Counted Syllabics

Knowledge is, is not
Secure enough for full trust,
Hidden remains, much.

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Strange, strange, and stranger
The games we all join and play
To avoid boredom.

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Finding it again
An unlikely happening
Still, we keep dreaming.

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There exist moments
Of which none possess knowledge
Even those present.

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Where did we find it?
How were we bound around it?
Why does it exist?
Though it guards it jealously –
Perhaps love knows the answer.

Prompt: I played with Haiku and a Tanka here. Should you wish, do some of your own.

Gratitude:
After days of shortage, I finally slept.
The gift of writing.
The gift of reading.
The presence of my dogs.
The luxury of time alone.

Willing Walls

Every rock feels like a wall
Weighted on the edges fit
To gloss right over
Enjambment holding words, lines
Together sentenced inside
The poem, river stones
Smoothed yet separated like
Those who secrets keep
Under mounds stacked much
Higher than maybe any desire.

Constant, no buyer
For the passions readily
Acquired under siege
Of rolling onslaught, bolder
Than before romance tendered.

The song, melodious surrender,
Now love, revoke the walls built
On forgotten dreams
Turn to see what such fascination
Means as inspiration – flames –
Creativity, freedom inclination,
No mystery tearing down
Careful barriers
Constructed to prohibit feral
Growth as if nothing is enough.

Love is no stone though
One might throw, causing ripples
On the surface, it seems time
Is only these shared moments,
All other becomes deprivation extreme,
A heart can be open
Or remain as hard as a stone;
The bedrock alone
Challenged with an anomalous difference
Which may be given and shown,
Love is and becomes the soul’s true home.

Ten to Recommend

I have read ten books this month. As usual, it is a broad mix. I tend to dip into whatever interests suit me at the time. Sometimes, I am surprised; others, there is given delight.

If you are looking for a good read, you could do worse than these.

The Monsters We Make by Kali White – 260 pages – *5 stars – This book is about newspaper boys going missing and others searching for answers. Having some history, by the end, the novel set off my PTSD. It is that realistic and enormously creepy. I recommend you leave the lights on.

The Gospel According to Satan by Jared C. Wilson – 219 pages – *5 stars – It is not what you might at first think. Thomas Nelson Publishers brought it out. There are things we are often taught that are not at all Biblical. Some take us into jeopardy. If you think God Helps Those Who Help Themselves or Let Go and Let God are scriptural, you might find this interesting. The author covers several mythical things we are enticed to believe. Quite fascinating.

The Light Through The Leaves by Glendy Vanderah – 453 pages – *5 stars A Prime First Reads selection, this book is in some ways magical. A baby was misplaced then stolen, a family falling apart, people led on journeys of discovery, wood magic, and a warm, as Summer sun on an ocean beach ending. I loved it, and it is rare to find such beauty all in one book.

How Poetry Can Change Your Heart by Andrea Gibson & Megan Falley – 150 pages – *5 stars – This is an introduction to poetry reading and writing, but more than that too. I approach craft books hoping for inspiration, and this delivered. It was a jumping point for me at times. It is open and authentic.

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas – 343 pages – *5 stars – Our heroes here are women who discover time travel, but there are murder and lunacy afoot. Sometimes technology makes human nature something other. I am a time machine – travel – fan. If it goes back or forward in time, the story, I am there—lots of things going on in this to rivet the attention.

Oblivion by David Foster Wallace – 346 pages – *5 stars – The world lost a genius when David chose to leave. His work, in my experience, is not the easiest to read. He writes in a stream-of-consciousness style that paragraphs can go for pages, but his descriptions, characterizations, and plots are complex and beautiful like a night-time sky in a desolate desert. You can see the universe, whole, complete.

The Essential Chomsky by Noam Chomsky – 523 pages – *5 stars – Have a care if you read this. It may leave the foundations of your awareness tattered like paper gone through a shredder. I am shaken, appalled, and will never look at things in the world the same again. An altogether stellar read, but earth-shattering.

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman – 489 pages – *5 stars – Mr. Pullman wrote The Golden Compass, and despite the name, this book is mainly about storytelling and writing. He writes in an open and informative style which is terrifically engaging. One of the best craft books I have read in some time. His pieces on fairytales are enchanting. Read it; you might learn something more than you suppose.

Dark Matter by Philip Kerr – 333 pages – *5 stars – Sir Issac Newton, need I say more. Newton lights up these pages, he is working in the mint, and people are dying. Counterfeiters are ruining the coinage; it must stop. It is a romp through historical London, loved it.

Savage Lands (Book 1) by Stacie Marie Brown – 425 pages – *5 stars – Fae, humans, shifters, a war, a prison, royalty… you get the picture. A little erotic for my taste, but the story is lovely. It was good enough; I will read the second in the series, and that speaks well.

*** A note on my giving five-star ratings, in case you are new here: I love books, all books, but I rarely pick any up with which I am not in love. Poor writing will bring numbers down. I am a copy-editor and do not like text that abuses conventions or grammar and style. If a book is horrible, it gets bad marks, but I am judicious about what I put into my brain. I read a wide variety of content, so I never get in a rut. By the way, all these are available on Kindle. Happy reading!

These Four

Fertile light
Which nourishes
Every living thing,
Letting healthy energy
Pour over all life
Existing and growing
Full within common
Circles of influence.

Water, bearer, builder,
Giver, in everything,
The element of cells
Binder of creation
Healer of random hurts
Companion on the journey;
Life contains a thirst
Deeper than any ocean.

Air, holding breath
Loss, immediate death;
Containing space,
Spirit, dreams
Where time meets
Being – quiet, soothing,
Invisible nurture,
Life bringing fullness.

Earth, the surface,
Ground, beneath all feet
Remaining, sustaining
Though civilization
May timely turn
Into its overwhelming
Dust – there lives trust
The base providing
What fuels living
Enough to retain foundations
Raising survival, life.

I am aware most use fire instead of light in a presentation such as this, but light is how it began in this instance. What I am given I usually keep.

Blue

Blue of a crisp
Cloudless
Sky seeming
A rich robe
Wrapping
To a distant horizon.

Clouds encroach
Shedding plenteous
Tears rolling down
Spilling as lightning
Releases cries of
Intense thunder
Unleashing
The held hidden hostage.

Anxiety, doubt, fear,
Tension filter like
Torrential rain filling
A hole in reality;
Swallowing
It all benign in
An effort to become,
Become relevant.

Gardens grow vibrant
As rainbows, delicate
As butterflies winging
Across the bruised
Evening
As the sun slowly
Sinks, a vessel
No one can bail.

Relentless people
Compel stories told
Before grudgingly
Retiring into
Comforting downy
Covers whose cost –
An unknowable secret
Paid by those who
Gave enfolding safety
Out of the blue.

Prompt:

Take what time you will and free-write.
Keep going for the period you have chosen.
Do not worry over correctness; get the words out. You can come back later and edit.