The Scrivener's Jest

Every rainbow,
Requires a storm.
The maelstrom surrounds us
But it is only one small part
Of a greater journey.
Though we stumble and stagger
We carry on
Knowing that, some day,
We will dance
Along paths of shifting colors
To the edge of Arcadia
And the glowing lands beyond.

#vss365 #rainbow

I'm awake
In the gray morning,
Dreading the rise
Of a too-hot summer sun,
Watching the spider
Outside my window
Navigate its web
Still dripping with dew.
It is careful,
Takes its time
Finds a way.
I watch it disappear
Into the flowers of a lilac,
Safe and secure.
May we be as lucky.

#vss365 #spider

Thank you!

I knew her the way that children do,
A playground friend, a schoolyard crush,
Images in cardboard and construction paper.
She'd bring brownies as a treat,
Fudge and cherries
Offered with a shy smile,
Wanting to be seen.
I did see you, but I didn't know to tell you.
I am so sorry.

#vss365 #brownie

I took my scarlet letter,
Abandoned the flock,
The poisoned pure
Who speak with honeyed lips
And forked tongues.
Who list the rules,
One by one,
Building chains
On shame and guilt
All for the greater good,
Or so they they say.
If this be the "greater good,"
Let me stand with devils.

#vss365 #rules

We were never sure
What we were
I'm not sure we cared.
It was nearly midnight,
At a table with friends
I no longer know,
Listening to a band
I don't recall.
Your hand slipped
Into mine
Beneath the table
Fingers entangled
The music merging
With a heady hum
That only we could hear.

#vss365 #hum

We used to play pretend,
Becoming wild creatures
Lost among the elms,
Protecting the magic
Of secret worlds.

Now we play pretend
Ranking our value by number
Hiding a part of us
That screams for the worlds
We left behind.

Worlds, still there,
Alive with magic
Waiting for our return.

#vss365 #elm

"So you're a thief," she said as he entered the room. Her gaze never faltered.

"A thief?" He tossed the bag at her feet. "I took what wasn't theirs. Every sapphire in that bag is a tear, every ruby a drop of blood. Prices paid but never satisfied. Now, satisfied in full"

#vss365 #sapphire

Interview: Adam Bolivar “Loki’s Gezucht” (Loki’s Brood) by Carl Emil Doepler (1855-1922) [Today, we sit down with poet and author Adam Bolivar. Here, he discusses his newest collection, Told by Fir…

Fan of pagan lit, #pagan verse, the verse of the Eddas? Behold! An interview with my friend the esteemed poet Adam Bolivar, author of award-winning rhyming weird-tales-esque verse...AND a rediscoverer of the wonders of Alliterative verse. The sagas, and his own new sagas alliterative verse.

The sparrows dance
Floating in a still blue sky,
Storms on the horizon.

#vss365 #sparrow #haiku

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Sometimes silence
Is a kindness.
Truths unspoken
When revelation
Brings more harm,
So I carry them alone.
My precious little scars.
The tears dried long ago,
But I still feel their sting.

#vss365 #tear

I count the promises
I could not keep.
Keep them as a tally
In my head.
A reminder
Of impetuous failure
And my own naivete.
Oaths made
To strangers
I thought I knew
But were never there.
Fictions offered as vows.
Broken when I saw the truth.

#vss365 #promise

I went in search of a #purpose
My meaning, predetermined
On some distant #spiritual plane,
But I found more truth in the opposite
That who I am is not prescribed
But inscribed, carved out
In every action and reaction
A culmination of life
With endless opportunities
For change.

#vss365

I stagger back into my office and slump into a chair happy for the silence even in the heat. I know I should write, but the words are poor and tired, a reflection in white paper and black ink.

So no words from me tonight. Instead, I lose myself in yours and thank you for the kindness to do so.

our father
which art in heaven
another runaway dad

#vss365 #spiritual #poem #poetry #smallpoemsunday
#senryusunday #senryu

I have an uncanny knack
For making things harder
Than they should be.
Not good at slowing down.
Never chosen the easy path,
Some times with good reason,
Other times just foolish pride.
I always assumed age
Would bring mellow and calm,
But not yet.
There is still more room to grow.

#vss365 #mellow

We learn early,
Better students
Than we think,
To hide ourselves
Bind words and wishes
Into that silent place
Where we reside
Safe but alone,
Free to be,
But never seen
Life in the oubliette
Built from the pieces
Of a broken innocence
Waiting for the soul inside
To break free.

#vss365 #innocence

As a someone who discovered you through the incredible projects you helped bring to life, thank you for the art and the work. Stepping back to shelter your creative spirit while continuing to support and foster human creativity is never a surrender. I wish you all the best.

You drew me out
Into the night,
Into a storm
All wind and rain,
Where we danced
Dark and wild
Under a darker sky,
Spinning hand-in-hand,
Closer and closer
Until our eyes met,
In a flash of lightning
And our midnight joy
Descended,
Into a wormhole
Of mad desire,
Inescapable.

#vss365 #wormhole

Marion, Marion, quite the #contrarian,
How does your logic flow?
With backward claims and stubborn games,
And truths she weeds like woe.

#vss365 #poem #prose #verse #parody #nurseryrhyme #writing #poetry #poetrycommunity #micropoetry

You paint your world
In black and white,
For every winner a loser.
But a life of zero sums,
Never builds to anything.
I don't mean to be contrarian,
but the world I see is different,
A mosaic of shared lives and loves
Where the sum of us
Is always greater than any one part.

#vss365 #contrarian

Boys in old suits
Girls in dresses,
Soft silk and taffeta.
They smile and blush
Sweaty hands clasped
On a dance floor
With its own free throw line.
They are young
Playing games with love and lust,
That never really end,
Just become heavier when the sun rises,
And the dance ends.

#vss365 #taffeta

I tried to let you go.
Wrote your name
On a yellow strip of paper,
Tossed it to the wind,
And wandered on.
Now, I see him
On every barren tree
And fallen flagpole,
A lone rook.
His dark eyes watch me
In silent reproach.
In his beak, your name,
On a yellow strip of paper.

#vss365 #rook

A boxer
I'm not,
But I'm down
for the scrap.
Carry on,
Fists raised,
Every round
Good or bad
Just the haze
Of pain and blood.
Just another fight.
No crowds here,
No victory speech.
In the morning,
A new ring,
The same fight,
Like yesterday
And tomorrow.

#vss365 #boxer

I dream of winter
In the summer heat.
The bite of cold air,
The soft crunch of snow
Beneath my heel.
As I walk through drifts
Brilliant white
Blinding in the sun
A pale star
Struggling for ground
In this world of ice and rest
A world not yet ready
To wake.

#vss365 #heel

A harsh look down abandoned main street as a dust storm is about to swallow the town, pushing forward from billowing brown clouds on the horizon. In the foreground a stop light hangs papered over with a giant wasp nest. Ominously the red light of the signal protrudes from the nest like an unblinking eye fixated on the viewer. The yellow lane line dividing the street wavers off-center. To the left, a car is overturned. Among the wreckage lies a child's rag doll spilled out the passenger window. An eagle with wings spread wide is painted on the derelict shop window.

HARBINGER (2015)
Acrylic on Canvas - 36" x 54"

My initial inspiration, I believe, grew out of concern for the destabilizing and immense effects of global climate change, a sense of nature out of control and giving birth to unnatural and cataclysmic phenomena. 1/3

I am a patriot of the dispossessed.
I claim no allegiance to a land forsaken,
Bent and broken by cruel vanity.
I claim no home in a world of stolen places.
Crowds gather, honor their holy trinity:
Money, power, and violence, a daily Armageddon.
I watch them burn.

#vss365 #patriot

Mid-90's nostalgia: I'm driving an old AMC Spirit down Snelling Avenue at three in the morning after running an all day game set in the World of Darkness. It's winter. I'm broke as hell. The defrost isn't working, and it is getting hard to see. I have two miles left to go.

#vss365 #nostalgia

I sit with my book and watch light flicker through the window. It catches the edge of a water glass and splinters into a brilliant rainbow. A simple thing, but it makes me smile. I love these quiet moments, no scintilla of the chaos outside. I would stay here forever if I could.

#vss365 #scintilla