Michele Lee Sefton's Blog, page 28

Wear the damn dress, darling!

“Awake! arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm
Loses its strength by too much rest;
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Click here for What Kind of Woman is This? by Buddy Guy.

I’ve put off wearing this dress for almost four years. The time is now. Let me explain. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, I bought a dress, similar in color to my first published Being a Woman collection, illustrated by my daughter, Sammi Lee. When I bought the dress, the collection was yet to be published and I had hopes of wearing the dress out to celebrate my first publication. Our publication happened but due to the pandemic locking down many aspects of living, wearing the dress did not. It remained on a hanger, with the tags intact. There it may have stayed if not for fellow blogger, Samantha Burgett, who encouraged me to wear the dress. Thank you, Samantha! I am starting here, with this share, we’ll see where this dress takes me. Celebrating the publication of a chapbook collection seems silly in hindsight but celebrating living does not. Thank you for visiting. Happy living! Michele

featured photo by Inara Prusakova / my selfie (holding Burgett’s book and my first collection)

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Crushed

A fiery force
invisible, yet sensed
fuels flowers into existence
traced to the ancients
who recited tales
of a vengeful mother
who stalked mead-full men
when they were sleeping
and a ruthless dragon
who scarred lands
and turned greedy men
into ashes
            blended with the earth
            washed away by rain
            purified by streams
flowing into the future
to be consumed again and again
revealing its fervent origin
in poets and mystics
who walk uniquely
among us
whose voices are dying
a soft death
under the weight of
petals, fallen

With special care, tulips can be grown in the Sonoran Desert, though their appearance is rare, beyond chilled flower shops and markets. I’ve long admired their simplistic appearance and sturdy stand-upness. Thank you for stopping by and reading. Warm wishes. Michele

featured clip by Agency Smile / my morning flower photo

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Butterfly Bandage (w/audio)

More than dipping a toe in, the water held our salvation, if only we could find the courage to dive in. Standing. Watching. Hesitating. Wild contained within a long corridor of concrete. Water captured to nourish the crops. Crows, circling and diving. Our world, contained within the frame of our vision. Our minds took us beyond. Cursive swoops and swirls forming across the surface, a body’s length between us. Get burned from above, get blasted by meddling strangers, or let the cool water swallow us, those were our choices. Streaming blue from the mountains, beneath thick fields growing cotton and thorns, stretching from the earth toward the sun. Water rapidly flowing. Hands in prayer, body folded, no more stalling. Barefooted and stripped of clothes, in I dove. Along the rough bottom, I did scrape. A thrust toward breath. A gasp for intake. Blood blending with water, rapidly flowing. A sting and burn. A layer torn. Raw revealed.

Plenty of time spent in lakes, but we never had a backyard pool to keep us cool during the hot summer months. The flowing canals were a reprieve, and a great risk that I would never recommend swimming in. According to Arizona Forward, “there are more than 180 miles of canals in the Phoenix metro area, which is more miles of waterways than Venice and Amsterdam combined: Venice has about 26 miles and Amsterdam has 60 miles.” Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Michele

featured photo by Oleg Gekman / my hiking photos

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Honeysuckle Heat (excerpts)

He kissed her in the spot where the damp leaf had been, now a decoration on the kitchen tile – concerns for another time. Parched from speaking her name nightly to unconcerned crickets who carried on with their sweltering summer tune, his lips were now quenched by a softness that brushed against his soul, like a golden sunrise whispering its way above a lone hill.

………………………

A smile spread from his lips to his busy hands, tending to her breakfast, while listening and breathing in scents that felt like home, a place he’d never been but longed to create. He smiled at the thought of finally having a reason to use the vintage Pyrex bowl with the Butterprint design that he discovered behind outdated flour during his third week in the cottage.

………………………

The extra sleep was softening her edges and smoothing her laugh lines, while his were deepening and his nerves were fraying, trying to make progress on his research while catering to her. Serving two masters was taking all of him.

Click here for Georgia on My Mind by Annie Lennox. From my Honeysuckle Heat playlist. [image error]I listen to a few songs from my growing playlist before I start writing, not with the intention of informing my words but to settle my mind and slip into the proper mood.

My second novella, (currently) titled Honeysuckle Heat is coming along. Sharing a few excerpts that relate to the main character, yet to be named. Selecting character names is an involved process for me and one of the many different challenges of writing novels and novellas, compared to writing poems and essays. The story, set in the state of Georgia (with a few scenes in Los Angeles) is written in third person omniscient point of view, with the prominent focus on the male character. Thank you for stopping by and reading. I look forward to sharing more as this story unfolds. Kind regards. Michele

featured photo by Evannovostro / my morning flower photo (not honeysuckle)

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Ready set, Reset swingset

Feels good to pause
the mind from
its forward
thinking
to find
oneself
simply
living

Good morning from a meditative Sunday in the Sonoran. Thank you for visiting! Feels like a slow-moving, deeply enriching pour. Warm regards. Michele

video by Zoteva / my photos, sunrise (April 7th), sunset (April 5th)

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Putting on a show

There she goes
bumping down the road
wrapped in candy apple red

Silverado short bed
windows down, music up
blond lift held with Aqua Net

Nice truck!
more than one said
not talking wheels, I suspect

from my poem, “Candy Apple Red”

Click here for Slow Ride by Foghat if video doesn’t load.

I cruised to a Chevy truck show a few weeks ago, just in time to catch the tail end. Raised in Chevys, it was like going home. My mom drove a candy apple red short bed and my dad drove a beautiful chocolate brown with a roll bar and a slight lift and always with a tow hitch. Thanks for stopping by! Safe travels and happy weekend vibes. Michele

my photos, “The Reunion Truck show”

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Sky offerings

Grounded
in human form
with earthly responsibilities
that keep me moving forward

while managing the mundane
my free spirit soars
to the heavens
Uplifted

“For so long I have lived on the edge of an invisible world. Sometimes I feel like the scattered debris left over after the personality has fallen out of the sky.”

― Steve Rasnic Tem, The Man on the Ceiling

Sky happenings are a constant source of connection and inspiration for me, whether that occurs through a “moody tree,” a tangled moon, a breathtaking hue, or my spirit animal coming into view, I do my best to ground myself in the morning then stay aware and open to the possibilities soaring and flying about while I carry on with the busyness of living. Thank you for visiting! Michele

my photos, SpaceX launch (April 1) / hawk sighting (March 31) / sunset (April 2) Do you see the plastic bag?

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Hard-boiled Magician

She usually made egg-salad sandwiches with the leftover Easter eggs.

He had another idea.

“Some people, however, say that they do not eat eggs because they do no like them. This is suspicious. Eggs are tremendously flexible and can be prepared in a variety of ways, all of which are different experiences in one’s mouth. If you say you do not like eggs, it is like saying you do not like books or light or wearing a ball gown. It means you simply have not found the right kind.”

― Lemony Snicket, Poison for Breakfast

Egg-salad sandwiches are best spiced up with Sriracha, lemon juice, pepper, and onions, if you’re into that kind of thing. I once thought it would be a funny April Fools’ joke to put salt in my dad’s sugar dish, before he made his morning coffee. Was no laughing matter. Never did that again!

Thank you for stopping by! Wishing you a wonderful first week of April. Michele

photo by Everett Collection

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

Easter ghosts and echos

“Are those roses?” the man covered in tattoos asked, as he approached me.

“Yes, different kinds,” I responded as I turned my body and raised my hand toward less than a dozen rose bushes.

I suspect he knew the answer before he asked.

“I come here a lot,” he told me.

Looking at his full and frayed backpack and the lost look in his eyes, I already knew that.

“I played here as a kid, with my cousins,” I shared. “My grandparents’ old house is a few doors down. The backyard was once lined with tall oleander bushes, and back then we were able to play in the train. Was once a great place to hide Easter Eggs.”

He smiled at that.

Click here for Change by Big Thief, my Saturday morning sing-along. Lyrics below.

What once was, drawn into the folds of sunset’s changing golds. Acceptance, generously added, turns the flavor into a sweet wildflower-honey pour.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you a pleasant and peaceful Easter weekend. Mine will include taking my soon-to-be leaving sister-in-law, to a Saturday dance class, soon. Won’t that be fun! Warm regards. Michele

my Good Friday photos / my photo by Larissa

Change by Big Thief

Change, like the wind
Like the water, like skin
Change, like the sky
Like the leaves, like a butterfly

Would you live forever, never die
While everything around passes?
Would you smile forever, never cry
While everything you know passes?

Death, like a door
To a place we’ve never been before
Death, like space
The deep sea, a suitcase

Would you stare forever at the sun
Never watch the moon rising?
Would you walk forever in the light
To never learn the secret of the quiet night?

Still, like a stone
Like a hill, like home
Still, what I find
Is you are always on my mind

Could I feel happy for you
When I hear you talk with her lik
e we used to?
Could I set everything free
When I watch you holding her the way you once held me?

Change, like the sky
Like the leaves, like a butterfly
Death, like a door
To a place we’ve never been before

Would you live forever, never die
While everything around passes?
Would you smile forever, never cry?

Songwriter: Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker

© 2024 MyInspiredLife

“Fly on little wing”

With wings
bold and transparent
let’s fly
toward
hope, renewal, love, and tranquility
and
the promise of infinity
with wings
free.
Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix

Well she’s walking through the clouds
With a circus mind that’s running round

Butterflies and zebras
And moonbeams and fairy tales
That’s all she ever thinks about
Riding with the wind.

When I’m sad, she comes to me
With a thousand smiles, you know she sets me free
It’s alright she says it’s alright
Take anything you want from me, anything
Anything.

Fly on little wing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, little wing

Click here for Concrete Blonde’s version of Little Wing. ℗ 1989 Capitol Records Inc.

Do you see the bird in the tree? I always delight in capturing a bird in flight, however, this little bird with its glowing red feather stretched to the heavens in the morning light might be one of my favorite bird-in-flight photos, ever. Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you a week of fantastical flight. Michele

my photos taken during Worm Moon day (March 25): AM (1st photo) and PM (2nd & 3rd photos)

poem note: best viewed through site, “Fly on little wing” / song note: best enjoyed with volume turned up

© 2024 MyInspiredLife