Restless rest (2020 Re-post)

Re-post comment:

I’ve had a little ache in my shoulder for a couple of weeks. Nothing major. Until today. When it exploded into – want to scream with pain every time I move my arm to much or too fast. Tried to take a rest earlier today, but lying down just made it worse.

So anticipating a night of restless rest tonight. Which is why this is this week’s Wandering the Archives Wednesday.

Haunted nights
Disrupted sleep
Grinding theeth
Heart-longed ghosts
Reawaken grief
Daylight seize
Angry wraiths
Trauma made
Flashback gave
Phantom could-have-been
Raises fear
Near-miss dear
Lonely-heart specter
Honest trust
Hope dust
Shades erupting
Legions burned
Can humans learn
Poet quills
Nighttime fills
Worrywart stills
© REDCAT

I’ve had a couple of weeks of restless rest. The death-rebirth energies surrounding midwinter tends to do that. Especially if you work with yourself then.

Add to that the realization that climate change is not longer a thing of the future. Climate emergency is NOW. So we should ACT NOW. Stop consuming so much! Choose better materials. Work towards not using fossil fuels. And so on and so forth. All the things I feel like a broken record for repeating again, and again, and again.

As icing on the cake comes angst as a beloved friend, and several others, had a near miss with death. Senseless violence that’s probably aimed at someone, but shows total lack of care for human life. Again, loss of life is down to sheer coincidences. I really don’t want to live in a world where some think blowing a bomb, nearly talking a building, is a correct response to anything!

Poem written for weekly challenge: GHOSTS at earthweal.

Wednesday 5 May, 2021 2

Blue Forest Of Remembrance – April Ekphrastic Challenge

The blue forest of remembrance is full of quavering echoes
Whispering through the trees susurrations of memory
Wandering among the trees dreaming soul shadows
Most lost in pensive reverie
Reliving, rethinking, re-choosing life through hindsight’s windows
It’s all part of sleeping souls nightly recovery
Whispering through the trees a multitude of echoes
Joy and happiness, sorrow and pain
Most lost to the wind blown shadows
Others fall as antique white petals rain
All part of how memories lights the windows
How dreaming souls lead their wake selves to staying sane
Joy and happiness, sorrow and pain through the trees echoes
Some souls dream of floating in happiness rainbow bright
Others fall ensnared in clawing painful shadows
Losing another nights fight
How dreaming leads to the memory windows
How souls fare in the forest, changes every night
©RedCat

Inspired by the suggestive painting by Jane Cornwell and three words from the Skyloverwordlist; Quaver, Pensive and Antique White.

To see all art and read all poems for today go to The Wombwell Rainbow.

I especially liked Looking for Clues by Merril D Smith and the Villanelle Sylvia by Tim Fellows.

Written in the same poetic form as Mind Finds Soul Fearlessly Shines. One of two invented by me. Because I realized a form used but once, might not be a form at all, so I had to see if I could use it again. I’m glad to say that it worked.

I’m still unsure of how to denote it so that anyone but me could use it. How do you denote a line (2, 4, 6) that only partly repeats in the next stanza? Is it a refrain? Or that the last word in lines 1, 3, 5 repeat in every stanza?

Next I have to see if I can repeat the form used in Moonsea.

Jane Cornwell

likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.

She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of Scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.

Her website is: https://www.janecornwell.co.uk/

April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021

1 April – Dark Orchid
2 April – A Dirge for the Drowned
3 April – Granddaughters of Red Riding Hood
4 April – Raven Dream Flight
5 April – It’s Spring Time Again and The Sweetest Wine – A Quadrille
6 April – There Once Was A Cat and To All The Good Girls
7 April – Mind Finds Soul Fearlessly Shines
8 April – Trapped, Imprisoned In Her Own Mind – A Triple Triolet and Ode To My Dream Girl
9 April – The Aurora Butterfly – A Sonnet
10 April – The Dawn Sky Is Ethereal Blue – A Triolet
11 April – Blue Forest Of Remembrance
12 April – Incantation to Bau-Gula – A Sonnet
13 April – The Stars Are Out Tonight – A Villanelle and Cat Searching High and Low
14 April – Shadow People Before My Eyes – A Triple Triolet
15 April – Three Times Three Times Three
16 April – Autumn feast – A Sonnet
17 April – In The Badger Sett
18 April – Hellcat
19 April – Life Lessons and No Bother! – A Quadrille
20 April – Fairy Dust Magic – A Trio Of Ovillejo’s and Crows Calling At Night
21 April – Polished Mirror Women – Dedicated to Marisol
22 April – Word Salad and A Beltane Song
23 April – Floating Around Everywhere and Oh Bother! – A Quadrille in Ovillejo Form
24 April – A Thousand Paper Cranes
25 April – Change and Restless Body and Mind
26 April – Through Hell
27 April – Weaving Web and Another Piece Of The Puzzel – A Puente Poem
28 April – Sounds In The Wind – A Puente Poem
29 April – Fire That Burns Away All Fears – A Sonnet and Blackbirds Dusk Sings
30 April – Star Prayer – A Sonnet

Sunday 11 April, 2021 2

We Just Want to Get Home – Dedicated to Sarah Everard

Photo by **Rene Asmussen** from **Pexels**

We want to walk the night free of fear
Not on high alert whenever a man is near
We want to enjoy the clear moon light
Not keep every shadow in sight
We want to walk the town alone
Without a loved one on the phone
We want to wear high heels that go clickety-clack
Without feeling predators eyes on our backs
We want to wear short shirts
Without it being a license to hurt
We want to go out for carefree fun
Without remembering we have to be clear headed enough to run
We want to live free
Even if a man happens to something tempting see
We don’t want to teach our daughters to fear the dark
We don’t want to tell them to avoid every park
We don’t want to teach our daughters how to prevent
Others not seeking their consent
We don’t want to teach our daughters to always be on alert
We don’t want to tell them to be suspicious of everyone who flirts
We don’t want to teach our daughters all the strategies
Women use just to be able to go to parties
BUT
Even in trainers on soft feet
We worry about every man we meet
Even dressed in unshapely sack
We know we constantly have to look back
Even talking a taxicab or public transport
We know we might have an assault to thwart
Even with keys sticking from between fingers
That icy icky fear lingers
We just want to get home
Without ending up dead, hidden beneath loam
©RedCat

Read more about the Death of Sarah Everard on Wikipedia .

Read about how One in three women are subjected to violence – WHO on BBC News.

Also shared on Open Link #288 March Live edition on dVerse.

Thursday 18 March, 2021 14

The Witching Hour Knells

Photography by Romain Thiery
(Abandoned in an old forgotten villa in France)

As the witching hour knells
The Mares are in their element
Play their discordant bells
Waking spirits of devilment
They gather under the full moons
To dance in lost lonely hearts
Sing dark fear filled tunes
That all peaceful rest thwarts
Nightmares spawn
From dusk to dawn
©RedCat

The Mares in the second line is a creature from old Swedish folklore. That pop up from time to time in my writing, as in Night Ridden by the Mare.

Inspired by the photo prompt at the Sunday Muse and Sammi Cox’s weekend writing prompt.

Also posten to Writers’ Pantry #60: What Got You Started? at Poets and Storytellers United, and earthweal open link weekend #59.

Sunday 7 March, 2021 23

Nightly Travel Track – January Ekphrastic Challenge, January 7

**Kerfe Roig – Acquainted with the night close**

Inky black, her nightly travel track
Hopelessness all luminescence lack
Ancient lore, by all who has gone before
Depression’s demons lonely souls adore
Cold sorrow, haunting dreams of tomorrow
Unloved child, cutting pain in bone and marrow
Fiery passion, smothered without compassion
No freedom to create in whatever fashion
Bright love, fading to embers without the care it behooves
Lost without the moon’s brightness above
Hope dart, as sudden kindness heal a hurt heart
Stars glimmer as dark clouds depart
Warm trust, swells in the arms of lust
Surrender to soul guidance we must
Sunrise’s clarion call, there’s hope for us all
Chance to rise again after a fall
Fear ended, trauma shattered mind mended
Rise like a true abuse ascender
©RedCat

Paul Brookes of the Wombwell Rainbow is hosting a special January ekphrastic challenge.
Today is Day 1.

Thank you, Paul.

My poem today responds to Kerfe Roig’s image, “Acquainted with the night close.”

Kerfe Roig

A resident of New York City, Kerfe Roig enjoys transforming words and images into something new.  Her poetry and art have been featured online by Right Hand Pointing, Silver Birch Press, Yellow Chair Review, The song is…, Pure Haiku, Visual Verse, The Light Ekphrastic, Scribe Base, The Zen Space, and The Wild Word, and published in Ella@100, Incandescent Mind, Pea River Journal, Fiction International: Fool, Noctua Review, The Raw Art Review, and several Nature Inspired anthologies. Follow her explorations on her blogs, https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/  (which she does with her friend Nina), and https://kblog.blog/, and see more of her work on her website http://kerferoig.com/

Thursday 7 January, 2021 1

Night Walks – 6 December (2019 Re-post)

*Raad Van Kerken, Amsterdam*
**© REDCAT**

Inspired by Charles Dickens

Some nights are special
The magic lantern is lit
Walking the streets and boroughs
Takes an otherworldly turn
Nightlife eddies and flows
Bright lights shine
Deep shadows rule
Travellers, revellers
Societies invisibles
In the diffuse glow of the lantern
The human worlds most shadowy existences gleam
© REDCAT

I’m an avid walker and like long rambles trough cities, towns and all manner of nature. For years I had the habit of “getting lost” on purpose. Meaning take as many new and unknown turn as possible towards a known goal. This has lead to many lovely walks, discoveries and inspiration. So I do it as often as I can.

I tend to be a bit like that when reading on the web. The other day I read an article about Charles Dickens and the emergence of modern Christmas celebrations in Britain and elsewhere. I found an exhibit in London to visit, read more about Dickens and his Christmases. And about his habit for rambling night walks. There I found my inspiration in an essay called Night Walks, “based on his moonlit rambles through the capital’s streets”.

Also posted to OpenLinkNight #257 at dVerse.

Sunday 6 December, 2020 1

Golden Dawn Of A New Year – 5 December

The shortest day of the year
We gather to lore hear
Keep the Yule log blazing bright
All through the cold dark Midwinter night
The longest night of the year
We gather ancestral spirits near
Keep the covens magic might
Shining spell beacon in the endless night
The darkest night of the year
We gather all we hold dear
Keep the heart fire in our minds sight
Steady soul rhythm all through the quiet night
Until the golden dawn of a new year
©RedCat

Through that window I got a glimpse into the Three Witches world once again. For more read Witches Walpurgis Night Preparation.

Written for today’s Adventcalendar post, and The Sunday Muse.

Saturday 5 December, 2020 7

Build a New Start

Worry swirling, keeping awake
Fear and disease, dreams take

Heart beat, draw breath
How many, until I face death
Soul cries, blood flows
Act now! The world never slows

Live true, free spirit
Loving kindness, universal true merit

Fierce mind, brave heart
Embrace change, build a new start
© REDCAT

Inspired by a sleepless night, and Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge.

The last weeks I’ve been struggling with if it’s right to write in a time like this. After much thought and meditation on the subject. Instead I decided to trow myself into writing and sharing. Poetry, my meditation and compassion mind training journey, some prose, and small things that put a smile on my face or brightens the day.

Wednesday 1 April, 2020 9

Tag: Night

Restless rest (2020 Re-post)

Blue Forest Of Remembrance – April Ekphrastic Challenge

April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021

We Just Want to Get Home – Dedicated to Sarah Everard

The Witching Hour Knells

Nightly Travel Track – January Ekphrastic Challenge, January 7

Night Walks – 6 December (2019 Re-post)

Inspired by Charles Dickens

Golden Dawn Of A New Year – 5 December

Build a New Start

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