Phrase Prompt, Poetry, Prosery, Theme Prompt, Writing Prompts

The Threshold

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for dVerse Prosery Pub – Publication.
where our host, Melissa, has asked us to write a
144-word piece of prosery incorporating the lines
from Emily Dickinson’s poem: “Publication – is
the Auction of the Mind”. Here’s my response.

Image by Me & ChatGPT

She had written it in winter, by lamplight, in a notebook no one would ever touch. Thirty pages, perhaps more. The kind of thinking that arrives only in silence, loosed from performance, from the need to be understood.

Now the envelope sat on the side table.

Publication, she thought. What a cold word. As if the mind were an estate to be divided, a brooch displayed before collectors, a painting sold to the highest bidder. Publication is the auction of the mind. She had read that somewhere and never once forgotten it.

She picked up the envelope. She set it down again.

Outside, snow was quietly erasing the street, covering everything with its indifferent, benign white. Nothing had to be known by morning. Nothing had to leave this room. The lamp flickered once. She sat and waited.

She left it on the side table.

NAR©2026
144 Words

This is “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” by Simon & Garfunkel

Prosery: Publication

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

30 thoughts on “The Threshold”

  1. A perfectly formed story, Nancy. I love the image you create of your character writing by lamplight and contemplating sending her work to a publisher. A familiar scenario to many of us. The ending with the snow ‘quietly erasing the street, covering everything with its indifferent, benign white’ is beautiful.

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    1. Kim, I’m so glad you enjoyed the reference to the snow quietly erasing the street; I wasn’t 100% sure how to end my prosery, and when the thought came to me, it was a genuine “aha” moment. Thanks very much for your gracious comments. This was a wonderful challenge.

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  9. A very intriguing story and getting published is a mind boggle endeavor with mind field of hidden obstacles along the way, Nancy … great soundtrack from Simon and Garfunkel … sit back, relax, and enjoy

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    1. WOW! Incredible! Thank you for this remarkable and stunning video, my dear friend. Truly moving. 💙☺️🎶
      Whenever I see the names “Abbey Road Studios” or “Apple Records”, I am once again reminded of the many accomplishments and contributions of our fabulous Beatles. 🪲

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