I haven’t written there in awhile. Probably a year or two. I wanted to bring it back to life, and wanted to share it with you:
http://mindwanderer22.blogspot.com/
Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Easter!
~Ashley
Category: poetry
What I’m Reading: Winter Edition
Good morning and happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a relaxing and smile-worthy weekend.
To kick off the week, I thought I’d share a few books (and other things) I’ve been reading to keep the chill off.
(Yes, I’m still reading The Night Circus. I’ll finish it, I know I will.)
Books
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Mini-Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
Safe Haven, Nicholas Sparks
Operation Beautiful, Caitlin Boyle
Blogs
Reading My Tea Leaves
Dashing Dish
Magazines
Poetry
A Night Without Armor, Jewel
And here a few books I’m looking forward to reading:
The Pug’s Guide to Etiquette, Gemma Correll
Stern Men, Elizabeth Gilbert
The Art of Dancing in the Rain, Garth Stein
The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult
The Last Camellia , Sarah Jio
Love in the Time of Global Warming, Francesca Lia Block
What books have you been reading lately?
Stay warm and have a great start to the week:)
~Ashley
Winter Ghosts
When the leaves are changing and the wind blows
cold and the storm clouds pile up on the horizon,
I will remember the warmth of summer nights and
the look in your eyes when I said we’d last forever
under a blanket of stars and planets and pale
moonlight.
When the snow starts falling and the festivity starts,
I will remember how it was when I was with you, making
snowmen and kissing under the mistletoe and
the look in your eyes when you said we’d last forever
on a frostbitten nights standing on a blanket of white.
When the new year starts, will you think of me?
Will you wander as far as I have?
Will they tell our stories bundled up by fires, roasting marshmallows?
I will long to hear your voice
telling me we’d last forever– but,
until then, our secrets are protected
in the snow, in the stars, under the mistletoe.
Catching Up: Poetry Challenge, Days 20-23
#20
Clementine was young, vibrant, and vulnerable
yet apparently, replaceable but
one night she decided to make her world
technicolor
Sweet and plump nothing ever phased her
until they phased her out but still
she waited,
brilliant and cold
capable of holding her own
But eventually, her world turned winter white
an ice queen, waiting, and then
the snow began to fall
snowing every day till there was no technicolor left
But still Clementine danced under the falling dust,
she lay in the powder and watched the snowflakes fall,
kissing her forehead, nose, and cheeks
later that night, she stared out the
frosted windowpanes, waiting
The next day roses appeared
and everyday after that
a blanket of thorns, a vision of red
pure and seductive, she realized
someone noticed
someone else was watching
and waiting, too.
#21
Doe eyes and precious she needed protection
or so her daddy thought, until her fairytale world
came crashing down in flames and she had to become
the protector of her heart
#22
Nevermind the raisins but my baby never enjoyed raspberries
the older she got the more I wondered why she didn’t like
anything she had before
on her fourth birthday, the number I hated,
I watched her cut off all her hair
and cry because she felt so wild
oh changeling
you’re still mine
oh changeling
we can make this work, can’t we?
oh changeling,
where has my other baby gone?
You love to sing, and dance, and tell me stories
I wonder if she would too
You say there’s nothing you can do
you really hate school
I wonder if she would too
Do you ever talk to her
tell her the secrets you know
that she should too?
oh changeling
you’re still mine
oh changeling
we can make this work, can’t we?
oh changeling,
where has my other baby gone?
#23
No!
“Nothing you can do will ever make me
wish away the stars or cast out all the
secrets my pinky finger has promised to keep
you can try, oh try, I dare you, but I’ve built
a wall
with no cracks,
I’m sure of it.”
Poetry Challenge: Days 16 through 19
#16
The diamonds across the street are blinding me
I cannot see the other side of the lake and I know you are there
waiting and watching and wanting me to find a way
to the other side but I can’t and you know I can’t
Yet they keep shining, hitting the sun and their fragments
keep blinding my eyes and I cannot see yours
green and dark like pines at midnight.
#17
Passion lies in the dark waiting to be whisked off its feet
waiting for the skeletons to create color on empty canvases
rough, uneven, waiting to be dripping with paint
in the folds of curtains, plum and velvet
ghosts dance and wait, patient,
wanting to return to the light when they could dance
freely without anyone judging them or
telling them to go to the white light
Angels, don’t dance in the dark
don’t hide the feathers that make you whole
skeletons weren’t made to be
without breath, without love.
#18
Alice never thought of leaving,
she never thought of leaving the dinner table
and walking away, down the street
tonight the rain is pouring and
she knows the rain won’t stop
her whole life can fit in one tiny
neon pink backpack and her teddy bear
from when she was five
hangs out the side
looking for love in the place she knows best
on the tracks, in the snow, rain turning to ice.
#19
Rain pours, thunder rolls and the stone comes alive
Without blinking, without touching I try to run by,
past the angel of stone, reaching, moving
without me knowing
growing closer and out of fear
I switch eyes, twitching, wanting to feel the
refreshing clearness blinking can provide and
I remember a science show I watched once that
had these same creatures and I remember him, that
mysterious Doctor, telling me not to blink
and to run.
Poetry Challenge: Days 13 through 15
#13
Crimson is the color of my blood that the ice queen wants to take from me
she wants to remove my sadness and give
me something special instead
I think it’s Turkish delight but all that
is
is fantasy and I cannot breathe
because, is it,
getting colder in here?
My blood is white,
dripping with ice crystals
in front of her
my queen
dangling my sadness
in front of me
like it’s hers to take away.
#14
Sleep, where have you gone and why
are you not coming back?
I need you now, my eyes are too red
and my heartbeat slow–
my eyes are slipping,
I cannot see properly.
You know this cannot last forever,
nightlights and goblins and monsters under my
bed
when I sleep, it never arrives
I toss and turn and pray to make the demons
run away
but love is more powerful than my insomnia
and I know one day
when I sleep
I will be next to you
and the monsters will watch, before growing bored
and leaving.
#15
Liquid ink, black as darkness
midnight, starlight
drips off the brush,
searching for vibrancy
and
my canvas, a skeleton,
waits for color.
Poetry Challenge Day 12
A simple whisper, “I miss you” travels out
to the horizon, a message in a bottle
only seeking you
I wish you could come back to me
but you are here, forever,
watching the ocean
drift in and out
If you were here I’d bring you coffee and the
favorite scone you like
from the coffee shop where we met
out on the sidewalk, looking at me
like an angel
waiting to save me
the ocean drifts in,
the ocean drifts out,
dangerous- my solace and peace
and faith and hate.
Poetry Challenge Day 11
We were meant to dance among stars and gather secrets to take home with us
you arrived in the middle of the night, a storm
a dark storm
a storm I’d never seen before
all I wanted was to follow your happily-ever-after voice, soothing as I
to you tell me your past, as I share with you mine–
you taught me to listen to the stars
their tears, their music, their pain
I felt the universe weeping
and all I wanted to see were planets dancing among them
simple spheres in the sky
I try to tell my mother but
all she says is
“night
is nothing but night”
but you provide the magic I need
to prevent myself from bleeding
inside, on the outside, in the middle of the night
you make me understand that time travel is nothing
without you– the only thing
I want more than you
is the light
in your eyes
when you tell me the universe only weeps
because it is lonely
we are drifting along
no gravity
listening to their secrets.
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