The Garden – A Prose Poem

Photo by Cosmic Timetraveler on Unsplash

For many years the garden lay neglected.
Fallow,
overgrown with sorrow weeds and thorny trauma brambles.
Creative stream choked off,
the source strangled by fear.
No longer filling the deep story pool.
Unable to attract sparkling dragonflies of fantasy,
buzzing idea bees or paradise birds flights of fancy.

The weeping willow shedding its leaves in grief.
Becoming naked skeleton of raking nightmare fingers.
The starving muse wilts and fades.
Retreating into dark amnesic mist under the onslaught of anxiety rain,
depressive storms.

A bolt of awakened lightning sheared through the bruised cloud cover.
Putting the strangling weeds in flames.
Rekindling the suffocated creative fire.
Birthing a fierce Phoenix from the flames.
Rousing the sleeping muse with a song of newfound life.
Hailing the first ray of kind sunlight.
Praising the smatter of nurturing rain.

Now the garden blooms and grows.
Tended by the muse and the soul Phoenix.
The brook babbles and laughs as it flows.
The air is filled with fragrance,
the sound of wings of every shape and size.
Safe in the knowledge their host will never again,
let anything her creativity compromise.

©RedCat

Photo by Jie on Unsplash

Written for Poetics: Garden(ing) at dVerse. As I took my evening walk, thinking about gardens and gardening. This is what came to mind. Following a thought about one of the first writing communities I found “Imaginary garden with real toads”. A place that made me feel welcome and a place who’s kind encouragement kept me writing through all my doubts, making me think that I could do this. I know many of you might have a hard time believing it. But I’ve been writing poetry for less than two years. I’m still finding my way and my voice.

This is not the first and probably won’t be the last time I’ve written something very personal to a prompt. My writing is both pent up creativity poured out, and a form of dealing with and working through everything that’s happened to me.


Photo by Jeff Finley on Unsplash

A Trip To The Wild Side! – A Trimeric(ish) Poem


– Welcome my lady!
I’ll be your chauffeur to the other side.
Where you’ll meet your parts called dark and shady.
The ones you hide because they’re deemed too free thinking and wild.

I’ll be your chauffeur to the dark side.
Fasten your seatbelt, it’ll be a wild ride.
No need to blush, we all have sides we hide.

You’ll meet all your parts called dark and shady.
Those you dispatch to your mind’s darkest alleys.
The ones you think will make you less of a lady.

Hidden because they’re deemed too free thinking and wild.
Thoughts and notions that might brand you a flower child.
Things you fear will make you from polite society exiled. 

– Welcome sweet lady, to a trip to the wild side!

©RedCat

Photo by Saffu on Unsplash

Written for this week’s Sunday Muse

Inspired by the prompt photo, and the comic Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl that for some reason popped into my mind as I started writing. Can’t find it now, but I think a picture with Lenore might have been the first time I came across the “Come to the dark side, we have cookies” meme. The Lou Reed song didn’t turn up until I wrote the last line. 

I’ve played around a bit with the rules, hence the Trimeric(ish). But otherwise this is my second use of the form first tried in Guarded By The Unicorn.


Read other responses to The Sunday Muse here.


Arcane is your path — Let some light guide your way.
Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

Daily Haibun, June 17th – Demilune


The demilune* is bright in the pale sky. The light calming after a warm busy day. Lending peace to evening meditation. Giving calm to an overheated psyche.

My mind is still running itself ragged with too many thoughts and too much self doubt. But I try to function and make decisions despite that. Since I know waiting for it to pass is a fool’s game I’ll lose.

In the balmy night
The demilune shines bright
Calming my minds sight

©RedCat


*Demilune is another word for half-moon.


Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.


Photo by Josh Miller on Unsplash

Malleable Strawmen of Gold


We’re all born malleable lumps of clay.
Full of hidden nuggets of unformed gold.
Strawmen built of experience strands of hay.

Able to ourselves shape, reshape and mold.
Rebuild from the ruins, rise from the ashes.
Take trauma and rare origami gems fold.

To withstand tormenting flashbacks flashes.
Find meaning when all seems utterly lost.
Capture fleeting hope that by us dashes.

Change orbit to no longer be star-crossed.
Listen to the voice in our hearts and soul.
Let passion heal, lift our spirits aloft.

Let hurt go, take charge, be in control.
Reassemble the pieces to a new whole.

©RedCat

Written for this week’s Sunday Muse.
Also shared with Writers’ Pantry #74: Words, words, glorious words.

Written in the Terza Rima pattern. Which I tried a few times before.
In Raven Dream Flight, Open, Accept, Surrender and In The Badger Sett.


The first warm sun (2020 Re-post)

© REDCAT

Re-post comment:

Looking for what to re-post for today’s wander in the archives this meditation poem gave me strength and peace of mind. Hope you can feel some of that too!

Enjoy!



The first warm sun rays of spring
Warm upon my cheek
A breeze turns it into gentle caress
Brilliant light dances behind closed lids
First spring touch kiss my lips
Natures warm embrace surrounds me
Comforting, healing
Life affirming

The Goddess gently touches
Starburst erupts
Showering me with universal love
Connecting me to me
To every living thing
Assuring me there will be a way
A path out of darkness
My trek dotted with oases of calm
Peace, connection, love
Moments of bliss

Secure points in a bewildering maze
Built of old and new trauma
Fear, sorrow, dark despair
Life-ending depression

Inner trust and faith will guide me through
Inborn strength a given armour
Intelligens, wit and wisdom deduce true from false
The quest might be lonely
Yet aided by care and love
Freely given, by friends yet to be found

Breathe
Be still
Accept
Give thankfulness

Use your pen
Jot both now and then
Hone your craft
Draft by draft
Writing will illuminate
Meditation germinate
Revision concentrate
New life emancipate

© REDCAT

Today again the will to make poetry out of my meditation overtook me soon thereafter. :-)

Also posted to earthweal open link weekend #8.

Fire That Burns Away All Fears – A Sonnet

Concentrate On Hearing Voices by Kerfe Roig

When the world outside is quiet and calm
The choir of voices singing in my head
Fills my being with the singing of psalms
The echo sounds of dreams I long thought dead

Passions stubborn spirit refuse to shed
Visions burning clear in my thirds eye’s sight
My core even though abuse has me bled

My walls can no longer contain the light

The choice becomes, slowly die or shine bright
Trust there’s life time left for another choice
Spread my battered wings and let dreams take flight
Believe there’s stories to tell with my voice

Let truth be my shield and my words my spear
My pen the fire that burns away all fears

©RedCat


This is my fourth Sonnet in April. And my first ever Spenserian sonnet, which has a linked rhyme scheme of ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. 

I still feel sonnet’s are harder than some other forms, or I’m more intimidated by them. Due to their Shakespearean connection. Meaning I feel like a novice poet like myself has less right to venture into such prominent territory. Such are the silly traps my mind makes for itself. I mean I have no problem venturing into other classical forms.

This is the first time the pentameter felt natural and not overly forced, although keeping all the feets iambic still eludes me. I also had an instructive fun time reading up on the Great Comets of 1811 and 1819. Especially the first of those, that was visible to the naked eye for 260 days must have been a real marvel. Leaving many impressions in culture, for example in William Blake’s miniature painting The Ghost of a Flea (below).


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

Also shared to Open Link Night at dVerse.


The Ghost of a Flea c.1819-20 William Blake 1757-1827 Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05889
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 PointingSilver Birch PressYellow Chair ReviewThe song is…Pure HaikuVisual VerseThe Light EkphrasticScribe BaseThe Zen Space, and The Wild Word, and published in Ella@100Incandescent MindPea River JournalFiction 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/

April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021


Self Portrait, after Man Ray – Ekphrastic Challenge, January 25

Kerfe Roig – Self portrait #15 (after Man Ray)

Perfect pattern
Imperfect person
Soul learn
Life’s caldron

Shadow emerge
Shaping light
Pieces converge
Passion write

Muses release
Invigorates life
Creative peace
Rebirth’s midwife

Sparkling bright
Connection clicks
Inspiration ignites
Rise Phoenix

©RedCat

A self portrait poem, inspired by self portrait artwork, that is inspired by a self portrait rayograph. If that sounds confusing and dizzying, I can only agree. It’s also fun. *smiles*

Read more about Man Ray on Wikipedia and MoMA.

Read all poetry and see all art at The Wombwell Rainbow.

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 PointingSilver Birch PressYellow Chair ReviewThe song is…Pure HaikuVisual VerseThe Light EkphrasticScribe BaseThe Zen Space, and The Wild Word, and published in Ella@100Incandescent MindPea River JournalFiction 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/

I Was Born– January Ekphrastic Challenge, January 17

Kerfe Roig – I was born (after Yayoi Kusama)

I was born
Blank slate
Touched by neither prophesy nor fate

I was born
Budding traits
Balancing on point til they meet love or hate

I was born
Curiosity great
Learned my sex should their minds prostrate

I was born
Told to wait
Stay still, be quiet, one day someone chooses you as mate

I was born
Killed as bait
Some women never get scared witless nor straight

I was reborn
To illustrate
There’s life after trauma that minds titillate

I was reborn
Myself dedicate
The right to survive and freedom to thrive reinstate

I was reborn
Souls to elate
To love and pain vividly narrate

I was reborn
Loving state
New creative and passionate adventures await

©RedCat

Read all of today’s poetry and see all art at The Wombwell Rainbow.


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 PointingSilver Birch PressYellow Chair ReviewThe song is…Pure HaikuVisual VerseThe Light EkphrasticScribe BaseThe Zen Space, and The Wild Word, and published in Ella@100Incandescent MindPea River JournalFiction 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/

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