December 22, 2017

My Review~ "The Sisters of Glass Ferry" by Kim Michele Richardson


...this is Kim's third and latest work of fiction. I've read them all.

My first insight: Her words are nothing less than poetic...She sculpts her words with texture...a true artist indeed. I read her stories and absorb the beauty of each word...they hang in midair, then slowly and softly fall between leaves to an earth as warm as her voice.

My second insight: She doesn't write for the faint of heart, this story is not a story to be reading at night. There are scenes that are alive with ghosts...the past haunts Ebenezer Road; and the people who traverse this road, which passes by the once old dwelling that harbored it’s secrets, are deemed to regret their actions.

My third insight: I've been reading this story slowly, mainly trying to go with the flow of language steeped in Kentucky bourbon vernacular - sometimes easy to grasp, sometimes hard, sometimes just curiously mysterious. I was about half-way through last night and couldn't put it down...but I did, three times! Each time the light went out I found I couldn’t sleep, then turned the light back on and read further.

My fourth insight: My heart twisted like a corkscrew at times, I cried at the hurt these people felt; I hurt easily from the words that Kim puts in her character’s mouths. Touching and gentle at times, I cried...then harsh and hurtful, or caring, or hateful...these are the people of Glass Ferry, Kentucky.

Lives matter, people matter, but lies and gossip cultivate hate, and disquiet the memories of those we love in this small community. Kim finds these memories and puts this mixture into a story of Literary Fiction that is not for the faint of heart.

My fifth insight: Kim pokes and prods at these memories and emotions until I cry again...the mystery that is contained in this story, and of her characters, are ominous and compelling until it came to an end. It’s one story my emotions got the better of me. She left me wondering throughout each page...who did what to whom and why? The “why” is what I wanted answered on many occasions.

Of course characters have a mind of their own, they aren’t you and they aren’t me, and their actions and reactions aren’t always ours. Yes, I questioned their motives, and impatiently waited for the answers until I found them.

Like I said, lies are a mainstay in this story...we tell them, we complicate life with them, and we end up digging our own graves with them. Kim doesn’t fool around, she cuts to the heart of the matter, and takes your heart along with these characters', and with her's.

I recommend this book to those who love words, loves an emotional challenge...but there are the gentle sway and tilt that leads to the harsh realities of life; all of which creates a complex story in a mystery of two sisters and the people they touched - and All is ultimately left to the eye of the reader. 




December 16, 2017

Happy New Year!

Photograph by Julie Shattuck

Avoiding rain drops, racing to and around drops, large drops, round drops, beating a drumming sound on the ground drops.

Beat to the rhythm of a foreign beat, bursting in splashes across worn feet, step aside my tired old feet, give me a chance to cross this wide street.

Hurry now, you mustn't be late now, you’re off to the party, a furlong of races, where you are forbidden to fall on bad graces.

Splishing-splashing through the street you go, carrying an umbrella, only for show?  Off to the party, a little bit drenched, don’t fall, don’t stumble, or trip on a bench.

You made it on time, where time was of the essence, greeting the host, all smiles larger than most.

Prepare for a feast my hungry friends, find you a chair, to be served the finest fair.

Music to be heard, dancing to be done
take a partner, don't sit and hum.
Midnight strikes and bells will be ringing, ushering the New Year we all will be sing!



My Haiku for you~Light


sun grows dim then bright
summer months will turn to snow

trees covered in light

November 15, 2017

Waspish Old Crone

I beseech thee thy bloody waspish crone
Stay away from me, or there will be hell to pay
Hold your tongue and leave this space before me

She held her breath only to sputter and start again with a choke
Her answer back was a short sentence bleat and a strangled croak
Leaving the premises she walked a crooked mile, then belched from bloat

Her hand rises, and piece by piece wipes the earth of heart and soul
Lingering for a moment to glimpse back, turning all diamonds to coal
Paint thy picture any way you choose, and the world becomes cold

The crone sits now in silence, observing her landscape, barren dust
The metal was gold, now tossed aside for steel, only to lie to rust

Who are thee, old crone, they neighbor, they brother, who can we trust?




November 11, 2017

My Haiku for you ~Autumn


leaves cover the ground
golds and reds, changing colors
warmth from earth turns brown

November 6, 2017

friendships end-Haiku

The light flickered dim
The light went out completely
The darkness exists


Flip the switch to on
Flip the switch to on and off
The switch is broken





October 28, 2017

A Song of Love


Do you love me, a song reverberated in her ear
Do you love me, do you hear
A melody, an old verse thumping against her heart
A melody, together with song from the start

Trapped in a mood, a mood of tangled lyrics cascading down
Trapped within a collage of pictures simulating love with sound
Love set to rhythms of solid drum beats
Love set to harp strings where angel wings meet

you love me, she wished
you love me, she proclaimed
you love me, she sang




October 26, 2017

Thanksgiving Blessings To All

Photograph by Kathleen S. Shattuck

Seeing to the future, all wonders of light, miracles happen, not out of sight.
Fill up your lungs, go towards day, expel the dangers far, far away.


Hallowed the hills of saints gone by, precious the keepers of truth over lie.
Never forsake, always accept, for the blessings of giving will never reject.


Hold out your hand, one to another, forgiveness is near, when held as a brother.
Nature’s bounty, and nature's glory, extend your hearts and erase all worry.


Grasp the hand, hug to your breast, the ache of your heart will now be at rest.
Embrace the goodness of Thanksgiving kindness, holding one another, dear in their shyness.  




October 13, 2017

NO MERCY!

May God have NO mercy on this man and this administration!
They deem themselves God, with every ministration.

Everything is a joke to Trump, he can't hear the cries…
I'll be glad when he's gone, and laugh at his demise.

No tears for this man, no sorrow came...
Just a room full of followers, and a country full of shame.







October 1, 2017

Awaken Love, My Haiku for you

Photograph by Kathleen S. Shattuck

Causes loom and grow
Feelings venture to destruct
Fists tighten in hate

Cast away darkness
Allow light to waken love
Bend souls in respect




September 16, 2017

Dancing In The Rain, My Haiku for you


Photograph by Julie A. Shattuck


Love is a warm spot
Blowing bubbles in the sun
Sing a small refrain

Holding hands with you
Love abounds within my heart
Dancing in the rain



September 4, 2017

D A C A

Photograph by Kathleen S. Shattuck

As my hate towards evil intensifies, for the monster is he …
innocent and useful lives are destroyed, so senselessly.

Don’t let this hate of mine be overbearing, don’t let it rule...
Let children’s lives be, in harmony, in work, and in school.


Break down the barrier, break down the wall...
Give Dreamers comfort, safety, give sanctuary to all.





August 26, 2017

Voices of Nature

The bells toll, the church bells scold the missing participants who slumber through the hours.

The clock ticks, the racing cars speed down the street,
ringing, ringing, ringing.
Night turns to
day, day, day.

Discerning nature from God, from now, from then, to the future towers of Babel.

Carl Jung is that force of nature, a force prevailed within the
scriptures of God's
voice, voice, voice.

Crumbling within his mind, to be placed upon another
time, time, time.





August 5, 2017

My Haiku for you~ Our Joy

Space Coast Sunset + American Flag (5/10/15) | Sunset seen f… | Flickr

Sun shining brightly
We stood in a patch of blue
Your hand in my hand

Winds swayed the treetops
Flags waved to old glory’s pride
Moved our love today

Inescapable Love


Love is a flower
it grows
it buds
it blooms
Love is a shadow
it moves
it’s still
it hides
Love is preoccupied
it gives
it shares
it takes
Love is the heart, beating, dancing, it cries and yearns
Love is deceptive, willful and wanting, fading and dying  
Love concurs
Love aquicends
it’s smooth
it’s rough
it’s molded
Love shines, not gold, not diamonds, rubies or sapphires  
Love is there, it stares, whether you look back or not
Love is all things, and to all Inescapable



August 1, 2017

In The Wake of Despair

I haven’t written in a while and the words come slow.  I manage to type notes out all day long on facebook, but at this moment the essay is halting, not eager to come to the page.  And the reason is...

Lately, or at least these last six months, I’ve thought of nothing else except politics...or the left side of the right side...maybe not so much politics as what’s right and wrong, whatever that means these days.  The just and the truthful; the moral majority seems to be lacking in the words they were meant to mean.

Where are the spokespeople there once was?  The government officials, the hands we elected to set the pen to paper to meet the issues to move us forward, not the scribble that has taken shape with the election of this so-called president who seems to want to run the lives of the world...maybe not run as much as ruin.  The appointments are in and out like a revolving door, and the bodies are flung through the air, sprung from a catapult...never to be seen again.

The Russians are eager to take the potus’ hand, guiding his journey through the White House hallways.  A house he calls a dump...Day and night, night and day, another door closes to our democracy; another door locks as we are pushed into the darkness of despair...the sadness, the depressive rhetoric that tweets day and night from a mad man, a dictator of supreme order; this is his notoriety speaking, his pulpit of fame, his leadership on the pathway to darkness...taking us along in his wake of destruction.



June 29, 2017

Reverie


Inhale the salt flowing through our veins unseen
Charge the air, electric fingers tangle your hair
Show me your eyes, the color of sea green
Waves of shadows roll across the floor
Show me the way tonight
Taunt me, move me
Witness morning light



April 23, 2017

My Haiku for you.~ Another day of spring


Soft feathers tethered
pillows skitter on a wild breeze
Shakes the sky of white


Coolness mixed sunshine
Light lingers on sparkling ponds
Another day of Spring


April 5, 2017

Leaves

I watch from the porch, covered and away from sun’s rays to scorch.
I dream of the seasons, I mention their name, but the days go forward and cease to remain.  Birds and the bees, from the desert to the seas, I will wonder, wonder, wonder, looking, to find you on a breeze.


Covering earth with blankets of snow, rain, hail, and inches of dusty leaves staying too long on the trees; Slow to wake, slow to yawn, slow to spread their wings like birds of colors, earth tones, intense startling colors they fly and fly and fly, up, up, up, and into the sky.


Beneath the shadows there’s dawn, between the sunsets there’s evening, a warmth gathers buds and shows light to their meaning



February 23, 2017

Rain

The wind whistled the rain to come down, and down came the rain. the rain, the rain, the rain... drops drops drops, down came the rain
Wind changed its tune, drafting chunks of mud and grit to play the game of wintry storm, then down and down and down the thunder fought the wind in the trees, then up rose the branches fighting back and back and back
The night wrestled with the moon, hide your face dear, hide your face, don’t come out tonight
The rain came down and down until the drops flooded the fields, the valleys, rivers flowing wild and free, over banks to shore.
The flow, no walls to hold back the torrents of unchained rage, and up and up and up rose the rivers, up and up and up cascading the foaming, brackish mud from beneath the walls, caving and tumbling rocks free of rooted trees, all coming down and down and down...Hide the moon, clouds of leaden darkness...
Camouflage the face and soak the spongy earth behind your winds, you shadowed tormentor
Suck the earth, damn you! Vent your anger, damn you! Go on and on to helpless occupants, innocent bystanders, never to know, go on and on until you've moved the earth.
The earth moves, slips and slides, pushed with might, water laden grasses and trees, and solid rock walls, move away, stay clear, don’t get in front or you will be knocked to your knees.

Mowed down and down, down to the ground, the earth is moved, a fast moving current grips the land, tugging the hold, the solid hold, forgotten and gone, as the rains come down, as the wind lifts up, bodies, spirits, up up up into the sky, carried away, away, away, remembered is all, remembered, for what was left behind.


February 22, 2017

My Haiku for you...Truth… Love… Hope

Turmoil around hate
Send to the pit of dungeons
Truth is the answer


Open doors to all
Tired, hungry and weary weep
Love is the answer


Open arms are here
Crossing thresholds together
Hope is the answer



January 16, 2017

Tear of The Eagle

Open your eyes my angel, open your eyes and breathe the air, open your eyes 

Do you see the Star Spangled Banner, and the music that once wrapped the skies?
Open your eyes and feel the tears, the tears flowing through and onto you
See with your eyes, the eagle has flown...
the eagle so brave it’s flight unknown…
Away, into the horizon, the red white and blue, how majestic our flag waves
The eagle flies but the sky is ablaze…

No smiles, no laughter, no elation...

just tears and blank stares, exhales of frustration
The eagle’s tear, flowing over her majestic wing 
filled with grief can no longer sing


January 2, 2017

A Rambling Rose in a Garden of Thorns

The sun was short lived today...nice while it lasted, because showers are coming back tonight through tomorrow. Looks like the Rose Parade may be hit with a little precipitation! Never good news!
A day in January, one comes to find a twist, a turn to the mind as it slips over the cobblestones of life.  Some good days, some bad nights, and you flip that around and you find a mashup by John Seed.

Watching football...what is it with players who are so self-congratulatory, that they have to throw their arrogant attitude in the other player's face?
UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT WAS A GOOD CALL!

Gwen Ifill is still being thought of...and tears still come to my eyes when I hear her name or see her face...I miss her every day, the NewsHour feels empty without her.

The Dance---Mind numbing music vibrates, skaters sway, flying and cutting through crystalline surface of snow laden ice, to be swept away.  Snowflakes twirling, tumbling in mid-air dancers stumble, then caught by a cold breeze, down and down, falling without a care and yelling in their high pitched cries through the night, bleared eyed, lost in each other's arms in love, not in fear nor of fright.

I miss building a snowman...cold icy fingers defrosting by the fire, while Frosty loves cold and enjoys his cloudy breath in the evening landscape of icicle laden houses.
So…. you Wanna Build a Snowman?
I'm going into a semi sleep...and see what comes to mind...besides a snowman.

The soon to be President is nothing but a sleazy pimp...pimping himself is his job....Those of you who voted for him....how does it feel to have sold your soul to a pimp?  Trump tweets, and I post to you about his childish and ridiculous mentality.

"The man who is about to become President of the United States continues to exhibit a mean-spirited, thin-skinned, narcissistic and vindictive character." (Robert Reich)

"Trump campaigned as a successful businessman. Rubbish. He’s a conman who created nothing but a brand name built on self-promotion. Now he’s monetizing the same brand with the presidency attached to it. The sleaze has just begun." (Robert Reich)

Heating pad...eat...meds...nap…
What a miserable, leaky, dreary day!
11:30 a.m...Time to take the heating pad off, get up and get dressed!

Interesting perspectives and final decisions, the pros and cons of performing at the Presidential Inauguration by a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Everyone makes their own choices, for whatever their reasons...The choice to sing was left up to each Choir member, but to quit the choir for moral reasons, this member took it one step further.

I hear the trash truck...I wonder if I'll lose my container in the truck today!
I woke at 8, turned on Meet the Press to listen to a boring discussion on the news media VS Trump. I promptly fell back to sleep. On this note, on this New Day, New Year, I think this is a precursor to the coming controversial years with Trump as President.

Where Does The Time Go?
2017 Hello!
Where does the time go, that’s a saying put to a question.  No longer a present, no longer the future, no longer the past, it goes, it slugs along, it races to the fence, it doesn’t last. Where does the time go? It’s fleeting, it flies to drift along on a breeze, and wishing time was a kite, to be guided, to be pulled into the wind before the fall. Rescuing the innocent spaces, briefly consoling and cajoling the humor through it all. Where does the time go, when all else fails before it slips through your fingers tugging away and pulling like you have an illusive eel in your grasp!  Before losing your grip you grab the tail and heave a longing gasp!

Wed. is golf...partial sun...pray for no rain.