Welcome to the Twilight Zone, A new snippet challenge Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

I just love the old classic Twilight Zone episodes!    

To honor the clever writers and creator, Rod Serling, I am going to list out several episode titles. Your job: Create a piece using a minimum of 8 titles.
Have fun and be open to stories and prose too (you poets you)!  

Cheers!
~Cleo    

P.S. Of COURSE, I'm listing my personal favorites too!  

The Arrival
The Shelter
The Passerby
It's a Good Life
To Serve Man
Little Girl Lost
The Little People
The Gift
In His Image
Valley of the Shadow
No Time Like the Past
The New Exhibit
On Thursday We Leave For Home
A Thing About Machines
The Eye of the Beholder
The Mind and the Matter
The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
Queen of the Nile
The Masks
I am the Night - Color Me Black
Sounds and Silences
Caesar and Me
Stopover in a Quiet Town
The Encounter
Come Wander with Me


GOOD LUCK!

[Guest_Zeus²_*]

  
Just Leaving

On Thursday we leave for home,
a stopover in a quiet town
we lived in the valley of the shadows
just the two of us
Caesar and me.

One curiosity about that place
one had to worry about the encounter
always a question of the mind and the matter
there was this problem of the masks
and a thing about machines.

As usual, the passerby
who was  indebted to
the little people, whose endless
sounds and silences wailing
about the new exhibit, never ceased.

He would emerge from the shelter,
timing the arrival  just as
the monsters are due on Maple street.
Would approach the both of us…muttering..
come wander with me.

His famous line..
“I am the night- color me black”
here to serve man and all who come
with the gift I possess,
It’s a good life.

Even that little girl lost,
who thinks she is queen of the nile
sees me in the eye of the beholder
whispering, no time like the past
for us all to meet.

After all, it was.. in his image
he portrayed us all
the doppelganger...
from the other side..


“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition”.
Rod Serling

[Cleo_Serapis]

Very impressive Lar!        

I like how you wove this one together!

Cool!  
Thanks for participating!  
~Cleo

[Guest_Jox_*]

Cleo / Zeus2!

Now I understand your posting of this poem in the crit forum!

I'd never heard of Rod Serling before.

Though, donkey's years ago (1970s-80s) I think that a monochrome series of "The Twilight Zone" was screened on British tv late at night - I think I even saw a couple. Spooky electronic music?? Focused on the supernatural?? A sort of "X-Files" without the torches-in-the-dark routine every two minutes?

James.

[Guest__*]

Dear Cleo

Us Brits have never been able to take the Twilight Zone seriously because of Twiglets. These were/are a knobbly cheese-stck without sheese, like pretzel sticks, and they produced an ad :

"You are about to enter .....

The Twiglet Zone",

with various extensions. Very clever (mis-)use of the TZ appearance and starting theme.

Love
Alan

[Guest_Jox_*]

Tonight on The Twiglet Zone:

The 1970s party from Hell. Watch in horror as proceedings are invaded by massive cheese squares doing unspeakable things with pineapple chunks. See how, from nowhere, they are mercilessly skewered! Munch your way through prawns in lettuce (not scary enough?) Then add “Marie Rose” sauce; the world’s most disgusting thing that can be concocted from mayonnaise and tomato ketchup. Yes, the Invasion of The Prawn Cocktails!

Watch as piles of innocent food are incarcerated in sad-coloured “Tupperwear” boxes. Cry as the corners curl-up, resisting every attempt to make a seal.

Then! If you can stand any more - the Twiglets arrive. (Cue Vikings singling “Spam, Spam, Wonderful Spam! (Surely shome mistake - this is the 1940s isn’t it?)

This is The Twiglet Zone.

[Guest_Zeus²_*]

James,
you have the makings of a great TZ piece with your adventures into Twiglet Land. Nothing like a Tupperware party to get things going.
Larry  :snowflake:

[Guest_Jox_*]

Thanks Larry,

I can hardly contain(er) myself!

Cheers, James.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Off Course

“Prominent sounds and silences are just a game of the mind.”

That’s what I’ve been told a million times. It could even be a zillion times. Frankly, I’ve lost track now in the waning days of the mind and the matter. You see, in the days of my youth, just about everything that entered my mind mattered. Things change, but there’s still no time like the past.

My family and I took a trip to see the Queen of the Nile many moons ago. Being a scribe of many voices, we were summoned to the gift of the masks – a festival that honored those in the queen’s favor.  The encounter I shall never forget.


As we passed though the valley of the shadow, the eye of the beholder could be felt, but not seen. I shivered as we picked up our pace. “Come now, little ones, let’s not make the arrival to the kingdom of our Pharaoh a late one,” I said as I wrapped my leathery arm around my two youngest and continued to step up the pace of our journey. “What would Pharaoh’s Queen say if we were not there to accept this honor?”

I recall now the writings that were scribed on obelisks of the finest limestone coverings on the new exhibit. Our namesake had been etched in a cartouche ever present in the eye of Ra. Beneath; a hieroglyphic representation of “To Serve Man” made a remarkable statement.

What am I thinking of? I hear a voice calling me now. It calls to me with a swift and steady hand.

“Come wander with me,” over and over in my mind.

What is that? “Why do you wish us to veer off course?” I asked the silence.

“Come wander with me.”

My problem, being a student of habit and all, is that I NEVER veer off course. Until today, when I looked to the West, and in His image, I saw a light that shone so brightly, I could only oblige the voices. “I will take this path today,” I pointed and then vanished into the earth. "My journey is complete."

[Guest_Jox_*]

Jolly good show, Cleo.

Only thing is... could we please have our path back, else we'll be stuck here for eternity - and that is such a long Thyme that it would drawf Rosemarie!

Mind you... that would be sufficient herbs to go with all the items in the Twiglet Zone.

Good to see the word "zillion" making a guest appearance. It should be in every MM posting.

Toodle Pip,

James.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thank you James (the doorman enters)...  

Do you know what the exhibit is?

Which way did he go? Doooh!    

Thanks for stopping in - lavender fields await with a ZILLION scents to be tantilized with!

Cheers!
~Cleo  

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi Cleo,

No, I've no idea what the exhibit is, save what you've told us. I've never seen a complete episode of "The Twilight Zone" (I think they stopped televising them here in the early 1970s?). The spooky music and the murky monochrome picture was enough for me... I was off to do some homework. (When I say "homework" I might exagerate!)

So, what was being exhibited?

James.

[Cleo_Serapis]

His grave silly!

[Guest_Jox_*]

Grave Matter
by MB

It's a fortunate man
Who goes to his grave,
After a long life-span
And a soul fully saved.

He melds with the clay
That gave him his life
As his flesh rots away
To the sound of a fife.

His life-energy sapped
Lifted, then swiftly flown:
Taken from the mapped
To dimensions unknown.

NB: This poem remains in copyright
for well over a century (one hopes).

James.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Excellent poem MB!  

[Guest_Jox_*]

Cleo...

Maxine has asked me to convey her thanks for your kind comment.

James.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Oh GOODIE!

Today, our U.S. tv channel 'SCI-FI', is playing an all day marathon of non other - TWILIGHT ZONE!


WHIPPEEEEEEEEEE!                

[Guest_Jox_*]

Cleo,

Those programmes still exist on VT? Amazing. Here many ancient television programmes were wiped for reasons both of space (!) and re-using the silver in them. Well, have fun taping them - don’t go watching television in the daytime will you; too few hours of light as it is at this time of year. Just off to the woods for a walk before the last daylight of the year is destroyed.

Did you see the New Year firework celebrations in Sydney Harbour? Most spectacular. (Ok I did see tv - but just a brief news bulletin).

Was The Twiglet Zone really that good? I thought that Torches In The Dark was far better and I soon tired of that. (But I am a devoted Trekkie! - Original and NG only; no other spin-offs).

Have fun with the hours of VT you’ll record.

And a Happy New 2004 to you and everyone - don’t forget it’s already arrived on Earth; many of us are simply rather late to join it!

[Cleo_Serapis]

Happy New Year to you and all on MM as well. We're off to see LOTR again right now - so enjoy your day and evening!

HUGS!
Lori

[Cleo_Serapis]