Month: May 2021

at the artist’s cottage, a drabble

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, creativity, fiction, writing10 Comments
Courtesy of Eugi’s Causerie

His cottage looked out to the waves and the sky. Paints, brushes, and canvasses in varying states of completion filled the space. His lonely time on the bluff fueled creative landscapes highly prized by art lovers. 

Then one day, the woman with the black hair knocked on his door. Now, he lay idle, his fingers mingled loosely in those raven strands, inspiration long evaporated in a haze of romance.

“Today, my love? Please, pick up your brush again,” she coaxed.

He knew he was done with landscapes. 

He stared into her sapphire eyes. New inspiration flickered.

“Yes, today,” he smiled.

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Thank you to Eugi’s Causerie for the prompt, “mingle,” and the accompanying photo.

JB

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, life, poetry, writing2 Comments

he seems just a mere whisper in the night
a ghostly wraith
i could put my hand right through,
but no,
he’s really there, breathing,
standing unsteadily in the dark cool,
the light of the streetlamp
glinting off his head where hair used to be.

how long, how long will we have you?
days? hours? or perhaps just minutes.
you are barely there
i would put my arms around you
but for fear of breaking you.
you laugh and you smile
as if you are not in the act of disappearing
as if you are not in pain.

look at this long bold man
who forged his path
his own way
doggedly gripping this life even as he
ebbs into a world beyond —
what is it that we are? how is it that we stand
in this place of in-between together?
why must we suffer this collision?

even now,
look at you in the bright heat of the oven, 
hammering, crafting on the anvil
the only thing that means anything
at all.
and just look at this beautiful and cherished thing
you make in the midst of the
incomprehensible.

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seen

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, poetry, writing8 Comments

in that desperate state of erasure
to be seen,
to have all the precious contours
of both body and mind
seemingly espied
by an undistracted gaze,
suddenly feeling the breath
of the horizonless moment,
curiosity prickling open throttle,
at last, at last allows
the igniting of the pulse
to beat itself to life once more 

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Thank you so much, Eugenia, at Eugi’s Causerie, for the much-needed inspiration I found in your prompt, “magic.”

oceans

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, poetry, writing2 Comments

i feel the would-be tears
of sadness, or is that joy,
or, wait, could that be love?
i am an ocean of feelings until i see
beyond the puzzled grief to the
the mute, immovable anger

a massive piece of iron
settled in the floor of that ocean,
it takes up space
where life would be,
buried there to serve no purpose
a tether of leviathan detritus

time has done nothing
to this original sin 
forged unthinkingly by the hand of man
ugly, silent, seething
smugly altering the course
of the waters and life itself

but the oceans are so much bigger
than this,
couldn’t i just swim away into the blue
of the seas, the sky, on to endless spaces
where other worlds await? but, oh,
look! a wind breathes softly there.

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remains

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, family, life, poetry, writing2 Comments

my brother is gone

that well of moments shared
from the earliest of our days
tracing the paths of life 
we traveled together
but oh so alone
remains
remains

i knew you all of my life
until today
and knew you
not at all
a spinning planet
eclipsed by the unspeakable mysteries
that tear lives asunder

still you will be there in those photos
with your tender gifts
your laughter and pride
that boy
the almost frail one
the genius that would not find a home
the husband the father

unseen among them are
those closed doors
the terrible sorrows
the infinitely unanswered questions
making another epistle in the scripture
i pore over the verses
clearly written for a reason

the stilted scribble of your hand
lingers among my papers
while the passing of your life
is somehow
reduced to a text
my heart is full with you
but empty

the boy i thought i knew
the man of whom i knew only the periphery
go, strew yourself across the darkness
a constellation
there always on a clear night
for anyone who might look up
and wonder

my brother is gone

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paradise, of a sort

On By earthskyairIn creative writing, writing9 Comments

Every self-respecting Michigander knows how you get to Paradise.

Head straight up I-75 over the bridge, then head northwest toward Tahquamenon Falls. It’s right there on the Lake Superior shoreline in the shelter of Whitefish Bay.

There are no palm trees waving in tropical breezes. Nor will you find any cabanas along the beaches of the lake’s dark, cold waters. 

It’s Paradise nevertheless. Nestled along the “big lake” on the edges of the upper peninsula’s mysterious, beautiful forests, it’s where dreams come true with that much-needed cup of coffee, maybe a pasty, and a tankful of gas. 

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Thank you, Eugenia, at Eugi’s Causerie for inspiring this little drabble with this week’s prompt, “paradise.”