I'm not sure yet, but I think our next prompt is going to be about stories. I don't want to just open and close subjects like some crazy round of speed dating. So I think that subjects should interconnect enough so that a common thread can be sewn throughout them, yet remain unoque enough so that someone can still contribute without needing to nestle their idea within some overarching theme.

C has sent in their response to this prompt: "Can you live a fulfilling life without being "in love"? What does that even mean? And is love something we have any control over?" I found this to be a pretty troubling question because love is my favorite thing in the world. The things I love the people I love and being in love are the things that keep me going in life.

Here is Emily's response to the prompt: "Can you live a fulfilling life without being "in love"? What does that even mean? And is love something we have any control over?" I am writing this while my cat Yennefer is lying sleepily next to me in bed. Her eyes squint at me as she purrs under my touch. For those of you who know cats, this is perhaps one of their ways of showing they love you (well, at least as far as feline affection goes.) This tiny being, so trusting of this human who is much larger and heavier than her, and without whose care she wouldn't thrive.

Here is my response to the prompt: "Can you live a fulfilling life without being "in love"? What does that even mean? And is love something we have any control over?" Yes. Love is complex, so I think that I should narrow it down a tad. People tend to separate love into categories. Filial love, platonic love (friendship), romantic love, idealized love, (Love of ideas, of gods) and so on.

Prompt runs until 22nd March 2026 We talk about love constantly. In songs, in films, in the advice we give each other at kitchen tables and over text messages at midnight. And yet, for all the words we pour into it, love remains stubbornly hard to pin down. This week's prompt asks you to sit with three questions that are simpler to say than they are to answer:

Here are some of my favorite cover songs. 🙂 Any suggestions? "One Headlight" John Craigie"Breed" Otep"Los Angeles is Burning" Tim Timebomb"Down by the Water" Ego Likeness"Boys of Summer" Daddy Issues"China in my Hand" Gunship"Powderfinger" Cowboy Junkies"Beat It" Fall Out Boy"Sorrow" Bullitt"Eleanor Rigby" Gunship"Closer" Transient (Sister Issa mix)"Scarecrow" Meg Lee Chin…

Here is C's response to the latest prompt: "Can you truly understand someone whose suffering you've never experienced, or is empathy always a kind of fiction? Besides the fact that I don't think you can ever truly understand someone else, I don't think shared experience is necessary for the empathy you feel towards someone. No matter how many similar experiences you have, how much time you spend together, how many deep conversations you have, you can never truly get inside someone's brain.

Here is Emily's response to the latest prompt: "Can you truly understand someone whose suffering you've never experienced, or is empathy always a kind of fiction?" Empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another" and it's worth distinguishing this from sympathy, which is simply feeling pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune. The key word in empathy is understand: to imagine yourself in someone else's place, to feel what they feel, to be there with them in that moment.

Hello all, here is my response to the 2nd prompt. "Can you truly understand someone whose suffering you've never experienced, or is empathy always a kind of fiction?" I don't know if there is a definite link between the experiences you have and how much empathy you feel for others. I know that for me, as time has passed my level of empathy has grown a great deal.

Hello all, here is the next writing prompt for you all. I shall close entries on March 15th. "Can you truly understand someone whose suffering you've never experienced, or is empathy always a kind of fiction?" You can email your responses to [email protected] and I shall publish them.

My response to the prompt for this week: "What value do you have that sometimes causes you problems? Has this ever led you to question whether or not you should abandon it or modify it? Why or why not?" I don't think there is a value that I have that gets me in trouble. I wish I was more patient.

Thank you to my subscriber "C" who has written in with their response to the prompt for this week: "What value do you have that sometimes causes you problems? Has this ever led you to question whether or not you should abandon it or modify it? Why or why not?" I find that I value people and relationships to a great extent.

Hello to all of you who have found their way over to this space. Whether you are first time visitors, repeat drop ins or subscribers I am honored that you would take time out of your day to read the untethered ramblings of this dispossessed prisoner. I am launching something new here that I would love to have feedback on and contributors to.

Dear American Movie Classics, (the channel.) "Under Siege 2" is not a classic American movie. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Robert Hiraeth.

I just wanted to share that the 2024 PEN America Prison Writing Awards Anthology is now avaliable on Amazon. Included is my award winning piece "Courage" which starts on page 21. Thank you to all that have supported my writing journey so far.

I have been developing a deeply intimate relationship with the music of Gunship. For a while I had veered into the gloom drenched halls of Doom Metal. There I sat, head bowed to the slow drop C fuzz of heavy electric bass, each note an inevitable step towards the void through a fog of funereal sighs. "Yes, cruel world!" I moaned, too consumed with the uselessness of tears to weep, "I know that all is sound and fury (and 26 minute long songs about Edgar Allen Poe) and in the end it means nothing, nothing at all!"

I spent Christmas day watching a marathon of Anthony Bourdain specials. An imperfect, broken hero of mine. He took his own life and the world is poorer for it. I don't judge him for his final action, any more than I would judge any one person for any one action in the vast tapestry of their lives. That's what life is, you know.

12-10-25., 9:20 at night… Missing you all already. Life may not be fair, but we aren't under any obligation to help make it that way. All of my love and friendship to the Whitties that, in every conversation and every moment shared these last few months, brought light and solidarity to me in a very dark, very cold place. Especially to Kyle, Lilli, Sophia, Sebastian and Zack.

What's your favorite cartoon? Favorite cartoon? That would have to be "Home Movies". Loren Bouchard's early project about three kids and the films they make with the help of some strange friends and their VHS camcorder. Early appearance of H Jon Benjamin who voices Coach McGuirk, a criminally irresponsible soccer coach. It took a few episodes for it to grow on me, but now there isn't a cartoon I have seen before or since that makes me feel as good as one 15 minute episode of that show. Try it, let me know what you think at Roberthiraeth.com. 🙂

I started writing about all of my friends and brothers that I've lost over the last couple of years, just from this small three unit space. The list itself is too long, and I refuse to just put names into the ether without telling the world a little about each one. Alex was the latest. Three days ago. He lived in prison most of his young life.

What's something you believe everyone should know. That your life has meaning. That it's NOT some insignificant little nothing within the vastness of an unfathomable cosmos. Value isn't assigned to things that are common. Deep and unconditional love isn't valued because it happens every day to everyone all of the time. I saw a hummingbird in the garden the other day.

faith to believethere is goodnessis enoughfor tonight.

The sun has set.Behind mountains green and black slopes crisped with silver snow.Once mighty now the blue bows down,dies,decays.From its bones the gloaming glows bruised and bloody hued. It's a miracle, but they don't notice. Wrapped 'round a fire built high for warmth.Smokey musk stings eyes alight with flames whilelaughter rides the wind and winds through pines the…