Ned Hayes's Blog, page 154

"Spring grew into summer, and the rhythm of my life now included...

"Spring grew into summer, and the rhythm of my life now included Nell. I learned that her secret thyme and mint beds were deep in the woods, out by the chuckling stream that disappeared underground.

She gathered plants she needed every day, and she was as a child who gathers flowers in May, setting them in bundles, choosing with caprice, singing to them, naming each plant and leaf with fondness. She danced in the sunlight and the shade. Even watching her a moment, my spirits lifted.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK 

Back to school !

Back to school !

"The spirit moves the men, just as it moves the wing’d creatures...

"The spirit moves the men, just as it moves the wing’d creatures and rough beasts. I think of our first parents – Adam and Eve – as they staggered away from the known world, thrust out of the garden by an avenging angel. We are at the edge of the village commons now. This is the point we cannot turn back. I am already weary, but I will find who did this, I will know the truth."
— from the forthcoming novel Sinful Folk

PHOTO: by gordon.adler on Flickr

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the..."

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

-  Robert Frost (via write-to-inspire)

"The next day brings snow. The black trees all around are edged...

"The next day brings snow. The black trees all around are edged each one in flakes, a pale white line on every limb. Jagged serrations of ice cover the road, hard as iron. When we move out of the ravine on the straight again, we can see that the manor house has grown slightly closer. The two small guardhouses of the manor stand between the road and the valley of a river.

If only we could reach the manor house, we might be safe. But it is too far away, a mirage on that distant hill.”

— from the novel Sinful Folk

“The bridge sways perilously from side to side. There is a...

“The bridge sways perilously from side to side. There is a deep creaking groan. The cart rolls backward, the horses slip, and the bridge is loose in open air. I lunge forward, reaching out toward Salvius’s shoulder as he grabs for the cart. The bridge twists in death throes.

There is a moment in which we seem to float, then a sudden rending crash, a tearing thud as loud as a thunderclap. The world we are on has broken apart: the river ice is shattered.” 

— from the novel Sinful Folk

Photo

Rosh Hashanah 2013 begins today…. "The fog swirls...

Rosh Hashanah 2013 begins today….

 

"The fog swirls around us, and now I feel so very far from Court and from my lands of Ashcroft. Against my skin, I can feel the lines of my rich clothes. Yet still, I sense that inside I am no better than these wretches. I can still feel the scars on my skin from my long winter journey. There are scars on me made from weapons and from fists, from fear and hunger as well.

….

As I tread the moonlit cobblestones, I find my way through the maze. Finally, I turn the last corner, and there ahead of me, they wait. I have found the place marked on the map. The Garden of my people. Leyrestowe.

I close my eyes here in supplication. I remember my mother’s face. She whispered to me, she begged for an oath from a child: “Promise me this. You remember the words I taught you on the water. It is Kaddish. Promise that you will say Kaddish for me.”

She held her hand out, grasped me tight.

“But you must wait to say them. You will go where there are other Jews, find them in London – you must find ten of them. Together, you must say Kaddish for me. It will save me, in the afterlife, these words will lift my soul to heaven.”

They are in front of me. My people have gathered here, the last remanent, altogether, in the Jew’s Garden at Cripplegate.

I lift my eyes to the distant moon that shines over our earthly sphere. I stare around at the field in front of me, the seven-branched candlelabraum etched over the archway, the dark gray stones ranked together in rows, the brambles that have overgrown this secret shadowed place.

— from the novel Sinful Folk

 

PHOTO: mossy graves (by Cate …)

"April comes to us, with her showers sweet. I wake to the cries...

"April comes to us, with her showers sweet. I wake to the cries of little birds before the light comes across the heath. They wait all night with open eyes. Now, with the rain at dawn, their voices make melody. I turn back the reveled cloth of gold on my bed and walk to gaze beyond my glazed casement window. In the plaintive voices of the wood fowl, I imagine my mother calling to me, her words echoing across the years."

 

— from the novel Sinful Folk

PHOTO: -olly: Spring Blossoming. 

"Nell’s secret thyme beds and her mint were deep in the woods,...

"Nell’s secret thyme beds and her mint were deep in the woods, out by the chuckling stream that disappeared underground. She gathered plants she needed every day, but it was as a child who gathers flowers in May, setting them in bundles, choosing with caprice, singing to them, naming each plant and leaf with fondness. She danced in the sunlight and the shade. Even watching her a moment, my spirits lifted."

— from the novel Sinful Folk