The ultimate capitalist festival — Christmas — is not far behind us, but February 14 brings several new commercial and patriarchal opportunities…
St Valentine’s Day, once a religious observance and a simple celebration of love and affection, has also fallen prey to the ‘free market’.
V-Day encourages people to spend up big on costly flowers, chocolates and jewellery — and ultimately, to take that next big ride up the relationship escalator (to be honest, the church would encourage this too). Like to enslave yourself to someone for life? Great! It will cost you though.1 And one day, a divorce lawyer’s bill will likely fall due.2
It can make singletons feel inadequate and spur them to ‘put themselves out there’, or just make them feel lonely.
Don’t fall for it, people. Marriage is highly overrated3 (and overpriced), and a good relationship with yourself is the most wonderful thing.4
This month in your longette, try focusing on an issue of Commercialism that bothers you ––– or on anything else within this prompt post that piqued your interest or got you het up. You absolutely don’t need to reference Valentine’s Day — or any other festival.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and to publishing the results on Wordflower. Last month we had four First Nations longette submissions and all of them have been or will be published. So please do Submit your work here!5
Haven’t yet met the longette? Click here to check out the rules of this new poetic form, and some examples.
- An average Australian wedding costs around $36,000 according to https://moneysmart.gov.au/family-and-relationships/getting-married ↩︎
- Around 30% of all Australian marriages end in divorce: https://www.avokahlegal.com.au/what-percentage-of-marriages-end-in-divorce-australia/ ↩︎
- Can you tell I speak from experience? Lol. ↩︎
- For some self-love practices that won’t break the bank, see https://www.betterup.com/blog/self-love ↩︎
- Image from Pexels Free Photos. ↩︎
Discover more from Wordflower
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Wordflower 
yes, your thoughts vibe with mine; will check out the longette form a little later though the term is a little daunting; I prefer short poems —
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think of the longette as long yet short, if that helps! They’re no epic Iliad. I’ve actually enjoyed the form pushing me to keep going when I’d usually call it quits. And if you try a longette lite first, there’s less pressure to make it long long : )
LikeLiked by 1 person
collaboration is also encouraged!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too; I’m a shorty…
However, I have tried the Longette Lite (successfully) and collaborating on a Longette (full version).
Tip: pull in several poems or draft pieces together and see where it takes you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
great tip!
LikeLiked by 1 person
John would you like to try a collaboration with me on the February prompt? my co-conspirator fell through…and I have the google doc all set up ready to go!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Email me on pascale.flaubert@gmail.com if you’d like to collaborate
LikeLike
not quite ready for this but thanks anyway —
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anyone else out there who might like to collaborate on a Commercialism-themed longette with me? I’m thinking about critiquing fast fashion, fast food, advertising, the way all the Easter stuff seems to appear in the shops the very next shopping day after Christmas…so much to despise!
LikeLike
A interesting prompt. I agree V Day is to commercial and we don’t celebrate it. I don’t think marriage is overrated though. We’ve had 25 very good years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It works for some…happy for you Robbie xo
LikeLiked by 1 person