Christine E. Ray's Blog, page 25

Sweet Sudden Love

it was sweet

sudden love
best enjoyed over

chocolate chip cookies
lattes

at hipster coffee shops
live music provided by

guitar strumming

singer songwriters

while browsing
independent bookstores
with overstuffed chairs
and extensive travel section
during long moonlit walks
on wintery nights
warm breath clouding
the icy air
as dreams are exchanged
mitten-clad hands
clasped together
tender kisses shared

under golden pool
of vintage streetlamps

© 2017 Revised 2023 Christine E. Ray – All Rights Reserved

The Daily Song: If We Make It Through December – Phoebe Bridgers

If we make it through December

Everything's gonna be alright, I know

It's the coldest time of winter

And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December

Got plans to be in a warmer town, come summertime

Maybe even California

If we make it through December, we'll be fine

Got laid off at the factory

Their timing's not the greatest in the world

Heaven knows I've been working hard

Wanted Christmas to be right for my girl

I don't mean to hate December

It's meant to be the happy time of year

And my little girl don't understand

Why we can't afford no Christmas here

If we make it through December

Everything's gonna be alright, I know

It's the coldest time of winter

And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December

Got plans to be in a warmer town, come summertime

Maybe even California

If we make it through December, we'll be fine

Maybe even California

If we make it through December, we'll be fine


Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Merle Haggard

If We Make It Through December lyrics © Sony/atv Tree Publishing

Photo by Fabrice Villard on Unsplash

The Snowman – Stephen Fuller

If I build a snowman, do you want to come out and play
Play with me, just don’t stick a carrot…

ouch…

there…

Stephen Fuller  began writing poetry as a teenager in New Hampshire and kept at it throughout a 27 year career in the Navy.  During that time he found homes for poems in Scholastic, Powhatan Review, Skipping Stones, Portfolio, and the Virginia Pilot.  For a year he actively blogged as Sailorpoet and was instrumental in the vision of the Go Dog Go Cafe. Following retirement from active duty, he began pursuing a writing career in earnest.  You can read more of his writing at Fullbeard Lit

Resurrection

I rise from the dead beautifully

my gift

self-resurrection

I have brought myself

back to life

a time or two before

inserted the IV

with my own hand

cut through my skin

with my teeth

spread my own ribs

applied the volts

of electricity

directly to my

dead heart

shocked it

until the heartbeat resumed

normal sinus rhythm

before the code

was officially called

body bag lying

unused in the corner

of the sterile examination room

discharged myself

against medical advice

limped down long white hallways with their

unforgiving harsh light

stitches raw

oozing

loosely covered in gauze

walked out

the sliding glass doors

wearing only

a hospital gown

and institutionally issued

non-skid socks

into the waiting night

© 2016 Christine E. Ray – All Rights Reserved

The Daily Song: Better Than Snow – Norah Jones & Laufey

Mmm mmm

Sit by my fire

I’ll never leave you

Look out the window

Palm trees aglow

Now as I sweat through

My ugly sweater

Christmas with you is

Better than snow

Drive to the ocean

All through December

It would be nice to

Hide from the cold

Then the sun warms me

And I remember

Christmas with you is

Better than snow

Christmas with you is

Better than snow

Watching the waves crash

Down on the shore

I never needed anything more

Than you here beside me

Jackfrost won’t mind if we

Stay in the heat of each other

We’ll build sand castles

Instead of snowmen

We’ll bake some cookies

Either way

I’ll take the warmest day of the year

‘Cause Christmas with you is

Better than Snow

Christmas with you is

Better than Snow



Music video by Norah Jones, Laufey performing Better Than Snow (Live On The Today Show / 2023). Blue Note Records; © 2023 Capitol Records, LLC

Songwriters: Laufey Lin Jónsdóttir / Norah Jones

Better Than Snow lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash

White Christmas – Georgiann Carlson

you can dream of a white christmas
you can love snow
especially on the first night
when everything is sparkling like diamonds
and the sound is so muffled
you think you’re the only person
left alive
it’s so beautiful
you can’t believe your eyes
and then
it ends up looking
like this very sad
last pile of neglected snow
and you feel bad for it
and want to dig it out
so that its whiteness
will see the light of day
because you know
deep down inside
that in the center
of that dark and dirty pile
there is a sparkling
white heart
that will remind you
of the night that it fell
and was so amazingly beautiful

I’m an artist, a writer, a vegetarian, an animal rights activist, and quite a few other things as well. I love books, cats, philosophy, good conversation, Chicago and the arts. So my blog is full of bits and pieces but it’s the bits and pieces that make life interesting to me. You can read more of my writing at Rethinking Life

NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge

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 am starting off 2024 with 40 creativity prompts drawn from the books NPR’s staff loved in 2023. Some of these books were read by someone in my household in 2023 (my favorite audiobook listen of 2023? Peggy Ornstein’s Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater.) Some were purchased as presents for my favorite readers (All the Beauty in the World, Cassandra in Reverse, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983, and Lou Reed: The King of New York.) The rest have been added to my very ambitious and very long To Be Read/ Listened To list. 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.

Alt Text for Featured Images:

January/February 2024

NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge

Hosted by Brave & Reckless

Artificial
The Wren, the Wren
The Frozen River
A Study in Drowning
What the Dead Know
Symphony of Secrets
Our Hideous Progeny
The Salt Grows Heavy
My Head Has a Bellyache
Hestia Strikes a Match
Landscapes
Weyward
Some Desperate Glory
Ink Blood Sister Scribe
The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Cassandra in Reverse
Take What You Need
The God of Endings
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Time’s Echo
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
You, Again
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
The Collected Regrets of Clover
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
All the Beauty in the World
Unraveling
Yellowface
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
I Have Some Questions for You
The Last Devil to Die
We Were Once a Family
The Probability of Everything
He Who Drowned the World
This Bird Has Flown
The Reformatory
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
American Whitelash
The King of New York

Submit by email to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com for publication

Instagram: #NPRBooksWeLoveChallenge | @stitchypoet

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

The Daily Song: O Holy Night – Pentatonix

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn



Oh Fall on your knees

O hear the angels’ voices

O night divine!

O night when Christ was born

O night divine!

O night, O night divine!



Truly He taught us to love one another

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother

And in His name, all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name



Fall on your knees

O hear the angels’ voices

O night divine!

O night when Christ was born

O night divine!

O night, O night divine!

“O Holy Night” (original title: Cantique de Noël) is a sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line “Minuit, Chrétien, c’est l’heure solennelle” (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that composer Adolphe Adam set to music in 1847. The English version (with small changes to the initial melody) is by John Sullivan Dwight. 

Wkipedia

Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash

The Daily Song: Sinéad O’Connor-Silent Night

Silent Night Silent night
Holy night
All is calm
All is bright
‘Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peaceSilent night
Holy night
Son of God
Oh love’s pure light
Radiant beams from
Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord at Thy birth
Oh Jesus Lord at Thy birth…Sleep
Sleep
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Peace
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep in heavenly peaceSongwriters: Simon LoleSilent Night lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Dream Catcher

dwelling in this
dark
delicate world
I have sat sentry
all hours of the night
listening
with intent
to your steady heartbeat
to the slow
rhythmic inhale
and exhale
of your soft breath
as you sleep
as you dream
the REM film unspooling
beneath your restless eyelids
projected against
our moon-silvered walls
a private viewing
of your unconscious
hopes
and fears
I stay at the ready
prepared to fight
your demons
and dragons
right hand on
my sword
left hand cool
against your brow
I vow to guide you back
to safer slumbers
with midnight lullabies

© 2018 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved