The Road Calls – Writing 101 Assignment 4

The Road Calls I watched the sylvan world fade away. Through my long watch, cities rose up and fell. Ancient magic no longer holds sway. Now comes the day to bid a fond farewell. My watch is done when this day ends in night. Weep not, my friend, the sun’s last glimmer leads me home. Over hill and dale, through passes tight, over ice-crowned mountains where my road leads. Back to lands that still dream, where magic dwells. The road is now calling, silver streams sing. My feet itch to dance my way in its swells. Say farewell. The road calls. Your blessing sing– I … Continue reading The Road Calls – Writing 101 Assignment 4

Black Hole

Black Hole I write from a black hole, where I riddle. I’m slowly being spaghettified* by tidal forces’ stretch, squeeze to a noodle. Light can’t escape its pull; no last ditch fly by or rescue attempt. What the black hole catches, it keeps. It lets nothing escape save one thing its embrace can’t hold–my soul– its needs no velocity to escape. It travels faster than light to the source, away from its earthen birth, its black hole confinement, to the spark that set its course. Shot out of the black hole, flying fast, still whole, that soul,  that spark that once leapt in my flesh, ’til black … Continue reading Black Hole

Poetry 101 Rehab: Father

Blocks Ran sat used Papa as a backrest while he stacked blocks woven from wild reeds. Magic rushed ’round under Papa’s skin; it beguiled the child listening to its rhythmic music. Magic beat with his heart and sometimes in counterpoint. Ran’s hair stood up; Papa’s arm draped across his lap securing him in place. Green sparks raced across his father’s arm, leapt over Ran’s head outlining a loose sphere that winked in and out of view. Ran pushed blocks at the peak-a-boo curtain of power there. The block stopped mid-air within the sphere locked. Ran laughed and pushed on Papa’s magic wall that had become a new … Continue reading Poetry 101 Rehab: Father

One Word to Hold in the Gray Between – Writing 101 Assignment 3

The Gray Between There is a place between, a gray between life and death, a place where all crossroads lead. Darkness hangs there and shadows lay the scene. No light goes there unless kindled by need. Hope, love and faith ignite a soul with fire brightening the Gray Between. As you walk, the darkness stalks, it feeds on emotions. Hold your hope tight, its your torch, and don’t balk. Cling to your love. Sing hymns while in motion, Don’t pause or the Gray Between’ll suck you dry, leave a darkening husk trapped in the woods with no path to follow. Cold you will die, never … Continue reading One Word to Hold in the Gray Between – Writing 101 Assignment 3

The Sky Cries Rain Tears

The Sky Cries “Why’s the sky cry?” asked Ran who walked beside. His question aimed at his somber father. “It’s raining not crying,” said Sarn, who tried not to look back, not to decipher her last words, not to dwell on things now ended. His eyes followed the lake’s curve to her home. But she’d gone back to a life upended— without a freak with a magic syndrome. Ran pipped up suddenly, “I know why it cries.” Sarn regarded his son for the answer, “Because you don’t cry, so for you, it cries.” Ran squeezed his father’s hand, looking wiser than his scant years. “You can cry, it’s okay. ‘Cause when I’m … Continue reading The Sky Cries Rain Tears

Photo-fiction Challenge #6 – Upended

Upended Keysta leaned against the upended couch wondering what to do now that they’d gone. He had turned the house upside down, that grouch, but he’d not found her. Her bro went to pawn a trinket that wouldn’t fetch enough to pay the men off or make a dent in their debt. despair crushed her, ground her down, left no way to recoup or energy to try. Threats still echoed when her bro returned. Coins clink, his boots scrape to a stop at the scene, eyes scan for signs of his elder sis, then blink to take it all in. He moves fast and … Continue reading Photo-fiction Challenge #6 – Upended

Favorite Things – A Sonnet in the Form of a List

Favorite Things Here are a few of my favorite things: baking apples, cinnamon scents wafting. Struck-coin medallions and two tone earrings. Lean beef cuts in barbecue sauce stewing. Writing sonnets but not in a list form. Making poems out of scenes from my stories. Sipping hot tea while watching a snow storm. Accessing my digital libraries on my smart phone from under the covers. My small apartment fragrant from baking Walking while overhead a storm hovers. Writing books ’bout a world of my making. An army of imaginary friends at my back, who’re with me through all life’s bends. ~ ~ ~ There you have it.  A sonnet in … Continue reading Favorite Things – A Sonnet in the Form of a List

I Write Because…

I Write Because I write ’cause I created characters, gave them lives and they want their stories told. I was lonely, so I made characters to keep me company–an army bold to slay my fears and friends to quell my tears. To my sibs, I told their epic stories. I developed their world for many years, happily writing most of a series– until my sister died. Her last request I honor by working towards publication of the stories she loved and the new quests I’m writing now. Writing’s my vocation, my reason for being here. Through it I speak to those I’ve lost, find the closure I seek. ~ ~ ~ Photo caption: Many Mels (a … Continue reading I Write Because…

Photo-fiction #10 – When Words Fail

When Words Fail Words shifted on the page, jumped up, rearranged. Sarn wrestled them, tried to glean meaning from the handwritten letters so estranged from their spoken counterparts. Divining nothing from it, he looked out at the street but felt no desire to go abroad until his son climbed up and took a seat on the table. Sarn felt less like a fraud with the closed book pushed aside by his son. Ran fingered the book. “Why you look so sad?” Sarn wanted to read stories to his son, the ones he’d loved most,  like a proper dad. He opened the book. Each word he sounded out; his son sat … Continue reading Photo-fiction #10 – When Words Fail

Halloween

Halloween Pumpkin faces blazing, death surrounded, their bright unbroken circle holding tight ‘gainst that specter’s might. Death’s skull face shrouded, his bones gleaming white on that hallowed night. Pumpkin faces blazing, windows alight, welcoming trick or treaters young and old, offering leave-stuffed frights and sweet delights on lawns where costumed scarecrows , their court hold. Death’s skeletal face leers from masks all night. Kids running with gleaming scythes, wear his face. Ghosts prance past plastic graves, their sheets a sight. Devils seek to win the great candy race. Another Halloween draws to a close Leaving all in a candy comatose. ~ ~ ~ Happy Halloween. Continue reading Halloween

Trick or Trick: A Daily Post Sonnet

Trick or Trick The simplicity of it convinced Sarn that Miren’s plan was sound. The trick appealed to his sense of justice and what a yarn it’d make if they could pull it off. Afield he searched for leaves of three. That poison ivy which Nolo had warned him never to touch. He gave his babysitters a lively chase. Dashing back to the barracks, prize clutched in gloved hands, he rushed to rub the leaves’ itch on the beds of his tormentors. Task done, Sarn ran back to the minders that he’d ditched to pretend he hadn’t left. That night begun with … Continue reading Trick or Trick: A Daily Post Sonnet

A Treat for the Daily Post & Prompt Stomp

Treat To Trick or treat, that’s the question on this Halloween eve. Engage in Candy Crush, wait for your ghouls to scare up candy bliss as they go house to house in the trick-treat-rush. Ambush rival kids with silly strings and toilet papier-mâché. When the night grows late, the moon’s watch is broken. We stand in costumed lines, parade by candlelight in the shadowed dance of Samhain. Festive in our togs, we celebrate the dead, morn summer’s passing, call to winter’s restive chill which passes All Saint’s Day on the morn. All Hallows Eve is broken by sunlit saints marching in day called by holy writ. … Continue reading A Treat for the Daily Post & Prompt Stomp

Lady in Red vs Fate’s Queen

Lady in Red In red she fled, lost her shoes on shifting sands. Towards the land of Phare, Fairest of lands, where Fate’s Queen, that dark beauty, is caring for her clan. In Mori Kana’s rust sand desert her palace lies ‘twixt life and dreams. A place Lady Red knows well. Into Fay’s hands she places her woes. Fate’s Queen now beams, at the challenge in her hands. She revels at the chance to teach a marauding beast some manners. Her children, most grown, rebel at her facing on her own such a beast. But in a blink she’s gone, in a trice, she’s made … Continue reading Lady in Red vs Fate’s Queen

Imaginary Friend – A Daily Post Sonnet

(Self Portrait) Imaginary Friend Imaginary friend, you gifted me a fantasy world full of creatures and introduced heroes, bards, mages and thee. We rode dragons, battled demons on sand beaches and vanquished evil wherever it roamed.  With a shining army marching, at my back, we took city streets over never fearing the darkness encroaching even when tramping about foreign lands. ‘Cross oceans we sailed, thru gas clouds & stars, exploring, playing at conquering lands, crowning ourselves king and queen of stars– Then falling back into my office chair, to smile and plan for our next great affair. ~ ~ ~ I didn’t have … Continue reading Imaginary Friend – A Daily Post Sonnet

In Your Desert – A Pic and a word Challenge Sonnet

In Your Desert Better is one day with you, than without you, even if that day is spent burning in the desert’s heat and going without bread or water because abandoning you isn’t an option. Forty days you’ll spend here and so will I. I’ll keep the vigil by your side, my King and my God, and mend my ways in these Lenten days, but I still need your guidance Lord, even far from courts of man, but I understand, I’ll sit here while you pray, but  let me be your escort when you leave the desert, let me go there, to your courts, … Continue reading In Your Desert – A Pic and a word Challenge Sonnet