So…

I do not get much personal mail, as I expect is true of most everyone in these times. One of the friends I know online, who is a Facebook friend, wrote me a postal letter that persuaded me to return to social media. I am still of the opinion that I may remain less engaged than in the past, but there is the thought that my posts may have some small positive influence driving my presence.

You do realize,
Of course, your words and actions
Have consequences.

*****

Life is strange, it gives,
Furthermore, it takes away;
Nothing ours to stay,
The hours rushing ocean waves –
We, notes, on a tide-swept beach.

*****

No fear, I shall not
Fear, though the darkness over
Shade every hour, day,
I know He is with me here
My Lord, God, who holds me near.

*****

The lightning rockets
Across the deepening dark sky
Sending doubt to fly.

*****

What you cannot know
Will never be clearly told,
Your high castle holds.

*****

Not a rehearsal
Love is the fully played act,
No turning away
Once your hand is dealt, your heart
Is invested, no free flight.

*****

Hiding who we are
Is opportunity for
Misunderstanding.

*****

I take my heart down
From the hidden jar to place
It here where you are,
Will you take it, do you dare?
Hearts are most precious to share.

*****

The sleep mocked me
Taking the sun far away,
Giving night for day.

*****

The chocolate is
Gone, ah dears, how shall we all
Happily go on?

*****

The music danced its
Way into every sad place,
Brushing tears away,
Calling, “Life is now present,
Follow love and be most gay.”

*****

Any art is just
An attempt to clarify
Love’s sweet majesty.

*****

And I can do these on and on, so rather than bore you, I shall stop in my tracks, getting back to the book I am enjoying and allowing you your day. Find yourself some happiness before it slips, sliding away into another day.

Again, the prompt is to write haiku and tanka. I give you enough examples, you should understand what to do. Haiku are counted syllabic poems of three lines consisting of 5 – 7 – 5 syllables. Tanka are five lines with syllable counts of 5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 7.

I tell you now, each of you is a blessing, a unique precious gift given by the Creator to impact the world in your own individual way. Cherish who you are, for you are a miracle designed for greatness. Your light outshines every star and sun. Love, for love, is who you are.

Instants

Hear, inside the head
The ghosts continue living –
Lives, days, all go on
The arguments never end,
Salient points repeat again.

Visitors from scenes
Played out on distant stages
Arrive with fanfare
Stating this, that comfort, need,
Virtual space quick provides.

All well when it stays
Inside contained, quiet remains,
But characters want
Another chance at the world
Bleeding into time and space.

Voices from who knows
Where invade the rapt hearing
Still no understanding
But disturbing, driving ill
Living becomes so much will.

Something my journal caught with story thoughts.

Happy Weekend all…

Plain Speak?

When one employs verse with its vividities, though it speaks with particular clarity, is it plain? Ah, and is the clarity only a surface seeming with oceans beneath?

These tidbits for your appetite…

The tall tired trees trail
Tails of golden gilded leaves
On chilled coffee morns
While wholesome whimsical loves
Share songs sang subtly soft.

*****

No one told the dove
To cry, nor made her fly by,
But mourning brought her.

*****

Leave your wide window
For the world has more to give
Than vision through glass.

*****

Can we just forget
Such necessities as need
Once made us believe?

*****

If I could, I would
Divorce pain, but it remains,
Losing love leaves stains.

*****

Forbid you might see
The lake of sad darkness here;
Scented roses, Spring.

*****

When I am dead/gone
I shall sleep enough to please
Those I now disturb.
Until then, please allow me;
Simple curiosity.

*****

Exile, I outlaw
You use it, when we belong,
But powerless to curtail
You because of we two there
Is no doubt you are stronger.

*****

I cast a carpet,
Lovely woven silken threads,
Because your comfort
Was my complete intention,
Ordure you wiped upon it.

As a prompt, try some haiku or tanka. They are small forms but can say much and invoke beauty or emotion. Also, both are excellent warm-ups for more strenuous writing.

I hope your week has been comfortable and that life has brought you more pleasantry than pain. Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. If you like, follow the site, or come again as time allows. May blessings find you wherever you venture, and you know the love of God with you.

Reading, Going On

Less than a month since my last check-in with the books of the moment, but I have done a bit of voracious reading, so I am opting to do this now. Seven titles seem enough in my estimation.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories Kindle Edition by Susanna Clarke, who you may remember from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, or maybe not. I read it and loved it, so I was happy to see this collection, which did not disappoint. Do not expect these somewhat otherworldly tales to be usual fare. The book is 257 pages, and I found it distinctly satisfying, so I gave it a five-star rating.

The Vine Witch Kindle Edition & The Glamourist (The Vine Witch Book 2) Kindle Edition by Luanne G. Smith, Volume One and Two of Three, which I discussed my not usually doing series, but, this is worth it. These I borrowed on Kindle Unlimited. Both books are wonderfully detailed and beautifully written. The novels are engrossing. Having 263 and 282 pages, respectively, there is not too long an engagement. I only wish The Conjurer were available now. Both books are five-star reads.

Find Me (Inland Empire Book 1) Kindle Edition by Anne Frasier, this is another Kindle Unlimited read. It is a bone chiller. If you are the type to sit up all night with books, I see you doing it with this one. It is not to be taken lightly, or with the lights down low. Just look at the cover, hmmm. I give it five-stars for its 271 pages. It is another series book. I am taking a break before I revisit that author’s mindscape.

Touch Kindle Edition by Clare North, okay, I warned you about the last one. This one is a psychological thriller that never lets up. What if consciousness were transferred simply by touch? What if the person next to you were not who they used to be? It is very well done, and so well written. You might find it hard to lay aside for usual things. It is 439 pages but seems so much shorter than that, and it is undeniably a five-star read.

The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin Kindle Edition, this is a Kindle Unlimited selection of 724 pages. There is a wide range of stories included. All are very satisfactory, and some are extremely strange. On occasion, I decide I should read something classic because you know, it is traditional. This did not disappoint. In Sci-Fi, you cannot find a much more acclaimed female writer than Ursula K. Le Guin. My rating is five-stars, and I have decided to seek other books in her repertoire.

Dark Tales Kindle Edition by Shirley Jackson, who you may recognize because of her story, The Lottery, which was weekly reader fare when I was a teen. The story is well-known. Shirley Jackson was one of the most talented horror writers ever. I much admire her work. Some of the tales in this collection are not nail-biters, but all are at least quietly unsettling and disturbing. She shows that you do not have to write slashers to make a reader check that the doors and windows are tightly locked. This is a swift read at 204 pages, and as a five-star recommendation, it should not be missed.

One note, on the fact I am generous with five-star ratings: I am a highly selective reader and I rarely begin a book that I am not fascinated to read. I read a fair variety, but I also have writers I know by prior experience. Most often when I count off stars it is due to poor editing, not content.

You will find I slip into the fantastical, I need the escape. I hope you found the little trip into my literary tastes to your liking. Until next time, READ, READ, READ. If you want to write, you must read like your life depends on it.

CATALYST

Catalyst is a word I have always admired. Being a collector of words, it is a marvelous one.

I live alone with a Marvelous Monster Wookie and a Triple Trouble Tribble. You might guess where they got their renamings. There are abundant reasons for the adjectives before their names, but that is not the purpose of this missive. Be it here said, I love my dogs.

I should be sleeping, but sometimes things go unexpectedly awry. I was sitting in my bed with my knees propped on a pillow after walking almost 26,000 steps and doing about 45 minutes of weight work for my upper body, plus some aerobics during the day. I laid my tablet on which I was reading eBooks aside. I made the miscalculation of picking up my journal and an Apogee. At that juncture, all sleep plans fled to somewhere beyond Pluto.

I am most lovingly called, an Agent of Spiraling Chaos, by someone dear who has known me quite a while. There are reasons for this nickname. Maybe one being, I am incredibly unpredictable a large portion of the time.

I could have waited until daylight to get all this in the computer and on Haphazard Creative, where you may read it, but somehow that did not feel right. Thus, here we are, hang on, this is CATALYST. Hang in too, because this is a bit all over.

Spare me your pity
Life rises round, and I join
The blooming of days.

*****

Lying here next to you
Only breaths separate us
Vibrant as a garden we are
Enough to embrace joint futures.

*****

I would be the bridge
From the most desperate pain
To living again.

*****

Though it is a war
I do not run from battle
Here, alive to win.
I celebrate, smile, laugh, grin,
Lick the depressions, reach zen.

*****

What are you reading?
Which books do you recommend?
I have a list, deal?

*****

Impossible is
Not in my vocabulary,
Miracles happen!

*****

Describe your best dream, (I will wait)
Now, make it your present goal, (Time waits for no one)
Believe it, do it… (You have the potential to do anything)
No excuses, you have lived (Without your dream)
Beneath yourself much too long. (You are beloved, you deserve happiness)

*****

Failed beyond belief?
Stop digging the ditches now,
Plant all the flowers.

*****

See, I told you, this needed to get here now. I know I would not have been given it, but there was a reason.

Serotonin and endorphins, not reading all the harmful toxicity of social media, music, which is medicine for the soul, reading excellent literature, and this is what I got. I am going to rest in my thought that it is exceptional.