Christine E. Ray's Blog, page 16
January 25, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: The Collected Regrets of Clover – Georgiann Carlson
not personal ones
mind you
she collected
the regrets of others
it was a big job
since it seemed that
most people regretted
a lot of things
personally
Clover was regret free
other than for having
started this project
she thought it was a
good idea to collect regrets
that she could put into book form
so that other’s wouldn’t have to
make the same mistakes
but it was proving to be a
monumental task
she divided the regrets into categories
and subcategories
there were a lot of regrets about
lost loves
or the wrong love
a lot of wrong jobs
missed opportunities
should have gone to school
should have dropped out
should have had kids
shouldn’t have had kids
wrong parents
should haves
and shouldn’t have hads
over and over again
in never ending circles
regrets and more regrets
so many of them
piles of lists sat on her desk
divided by years
age
gender
location
but no matter who
what
or where
everyone regretted
the same things
she also noticed
that what people thought they were doing
wasn’t what they were doing at all
unfortunately
some spent the rest of their lives
living with their regrets
instead of letting them go
eventually Clover finished her task
and it wasn’t long before
her book hit the stands
it did very well
but many readers wrote to her
saying that even though they
knew they were going to regret
what they were doing
after seeing it in her book
they did it anyway
and did she want their story
for Book II?
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
A Room So Still and Quiet It Hurts: A Collaboration of Warriors
in a room so still and silent
that it hurts
stark white walls
razor sharp edges
etch my soul
draw blood
that drips slowly
soundlessly
from my mouth
Christine Ray
I am trapped
like a fly in amber
Time stands still
The air is thick
Holds me motionless
in this prison cell
I feel vibration
A silent scream building
from my depths
Rachel Finch
Barricaded, her aura stifles
in the quiet.
Walls closing in, silence
penetrating.
Her mind internally
burning, blistering.
His voice a faint echo,
worlds away.
I tell them they’re lying,
the monsters that cling
to the lobes and whorls
of my ears.
They laugh and go on.
I pull the covers up
to my chin and let them in again
until the tears are spent
and still,
they never repent.
Get thee behind me,
but I always look back
waiting on them to pounce.
In a room so still, I draw mental images.
Shovelfuls of dirt are tossed and splayed;
loose earth lands with a dead sound
upon my ridiculous casket.
The images play in a loop like
spliced film–a silent movie.
These bones have grown
weak and weary, while the rest
of the world has gone
dark and gray. Over time,
they’ve become more
than I can handle.
More than I can live with.
And these burdens I carry
are mine alone. No one
deserves to hold them
on their shoulders.
Which is why I’ll take them
with me. After the music
stops playing.
In a room so still
I hear echoes of a former life
I hear the twisting and creaking
of this thread I hang from
Knotted and frayed it
binds my heart
in pieces that have shattered
So many times they no longer
fit together
and their edges are so razor sharp
They cut me to ribbons
to remember what I once was
I scream
I lost myself
The echoes dont come back
Ragged and raw, my chords vibrate
revealing nothing from my insides
My voice swallowed up by the crowd
My inner voice silenced
I have become the echoes
in the silence
my shame shrieks torment
a piercing the walls drill
into my brain
the ceiling salivates venom
it licks the stiffness
from my spine
the floor nauseates me
as it breathes
rank sour breath
of the unlovable, whose caries
grew unfettered in an unkissed mouth
I shrink, a knotted ball,
from the reverberating stench,
the putrefying death knell
inverted, I am a tunnel
from which no light escapes
there is only the abject crawling
of my soul, face down
in the sewage
of my failed spirit
Marcia J. Weber
I hate this fucking room…
I hate being consumed with my doom…
As I sit here, looking at my shattered reflection in the perfect mirror
all I am forever reminded of,
is what I almost was…
Why can I not seem to get back on track?
All that was an almost happy life has gone to pure shit..
blinded by the bright light at the end of the dark tunnel…
I should follow it…
Even if it means I am dead forever, and I can’t come back…
Even if it makes me weak…
I am just tired of being strong…
Maybe even tired of holding on…
There has to be another side..
A place where I can freely roam,
a place where I don’t have to hide…
Reality is overwhelming…
This room is so silent…that it fucking hurts
my head is full of too many traumatic memories…
I am running out of do-over’s at this point…
I have done everything to release
The only time I hear that I am good enough…
is after I please a nobody…so I am just a good fuck…
I don’t believe in me anymore… I am out of good luck…
I need to be free from life… from turmoil…
I need to be free from being me…
I hate being stuck…
Dom Wynette
Long hands, circumcision of thought,
flailing flesh, fish sucking the rotten sea
The window breast is now red from approach
We hang there, we do
the captivity of bleached air is like nothing else
the death sentence of genes
Godless children of a different race
Our hearts are split and our brains feverish
slowly descending, soaked head to toe
into songs that contain only air
I twist the lock, your twisted face, a warped kite
Floating across ceilings,
You have decided to spread
a smile wide as the day, light up the dim structure of your face
Like blow torches growing mad above the taste of ashes
You have decided to smile
this one last time
And the ceiling watches,
its silence repulsive
And the walls judge,
their jabber exhausting
Men like to slaughter what they don’t understand
Common cold doesn’t dictate cancer
And neither mood nor perspective is the predecessor of mental sickness
The floor watches,
stained in a lovely red
The only living thing now
is you
and you, you bleed
Upwards into a cerulean sky
Aakriti Kuntal (Warped Kites)
i don’t belong here.
i stick out like a black sheep in a field of white,
a pebble strung on a thread of pearls.
oh, that piece would be so fetching
with pearls alone,
and i am sure the shepherd grows weary of the sight of me.
Lois Linkens
The anguish of aliveness
No one wins
Sterile, self-defeating
Shrouded in intense sensitivity
Silence, secrets, sadness, solitude
A welcomed stillness
Such sweet solace
The weight begins to lift
A final gift
Believe
There is a peace
in release
A freedom beyond
this relentless realm
A breakable bond
from devils and demons
Laurie Wise
The melodies are
my legacy
I’ve won some battles
but I am losing the war
choose not to remember
my last act
but all of the victories
that came before
as a samurai chooses
death over dishonor
my seppuku is the solution
to stop the coming horror
the monster with my smile
I know that my absence
will fill a room so still
it hurts but better
still than to see the world
I love burn with my
dark needs
OldePunk
You know when I’m there, after all the blood,
after all my ghost begin to break up and
dissipate like early morning radio chatter,
after the loss
of every god damn thing I’ve ever loved,
I can tell you that I earned the cognizance
that this was never a room.
Rooms have an exit, but there is no re-entry
into what my life used to be.
It’s a black hole, and on the other side
there is a universe of all dead bodies.
So if I dissect myself,
if I show you all my organs that could never
have managed to hold this cancer,
if I do it here at the altar of all my great
rewards…
I just want you to know I’ve reached the
event horizon.
But here I do not struggle, I strive. I still
yearn to be a good man. Wish that my
heart would become supermassive,
and strong enough to maybe release
one singular ray of light into all this space.
Set one lone kite free of gravity.
If I fall through the hole and I’m never seen again,
I want you to remember I wasn’t a coward.
I was the thing that withstood longer than
all else.
Because nothing can be here if it still
has a world to belong to.
And if you don’t understand that, in a way
I hope you never do.
But if you never saw my light, if I gave in
before it could break through
I’m sorry.
It’s not because I didn’t try.
So live or die,
Be free or killed by this monster of my mind,
I did the very best that I could.
Nathan McCool
Daily Creativity Prompt: The Collected Regrets of Clover
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.
“Who knew a book about death could be so uplifting? Clover Brooks is a death doula, focused on giving people their best possible final days rather than making the most of her own. It’s a delight to watch as new people come into her life and help her change that (easier said than done, as any introvert knows). This book is like a warm hug, with a lot to love — including a feisty nonagenarian, romances both budding and rediscovered, a cross-country road trip and many words of wisdom about what it means to live a beautiful life.”
— Rachel Treisman, writer and editor, Morning Edition
January 24, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Lynn White
cheap organic food
cooked with flair and imagination,
a perfect cup of tea
and an even more outstanding
pan galactic gargle buster cocktail,
easily the best drink in the universe.
I discovered it when I was hitchhiking,
travelling through the galaxy with Arthur.
He was similarly impressed,
so much so that he asked for the name
of their suppliers
so that we could fill our backpacks
with such delights
for the next stage of our journey
They told us that everything came from
the Heaven And Earth Grocery Store
and gave us precise directions of how to find it.
But as usual, our sense of direction failed us
and we lingered
between heaven and earth
for some time
before the next ship stopped for us.
And it was no help,
it was as lost as we were.
And that’s how we realised a Guide was needed,
a specialist hitchhiker’s Guide
to the galaxy.
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.
NPR’s Books We Love: Time’s Echo – Lynn White
to any drama
in the theatre of war
a practice run
a Guernica
a rehearsal
for what is to come.
It was always misty
in history’s theatre,
lost in the words of cloudy time
but now the fog is so dense
that we can see nothing,
understand nothing
of the power play unfolding.
And we’re so swamped
with possibilities
it’s impossible
to know
which will be
the first step
the harbinger
of things to come
back where they began
or Time’s echoing
of the end.
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.
Barometer – Christine E. Ray
winter storms
have been
taking their toll
leaving me
battered
bruised
too fatigued
to raise
an arm
turn face
toward
new day’s
flat gray sky
aching knees
tender wrists
buzzing ears
an advanced
warning system
I have become
a barometer
finely tuned
to detect
latest
atmospheric
shift
Photo by Christian SPULLER on Unsplash
© 2024 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved
Daily Creativity Prompt: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
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.
“This romance novel set in Regency-era Kent will make you swoon. Joss Doomsday is a scoundrel to some and a leader to others. His livelihood as a smuggler is put at risk with the arrival of Sir Gareth Inglis. Gareth grew up feeling abandoned and unloved, but now has a baronetcy to manage. Tensions rise and sparks fly. If you’re an audiobook person, Martyn Swain’s narration is a balm for the soul. And if you want more Doomsday romance, the sequel, A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, came out in September.”
— Alex Brown, book critic and librarian
January 23, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: You Again – Georgiann Carlson
“Hey, it’s not my fault you keep
incarnating when I do.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault?”
“There are only two of us having
this conversation. Figure it out.”
“You never change,” she said “No matter
how many lives we share.”
“But you love me anyway,” he said,
grinning at her.
“Ack!”
“I love you too,” he said.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to
recognize each other in different lives.”
“I thought so too. I guess we’re just
meant to be together for eternity.”
“Oh, no. That is NOT going to happen,”
she said. " I think there’s just something
we need to work out between us and get
it over with.”
“But I like coming back with you. Last time
you were a bitchin’ blonde. HEY, what was
that for?” he asked, rubbing his arm.
“Okay,” she admitted. “Last time was a lot
of fun, but we aren’t supposed to remember
our past lives, so there’s a glitch in the Matrix.”
“Don’t care. I’m fine always coming back with you.”
“At least we don’t have to start over with someone new.”
“I would hate that,” he said.
“Me too,” she agreed. .
“I suppose we could just walk away and find
someone else, if that’s what you want to do.
Truthfully, I’d miss you if we did that.”
“I hate to say it, but I’d miss you as well. But
I want two cats this time. You promised me
when I was dying, that I could have two.”
“You can have as many cats as you want,” he said,
kissing her cheek.
“You can get a couple German Shepherds too.”
“Already planned on doing just that.”
“We usually meet when we’re younger,” she said.
“I think this is to show us that we really do want to be
together, since neither one of us has found anyone
else and we’re both in our twenties.”
“Right,” he said, avoiding her eyes.
“Who is she?”
“No one,” he said quickly. “It was just a fling. I didn’t
know you were here.”
She laughed. “It’s okay. I was with someone
else too. I mean…”
“What?” he said. “Who is…"
“I didn’t know you were here either,” she said.
“I believe we should start from scratch. Right
now.”
“You want some chocolate cake?”
“What do you think?” she said.
“Do you want to get married, or just live
together this time?”
“We can talk about the details later, now
I…”
“You just want cake,” he snickered, leaning
in for a kiss.
“See,” she said, catching her breath. "No new
guy would know that about me.”
“No new guy would know anything about you,”
he said, kissing her again.
“Cake,” she said, dragging him down the street
by the front of his shirt. “I’m glad it’s you, again.”
“I’m glad it’s you again too,” he said.
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
Daily Creativity Prompt: You, Again
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.
“As Marie Kondo once said, “I’m so excited, because I love mess.” This gender-swapped When Harry Met Sally retelling (she’s the commitment phobe, he’s the hopeless romantic) is for anyone who craves romance novels with realistic and flawed characters. Ari and Josh circle each other for years in the kind of delicious, slow-burn tension that only comes from a well-executed enemies-to-friends-to-lovers arc. And while they make many mistakes (so many mistakes) on their journey to one another, you can’t help but enjoy every second of the ride.”
— Kalyani Saxena, associate producer, Here & Now
January 22, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers – Georgiann Carlson
Hands shot up.
“You are the one’s who didn’t get caught,” she said, pointing at her students. “What advice do you have for the newbies? Just shout out your answers.”
The room broke into chaos, words bouncing off the walls.
Ms. Wong clapped her hand and everyone settled down.
“Did you get all that?" she asked, looking around. “Know how you’ll get rid of the body, before you do the deed. Have a solid alibi. Don’t bring your kids.”
“She was my alibi,” yelled a woman in the back row.
“Still not a good idea,” said Ms. Wong. “Not good for the kiddies.”
“I did it in self defense,” said someone else.
“Self defense is a common reason for murder,” said Ms. Wong, pacing back and forth. “There’s no blame here. We live in violent times. Sometimes we are forced by circumstance, to fight back.”
The women nodded and muttered their agreement.
“Remember, murder is always a last resort. You don’t want to make it your answer to everything. Murder is serious business. Governments never stop murdering people, in all kinds of ways. They call it war, or other names, but it’s murder, nonetheless. Men get away with murder, especially if they are rich and white. They also get away with it if they murder women and children. Animals are murdered every single day. Murder is normal in this world. Religions are responsible for untold numbers of murders. You have to be aware, however, that women are not allowed to harm others. That’s why you must be careful. Planning helps, but it’s not always the answer. And, as we have learned, there are times where things happen quickly and murder happens in self defense. Your gender is held against you. Murder is how men get rid of their competition, it’s based on greed and hatred, mostly greed. When we murder it’s often out of fear.
Well, I think that’s enough for our meet and greet. See you for our first full class on Thursday. In the mean time, pick up a book list on your way out, grab some coffee and donuts, and have a nice weekend.
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
