But, What If It Actually Goes Well?
Sunny Side Updates with TBIN || Week 49
This week’s weekly poetry prompt set has an anxiety-theme (see the whole twitter thread below!) and the shortform theme doesn’t fall far!
I was rereading one of my random generator poems where I challenge myself to write a whole poem using random words, and the first line of this one stood out to me:
She made the executive decision…
And I thought about how adulting has brought so many executive decisions, big decisions, scary decisions into my life, as I learn to manage large sums of money (I get paid 3x a year, a third of my yearly salary — it’s a lot), decide whether housing is the right choice, whether or not to do a degree, etc.!
My biggest anxiety invoker is the question: WHAT IF GOES WRONG?
And, as I work through therapy and journalling prompts, I’m starting to hear a different automatic thought in reaction to this thought:
What if it GOES RIGHT? What if all turns out well?
And this question leads me to one of two prompts:
- What’s one thing you’ve tried out that you thought would go terrible wrong, and it turned out to be a fantastic part of your life?
- What’s something you’re hesitating to do based on anxiety, and what is the best-case scenario?
Until next week,
Lucy 🍳 EIC of The Brain is a Noodle* Podcast || Twitter || Instagram || Redbubble || Newsletter *This is factually incorrect. Please absolutely do not go out and eat brains. PS, I have a new book?????????
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This week’s shortform promptOPTION 1:What’s one thing you’ve tried out that you thought would go terrible wrong, and it turned out to be a fantastic part of your life?OPTION 2: What’s something you’re hesitating to do based on anxiety, and what is the best-case scenario?Daily Poetry Challenge Prompt Archive || Responses || Subscribe for weekly reminders!
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🍜 Piping Hot New(dle) Pieces of the Week
Challenge: *highlight* the ones you bookmarked/ read and make sure everyone gets highlighted at least once! ❤
🧠🍜 [1] To My Secret Love by Sai Kiran Ramarapu ‘To my secret love, I have something to tell you.’
🧠🍜 [2] Getting into a Flow and 9 other Quips by Ashlea Morgan ‘I really love getting into a flow. Being in a flow state while writing is one of the best feelings. I don’t know exactly where the words will take me, but they are leading me to a destination and I’m happy to go along for the ride.’
🧠🍜 [3] Let’s All Smile by Pierce McIntyre ‘They say power comes in numbers And if that’s really true’
🧠🍜 [4] Beach Life by Barb Dalton ‘sandcastles in the sand crafted by hand rudimentary or grand on the go, or planned’
🧠🍜 [5] Everything and Nothing by Barb Dalton ‘I don’t have a theme when I veer off course and write a poem instead of an essay to express and enlight I’ve written odes and sonnets and a lot of rhymed verse The other styles of poetry — for me — are a curse’
🧠🍜 [6] A Grand Life by Dennett ‘I found you pressed in the pages of a book like last summer’s rose, preserved for eternity. I found you on the screen, colder than print, but more available than a closeted sweater. I found you in my earbuds, speaking in accents that romanticized everything you read.’
🧠🍜 [7] Reading This Quote Helped Me Deal With Hate Comments by Nia Simone McLeod ‘Throughout my first year on Medium, I’ve gotten more feedback on my work than ever before. Most comments are lovely, but occasionally I get a hate comment. *insert dramatic dun dun DUH!*’
🧠🍜 [8] Limey, Lime, Make Way For Limes by Yan Huang ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What about limes? Lemon’s underrated sister or brother.’
🧠🍜 [9] To The Food That Is “Too Spicy” by Sai Kiran Ramarapu ‘I have been craving for you since I first moved here. You have been eluding me, like forever.’
🧠🍜 [10] She Is Free حرة by Nada Chehade ‘I got my first tattoo in 2020. When the artist said we were done, I winced. I thought we would both burst into flames. I mean, that’s what my mom said would happen.’
🧠🍜 [11] My Morning Pleasure by Mark Tulin ‘When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to find the newspaper at the doorstep, taking off the rubberband, unfurling its headlines and smelling the freshly printed ink’
🧠🍜 [12] About The Cake by America Zed ‘I know sometimes I’m all about the cake’
🧠🍜 [13] The Wonderful Beauty of Poetic Nuances by Karen Schwartz ‘I write the dance of poetry. As my words waltz through scenic landscapes of nature and romance, their imagery becomes the flute — her ethereal music mixes with metaphors of serenity and calm.’
🧠🍜 [14] Ideas Are Like Kneading Dough by CARMEN F MICSA ‘Words, ideas, sentences, paragraphs, and stories are like kneaded dough. They need literary yeast to grow to their full potential.’
🧠🍜 [15] cold brew coffee by Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) ‘cold brew coffee not unlike my current situation-’
🧠🍜 [16] Transcendence by Ravyne Hawke ‘I never know from moment to moment if the words will turn the canvas black or crimson, perhaps deep blue or purple or if shades of yellow and orange as bright and deep as the sun will rain down sunshine on a bleak day’
🧠🍜 [17] Anything to Last by Jeanne-Erin ‘Sandcastles in the sands of the glass; as each grain falls a bit of land is lost and plans slip through — each hour ceding’
🧠🍜 [18] Poetry as Vehicle by Rachella Angel Page ‘Poetry is a vehicle: to reflect on lessons learned and experiences.’
🧠🍜 [19] Iron Man by Michael Hollifield ‘His dad was wealthy Weapons manufacturer Has untimely death’
🧠🍜 [20] I Can’t Stop Using My Noodle by Karen Schwartz ‘My body is a plate of spaghetti and meatballs — its belly a circular mass of fat and grizzle, occupying space in a stature that could be called anything but stringy.’
🧠🍜 [21] The unplanned plan by Las siete y más ‘I always thought I would be the one to leave this city behind, that my adventurous personality wouldn’t wait for the precise time.’
🧠🍜 [22] Beautiful and Unsteady by Abbey Streett ‘Our walk through life living for the next thing to tear us down to get back up again’
🧠🍜 [23] A Poem of Old Favors by KSHernandez ‘Will your fragrance be as sweet as decaying honeysuckle — the living plucked for pleasure’
🧠🍜 [24] The Path by Mihai Brinas ‘from all the places i could have searched for you i am here caught in a whirlwind’
🧠🍜 [25] Pandas by Dazzling Shene ‘A tiny piece about a cutie animal that you should click in to read! Here’s an emoji sneakpeek: 🐼🐼’
🧠🍜 [26] Five Pics & Five Lines — Let’s Hunt Down Another City! by Zsófia Sáfár ‘A series of visual journeys too short to quote! Here’s an emoji preview: ⏱💘✈’
🧠🍜 [27] Oooooooh, She’s a Little Runaway… by Zsófia Sáfár ‘Speed run, ice cold bath, getting lost in nature, enjoying silence, making someone smile, deep conversations and meditating are some well-proven ways that shake me up and declutter the chaos in my head.’
🧠🍜 [28] Promise Me by Rachella Angel Page ‘We lay on the grass on a cool September evening watching the sunset: my head on your chest, your arm instinctively wrapped around me.’
🧠🍜 [29] Monica by Luke DeLalio ‘Monica, you make ninety just another number ‘
🧠🍜 [30] The Runny Sun Is All I See by Betsy Denson ‘Sometimes you just need the language to really see something For instance, in a book I read the writer called the rising sun a runny egg’
🧠🍜 [31] The Hero’s Badge of Honor by Obinna Uruakpa ‘Those who swear by you, those who root for you want to watch you come close to dying and survive again.’
🧠🍜 [32] The Time I could Touch the Sun! by Niru ‘I remember that first sunrise Gazing as the dark still sky Shimmered and transformed With a beauty that defied!’
🧠🍜 [33] Memories With Strangers by Mihai Brinas ‘I don’t know why there are only strangers left for me. But, of course, I know why I’m writing about these strangers.’
🧠🍜 [34] The Man Becoming by Greg Proffit ‘The longboard keeping vigil by the front door’
🧠🍜 [35] Till We Meet Again by Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles ‘Goodbyes can be tough Creating painful spaces Filled with memories’
🧠🍜 [36] I Can Do Nothing, Nothing at All by Sharing Randomly ‘Can you do something? Not in this case’
🔊 Voices to Amplify
We don’t have to leave it to the algorithm to suggest our favourite pieces! Here are some of my archived faves!
Thank you to Shreya Badonia, Allison Gaines, Jupiter Grant, Jennie Young, Samedra Carter, and Thalia Dunn for writing and sharing these pieces! ❤
🧠🍜 Thank you to the Noodle Team!
challenge: pick 3 writers you haven’t met yet and get acquainted with their pieces!
New writers: Misty Rae | Ravyne Hawke | Sai Kiran Ramarapu | Lola Sense | Glad Doggett | Dominick Bernard Francois | Colm Clark | Damilola Abiola
Penelope Mayfield | Pierce McIntyre | Abbey Streett | Kathy Jacobs | Mihai Brinas | Margie Willis | Jeanne-Erin | Troy B. Jordan | Zsófia Sáfár | Hal H. Harris | Greg Proffit | Rebecca Herz | Winston | Natasha Kurien | K S Fielding | Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles | Cori Holmes | Jee Young Park | Caroline de Braganza | Kate Lynch | Assumpta Nalubowa | Lisa Gerard Braun | Nes Laidler | Reanna Szeszol | The Positive Journal | Medomfo Owusu | Sh*t Happens — Lost Girl Travel | Obinna Uruakpa | Sean Peck | Susan Alison | Kevin Alexander | Sharing Randomly | Brenda Covarrubias | Jimmy Misner Jr. | Stevie Wright | Disha Choksi | Roselyn Violet | Dazzling Shene | Jennifer Leth | John Gobins | Karen Falcon | America Zed | CARMEN F MICSA | Karen Schwartz | MIGHTY MISCELLANY | Ajah Hales | Gisel La Fleur | Roselyn Violet | Marcus Chan | Jennifer Dunne | Cameron Sidhe | Earl Grey Sea | Rakshita Upadhyay | O.M. Fernandes | Beth Nintzel | Barbara Dalton | George Cloake | Nhi Diep | Tarun Gupta | HerPrivateLife | Sohrab Khandelwal | Nerissa Talique | Gracia Kleijnen | Betsy Denson | KSHernandez | Luke DeLalio | Rachella Angel Page | Teressa P. | VV Valentine | Bhavya Mehta | Suntonu Bhadra | Noah Levy | Suzy Hazelwood | Ashlea Morgan | LS | Jessie Waddell | Dave Logan | Candy Marie | Himanshi B | Zihan | Elle How | K.S. | Sherry McGuinn | Diana Dee | Rambling Rose | Doran Lamb | Avi Kotzer | A.M. Radulescu | Laurie Perez | Paul Mansfield | B.R. Shenoy | Nada Chehade| Coco Joan | Bingz Huang | Shreya Badonia | Kimberly Carter | Las siete y más | Warren Brown | Trista Signe Ainswort | Kyomi O’Connor | Kay Bee | MaggieLaFae | Alex Godley | Haider Jamal | Josie Elbiry | Anthony Jackson | Hannah M. Moore | Michael Hollifield | Yana Bostongirl | TC Hails | Orla Kenny | Samedra Carter | Tatum Hamernik | Thalia Dunn | Nia Simone McLeod | Josie Elbiry | Keegan Roembke | Noorain Hassan, BMS | Humaira Iqbal | Zachary Burg | Bob Pepe | Will Hull | Jason | Courtenay S. Gray | Sahil Patel | Meenal Gupta | Amy Lee Kite | Evan Wildstein | Hilda Carroll | Chloe Hill | Paola Perez | Matt Ray | Wolfie Bain | Dena Ogden | Tasneem Kagalwalla | Yan Huang | Tree Langdon | Stuart Englander | Jennifer McDougall | Aaron Kemp | Rachel Ramkaran (she/her) | LS | Lori Welch Brown | Nicole Jiang | Crystalclearcandace | Em Unravelling | Jupiter Grant | Elle Beau ❇︎ | Suman Sandhu | Adam Deitsch | Mia Z. Edwards | David Majister | JF | Zach Neuman | Chris Mooney-Singh | Toya Qualls-Barnette | Karen Lappa Haas | Alan Henley | Michelle Bonfils | Zach Klebaner | Anna | Deepshikha Bhagat | Carlos Garbiras | Katrina Bos | Lisa Bolin | Sohaib Roomi | The Dozen | Malik Bellamy | Olivia Th | Shaista Malik | Emily Wilcox | Brajendra | Eva Rotolo | Bhavna Narula | Shannon Hugman | Ryan DeJonghe | Ryan DeJonghe | Dennett | Swagat Choudhury | Vivian | Mark Tulin | Arslan Mirza | Amber Carlson | Urfa | Whatsinanaim | Amy Pierovich, Ed.D. | Carolyn Riker | Tally | Shivangi Patel | Giulia | ScienceDuuude | Rachael Ann Sand | Divina Grey | Sarah Paris | DISHA GARG | Jen Kleinknecht | janny’s heart | Penofgold | Blank Voice | Kele Mogotsi | Jessie London | Indubala Kachhawa | Radhika Ghose | Mil H. | Zeno Faber | Maziar Ghaderi | Julia Appa | Campbell Christensen | Allison Gaines | Lori Lamothe | Tima Loku | Kim McKinney | Baye Amina | Tom Fenske | Johannes Mudi | Kasun Ranasinghe | Just a Slytherin hissing | Dr. Fatima Imam | Ntathu Allen | Somsubhra Banerjee | Veronica Georgieva | Life is Amazing with Books and Writers | Dandy Lioness 🌻 | Mindsmatter | Michael Ranjitsingh | Anjali Samaraweera | Krupesh Raikar | Rusty Alderson | Dr. Preeti Singh | Punch Drunk Cola | Melissa Speed | Ntathu Allen | Denise G | Carolyn Hastings | Tej | Vijini Mallawaarachchi | Amy Marley | Jac Gautreau | Erivaldo Ricardo | Roz Warren | Melissa Bee | Pretheesh Presannan | Daniel A. Teo | Anuradha Wickramarachchi | Niru | Priyanka Mane | Em Hoccane | Synthia S. | Alexandra Forsyth | R. Rangan PhD | Jacobo the First | Connie Song | Fathiyah Zb | Not quite Steve Fisher | Amna Asif | Aimée Gramblin | A Fresh Pot of Coffee | Rebecca Stevens A. | Imad | James G Brennan | Mary Keating | Jay Avery | h.a wadi | Pablo Pereyra | Isaac | jenine bsharah baines | Rochelle Silva | Jade-Ceres Violet D. Munoz | Ruchi Thalwal | Clare Almand | Dana Sanford | Naomi Leilani Acosta | Dr. Jackie Greenwood | Fathiyah Zb |
Ps, if any of these links are outdated, please leave a note to let me know!