, you bypass the inner critic that can slow your progress to a crawl or even prevent you from moving forward at all.

    The beauty of fast drafting lies in its imperfection. By calling it a “fast draft,” you free yourself from the expectation of perfectionism. You accept fast drafting as a necessary creative process in order to move forward with your work, and your expectations for its literary genius is low. Your goal is just to get it all down.

    The fast draft also serves as confidence booster. It reminds you that you can write this story, this novel, this memoir.

    When you write fast enough to outrun judgment, your creativity has a chance to show you what’s possible.

    Fast drafting is giving yourself permission to create freely. Speed helps you outrun your inner critic long enough so you can see what you’re capable of creating. It is an essential step towards creating something meaningful.

    Excerpted from “Outrunning the Inner Critic: In Praise of Fast Drafting,” The Brevity Blog March 13, 2025 post.

    Darien Hsu Gee is the author of five novels published by Penguin Random House that have been translated into eleven languages. Her collection of micro memoirs, Allegiance, about growing up Chinese American, won the 2012 bronze IPPY award for essays. Darien received a 2015 Hawai’i Book Publishers’ Ka Palapala Po’okela Award of Excellence for Writing the Hawai’i Memoir. Join Darien at writerish.substack.com where she offers free guided 10-minute writing sessions.

    Marlene C

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  • Our brains like order . . . Prompt #852

    ceramic bowls on brown wooden shelves
    Photo by Tony Smith on Pexels.com

    “Our brains like order,” explains Kristi Phillips, a Minnesota-based psychologist “having less stimuli around us helps promote relaxation.”

    She points out the popularity of home-decluttering Reels and TikToks, as well as TV series such as Get Organized With the Home Edit and Hot Mess House.

    “But while we enjoy the afterglow of a cleaned-out junk drawer, we still procrastinate when it comes to tackling more complex areas of clutter in our lives. When we’re trying to declutter our own spaces, we have an emotional attachment to those items,” she says.

    “Whether there are memories linked to those objects or simply the guilt of getting rid of something you spent money on, the task of mentally weighing each item can be overwhelming, with a video, you see the fast-forward of how quick it is … so it gives us that hope and positivity of, Oh, I can do that too.”   — “Why Watching Decluttering Videos Feels So Good” by Abby Alten Schwartz

    Writing Prompt

    Write about your cleaning out habits or your decluttering experience, could be your things or someone else’s things.

    OR: Write about what helps your brain to relax.

    Marlene C

  • A quirk . . . Prompt #850

    Write about a quirk you have.

    It could be something you do, or participate in, or watch.

    There may not be a logical explanation for this, except that it brings you joy or satisfaction.

    #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter

    Marlene C

  • Stories offer Solace and Hope

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    “In times of unrest, struggle, and uncertainty, people reach for the comfort of story. When the world around us may feel bleak or overwhelming, stories offer us not just an escape from our troubles and worries, but a version of life that remind us of what’s most important, what we value and what is worth striving and fighting for, and the kind of world we could create if we do.” — Tiffany Yates Martin, “How to Write Amid Chaos,” Writers Digest  July/August 2025

    #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter

    Marlene C

  • Photo prompt. An owl . . . Prompt #849

    Today’s writing prompt is a photo of an owl.

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    Here’s what happened:

    I looked out my kitchen window and saw the most majestic owl sitting on the roof of our shed. 

    She (he?) literally took my breath away.

    I took a picture through the window.

    Then I went outside to take a better look and a better photo.

    She swiveled her head and looked right at me.

    I snapped a photo.

    Then she flew away to the top of a pole.

    Poetry in flight.

    My friend Kathy, who works at a bird sanctuary, said it’s a juvenile great horned owl.

    Prompt: Photo of an owl

    Just Write!

    #iamwriting   #iamawriter   #justwrite

    Marlene C

  • Create Characters That Feel Like Real People

    Sophie Campbell hands us the key to unlock the dilemma of when to “show” and when to “tell.”

    “In creative writing, we’re often told to show, not tell. It’s practically gospel. In essence, it means show us how a character is feeling, don’t tell us.

    For example, ‘Jane felt a bubble rise in her throat and her chest heaved as she sobbed,’ is more powerful than simply, ‘Jane was sad and she cried.’

    But the truth is, the most compelling fiction does both showing and telling, and the best copywriting does too.

    The key isn’t choosing one over the other, it’s knowing when and how to use each of them to create characters that feel like real people and a voice that readers will remember.”

    Excerpted from The Forever Workshop, Use This Copywriting “Golden Rule” In Your Fiction, Poetry & Essays, Lesson 3 of “Steal From a Copywriter: Copy Techniques That Translate Into Creative Writing.”

    Just Write!

    Marlene C