Christine E. Ray's Blog, page 12

This week’s writing prompt on Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

Writing/Creativity Prompt Challenge: Shadow in the Frame

Annette Kalandros on Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

The Narcissist’s Wife – Annette Kalandros

Danielle Wong on Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

An Unquiet Mind: The Never-ending Battle- Danielle Wong

Dragons and Peonies – Christine E. Ray

the skin I am in

longs to become acquainted

with the skin you are in

our eyes meet

across the room

and I forget that

we are not alone

we came tonight with

a larger group of friends

but we are increasingly

attuned to each other

there is something in the air

tonight

I like the

boldness of your gaze

as you keep catching my eye

your snaggle tooth grin

the sound of your laughter

at some inside joke

the tantalizing glimpse

of ink peeking out of

your shirt sleeve

I wonder what it will look like

lined up against the ink

on my arm

my gentle peonies

against your fiery dragon

your jeans and ironic tee

hint of lanky muscles

of steel

that I think will fit nicely

against my curves

I cannot stop the smile

and slight blush from

crossing my face

you seem to be

reading my mind

across the room

your cocked eyebrow

and slow lazy smile

indicate to me

that you are as

distracted by me

as I am by you

I watch you make your

excuses

to your friends

that you have been

only half paying attention to

before you saunter

my way

when you are finally

standing in front of me

I feel the warmth coming

off your body

catch a whiff of your clean scent

there is a sparkle in your eye

‘shall we?’ is all you need to say

it feels as natural as breathing

when you reach for my hand

and we leave this crowd behind

aware only of each other

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

Today on Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

An Unquiet Mind – Christine E. Ray

NPR’s Books We Love: The King of New York – Georgiann Carlson

some think he’s Jesus

some think he’s a drunk

or just another homeless

person living on the street

but he’s more than that

people come to him

for advice

they bring him black coffee

from the donut shop

when they can afford it

a cigarette or piece of candy

when they can't

the rich give him money

and stock tips

his advice is always solid

he’s never wrong

he’s quiet

and generous

everyone likes to be around him

no one knows where he’s from

no one knows his name

everyone just calls him

The King of New York


Photo: Pixabay

Feminist, Vegetarian, Bookaholic , Animal lover, Writer, Artist, Chicago native, and lover of the pigeons who live there. Coo.  You can read more of my writing at Rethinking Life

Diving Deep and Surfacing

you are swift moving water

traveling through dense forest

twisting

turning

through midnight landscape

fireflies and Luna moths

crisscross

your body

in a dazzling display

of bioluminescence

while wood nymphs

waltz on your mossy banks

to the chorus of crickets

and the hoots of snow white owls

I am the waxing moon

hanging in the indigo night

cool and remote

my silver light

glittering upon your surface

where I see myself reflected

I am almost beautiful

as you flow over rocks and logs

up hills and down vales

then rush over cliffs

you become a waterfall

and sing me a siren song

of longing

of heart’s desire

until recklessly into your depths

I plunge

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

Daily Creativity Prompt: The King of New York

Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.

There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.   

It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.

How to Submit

Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.

I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.

“Alternative rock pioneer Lou Reed was a notoriously slippery subject – terse and belligerent with interviewers, he jealously guarded his privacy. That’s what makes journalist Will Hermes’ biography of the Velvet Underground co-founder so remarkable: Hermes paints a vivid picture of the musician from his difficult childhood to his last days and explores Reed’s complicated relationships with drugs, music, sexuality and gender. It’s a compulsively readable and astonishingly well-researched book that’s not just for Reed’s fans, but for anyone interested in American cultural history. This is a biography with a real rock and roll heart.”

— Michael Schaub, book critic

NPR’s Books We Love: The Last Devil To Die – Lynn White

I have known so many devils,

Hitler, Stalin, Kissinger, Pinochet

and now Netanyahu.

And then there are those

with histories or geographies

beyond me.



It seems there is no end to them

that one begets the other

in a prodigious male line

straight from Satan up to Earth,

there to make a new Hell,

there to be fed,

groomed and protected

by politicians

in their own interest,

by corporations

in their own interest

and by countless others

in their own interests

in the country they call home.



They’re like a queen honey bee,

her own ordinary egg

fed by Workers,

groomed by Carers,

protected by Soldiers.

It’s nurture not nature

that makes her queen

and keeps her queen

while she is useful.

Then they kill her

and breed another

and so it goes

on and on and on.



If die it must,

I see the last devil

swallowed by an angel

and shit out into the fire

they all helped to create.

All will burn in the end

if there is an end to it all.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net,  and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn at Poetry – Lynn White and Facebook.

Daily Creativity Prompt: American Whitelash

Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.

There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.   

It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.

How to Submit

Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.

I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words are the tool used to convince people to pick up the sticks and stones. That’s the argument – girded by reporting and historical research – that Wesley Lowery makes in this book. He looks at the rhetoric that politicians and the media use to describe different groups, including immigrants, people of color, Jews and Muslims. Then, he draws direct connections between that language and some of the deadly violence that has been visited on those communities, with anecdotes from various points throughout U.S. history.”

— Leah Donnella, senior editor, Code Switch