The Saturday Symphony #37 March Marvels

Ola everyone,
The 36th edition of The Saturday Symphony welcomes you to a March of marvels. This is a monthly feature that may one day become an online magazine which showcases its bit of the wordpress community magic (fingers crossed).

It's 5.am
The sweet-spot for insomniacs
A hill-top mosque moons a summons to sacred vespers
And an eager rooster ignites a cackle of crows vying for dominance
The insomniac does not hear them
This is their ONE hour
And yet they must rise.
The bedside clock shames the exuberant cockery
and jolts you from the peace that nothingness brings
To make joy from your something

Luiza Zambrotta’s tautogram prompt (P) is so fun and I recommend joining in. Here’s my bit:

Perplexing pleasantries portray ponderous parodies.

March is a month of changing seasons. The first quarter of the new year is ending.
Whether it’s Spring or the wet season, wherever you are, if you allow it, you may feel a shift in the air, the spirit, and your psyche. An opportunity to start anew or boost what’s already started.

How about this keepsake from Garima of Be Inspired blog: How To Improve Your Luck .

Can you foresee positive, lovely things occurring?

You’ll be mad not to check out Sally Cronin’s, Smorgasbord Funnies 2023. (Feel free to thank me later)

I hope Sally forgives me for sharing just one of her jokes to send you to her post:
Patient: “Doctor, I get heartburn everytime I eat birthday cake.”
Doctor: “Next time…. Find out the punchline in Sally’s link. (Sorry I didn’t want to steal the joke)

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Shared lessons.

This section will be for one fellow blogger’s shared lesson every month. I’ll reach out to different people just for a little paragraph, not more than they are willing to share. Since this is new, I’ll say something this month.

Before I diversified from poetry and short stories to fiction novels, I learnt a vital piece of advice which makes writing really cool. ‘Let your characters guide you.’ As you try to follow this advice, you develop a new appreciation for Karma and its mysterious ways. Everyone has their own story. Nothing is black and white, I mean, even black and white are spectrums of colour. In real/tangible life, I wait and listen more often, and I’m genuinely very interested in what people are saying. This has really improved all my relationships. I find more people calling, and opening up about really personal things. I mostly just listen and once in a while, I tell them a story.

Outside life's challenges, 
waits a flamboyant beauty 
Verdancy that is a tonic for our souls
It dwells in everything
In the fine desert-sand where no two grains are alike
In the morning dew or pouring rain
The floral blooms and butterfly hues.
Or perhaps on the otherside of day
Where one may enjoy a moonlight caress
or savour a star-twinkled kiss, 
A place to cry where none can see
To let darkness reclaim your darkness.
 
So step outside

Into the wild

Trace the alignment

Of beauty to joy.

Book Candy Collage.

This year, I created corners for my wordpress posts. Visitors to my blog may have noticed the Book Candy Corner, Tall Tales Corner, and Tiny Treasure Corner. These three, cycle in turns from post to post. I’ll collage the monthly book-candy in that month’s Symphony, just in case you missed out.

Ponderous Thought Prompt

From today and through the month of April, find any three aspects in nature, relate yourself to each of them, and publish something on that. It can be dark or bright, just have at it.

You can use art, images and any form of writing. Pingback here by pasting this post’s link in your own post, and I’ll visit and feature your works in next month’s Symphony. These features, in time, will get a more creative showcasing (watch this space).

earth divinations
must one be Witch or Guru
to wake their soul

Sadly, or thankfully, we’ve come to the end of this month’s symphony.
Here’s a last recent poem from my twitter:

Echoes of a bedevilled kiss
Have you known the taste of sin
Or the hidden truths in dream-drenched deceits
Have you imagined grace in a silent expanse
Like dances in the eye of dysthymia
Fleeing gawking stares
Yet hoping-
Someone will see you…

Hope you enjoyed this. I look forward to your ponderous-prompt submissions, which should be posted before the 28th of April.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Inner storms. Cinquain and Haibun

Image credit; Johannes Plenio @ Unsplash

Calm seas
ńeath brewing storms
where morals turn agile
and perspicacious drifters long
for Self

Pity
enshrouds the spy
the unwitty witness
Innocence pays the maiden price
World’s Way

Of hope
on same wavelengths
fickle, is life’s grapevine
upon the volatile current
Of truth

Our fear
Precient ally
reveals and then withholds
bitter endings, brave beginnings
The Call

The You
you always tame
dewy-eyed explorer
wandering through life’s hypnosis
The spark

Tall Tales Corner

Le Jardin de l’artiste à Giverny by Claude Monet

It is said that ‘art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’
Or so their picture-perfect family hoped, as they mounted a piece of spring in their livingroom. It was odd that on sunny days, those trees seemed to bleed and a face lurked in the background windows.
The patch of sunlight surrounded by shades induced a claustrophobic feeling, like conflict was closing in.

New petals may sing
to mask whispers of winter
lavender secrets

The teenage daughter, in the first trimester of a problem-pregnancy, saw a little girl waving from those distant windows, longing to play, to climb trees and eat the juicy-red fruit. To her, the painting held hope.
The mother, a neighbourhood leader, dreaded what people would say about her daughter, and worse, about her. But the painting made her think of swings in the backyard, and lullabies long abandoned, of a baby’s gay laughter and the way she’d say to people, ‘this is my grandchild.’ She too, smiled at the painting.

big trees, wider shades
when night and day seem furthest
their likeness deepens

The father, a model gentleman, was a chin-high kind of man. Indeed, he knew himself to be without flaw. And that’s why he’d fought so hard for that painting at auction. The art plunged chaos into order. It was wild, free, and yet the flowers remained flowers, and the trees were still trees.
Now that his pride-and-joy son had discarded their christian beliefs for the rainbow movement, and his sweetheart daughter was pregnant in High school, maybe he could find the beauty in his own chaos. His eyes were always drawn to that patch of sunlight. Perhaps it was the light eating away at the shadows.

face in the window
judging from winter’s recluse
I know you are me

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Hey Everyone, hope you are well.
I really enjoyed writing this.
The first is a crown cinquain for Reena’s xploration challenge and Sadje’s whatdoyousee.
The Tall Tales Corner is a haibun for Colleen’s tankatuesday.
Looking forward to your thoughts,

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Sighs of solitude #Tankaprose

sighs of solitude
listen to conflict’s whispers
reconciling depths
some woes come from good intent
rebirths that will never die

In the deep stillness, I ponder scars long etched in my blemishfree beginnings, healed yet forever barren. I ignore the itch of scabs that inflame with the lightest touch or slightest approach; a decay upon my soul. I think of trials past that left behind monuments of fear, conquest, and survival. I cannot change what festers within me. But the most beautiful flowers often bloom from decay.

Soul divinations
beneath these troubled guises
seeds longing to bloom
when dreams and life commingle
they know, Growth must beget growth

Book Candy Corner

The Necromancer’s daughter. A retelling of the legend of Kwan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. Set in a winter world of dragons, intrigue, and magic, The Necromancer’s Daughter is a story about duty, defiance, cruelty, and sacrifice— an epic tale of compassion and deep abiding love where good and evil aren’t what they seem. By D. Wallace Peach

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Some tanka prose for Colleen’s #tankatuesday (synonyms for spring and green).

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Amorous soul #poetry #Tarzanelle

Sweet little Mimi
Do you remember?
Your mind of whimsy

How hearts grew fonder
Amorous soul on full display
Do you remember?

You ran each day
with hood and boot
Amorous soul on full display

That same old route
Where homeless waited
With hood and boot

Their stories sated
You begged together
Where homeless waited

you always found your hour of wander
hood filled with bills, for a story to ponder
Sweet little Mimi
Mind of Whimsy
That old man blessed you with plenty.

Moonwashed musings

Tiny Treasure Corner.

This week our language game is a tautogram, that is a text in which almost all words start with the same letter This week’s letter is the consonant Ⓜ.
Here’s mine:
May magical memories make my March mornings mild and merry
I invite you, if you like, to play with us and write tautograms in your own language. They will be shown here – Tautogramma game from wordsmusicandstories.

Hey Guys, I have tests this weekend so I hope you enjoy this little poem. A tarzanelle is quite complex but very fun. Did it in between revision. Mind’s extra sharp now, hehe.

Loved Eugi’s moonwashed prompt image, reminded me of whimsy. And I so want to try Luisa Zmbrotta’s game in the Tiny Treasure Corner.

Catch you soon…

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Poetry of appreciation. #Womensday

Hey Everyone,
Happy Women’s day.
I don’t really need this day to appreciate women, but I do understand its significance to past achievements and the ongoing struggle for equality and mutual respect.
I wrote these poems in the last ten days on my twitter (@JItakali), with no awareness that Women’s day was around the corner.

The lines of prose in bold are just wild ponderings and curiosities.

Beautiful faith
That wholesomeness of purpose
Soiled by disciples bereft of acceptance
Can the universe be contained in one thought and one way
If you open your mind
You may see that your choice need not be mine

New believer
Boots with an evangelist sheen
Your way, or the highway.

Each person is unique and they deserve a choice. A choice that should be respected.

She holds him to his word
If he tells, she leaves!
It’s different for a man
He’ll be exalted by peers
While she, will be labelled pariah
Their secret must bloom in shadow
For with hearts already claimed
they cherish an affair
knowing their love can never be

Isn’t it odd that the harshest critics to polygamous/gypsy women are fellow women? Maybe the men just like an abundance of available women but I’m not sure.

When a loveless existence was the dread of virgin dreamers, death played along a ribcage stairwell, as if poised to reap souls and scythe the hearts of any who chose the lone way.
Would we become sheep,
Enduring much to adhere to custom?
Killing dreams for this love perception

I have nothing against marriage but I hate seeing parents peddle this as a MUST accomplishment in life, often keeping their children, especially girls, in abusive marriages. People, the planet is already full. It’s about time having a family became optional. (this coming from a guy who wants to raise five daughters)

When love teaches by breaking
The damsel sharpens her widow-maker
and abandons the exuvia of dreams
She savours love’s darker proclivities
If you Obey
She’ll grant your deepest fetish
But just like love
She blesses for a moment
To curse for eternity

Just a bit of horror to highlight the darker powers of the fairer sex – purely entertainment.

Patient as night
Soft as a breeze
A pacific embrace
And Neptunian depths of acceptance
All she wants is you
The way you are- furrow and crease
But deep down you know-
She deserves more

her tropical love
an evergreen rainforest
I’m inadequate

And a bit of the woman’s powers of light – though I think this is changing. Queens want ‘what they desrve.’

On the flipside of pain
her hands stroked his dirty pages
Arousing the other side
She reached into his darkness
Tormenting passion’s dead lagoon-
with a storm’s caress
Her tears fell
like freckled rain glimmering with light
Their stories mingled
Bursting into new beginnings

Book Candy Corner

A collection of short stories where dreams and nightmares co-exist.

Nestled inside these pages, you’ll meet a couple in their golden years who take a trip with an unexpected detour, a boy desperate to give his brother the Christmas gift he asked for, a girl with a small glass dragon who is at the mercy of her cruel uncles, or a young mother who has the same dream about murder. You’ll be introduced to worlds where people get second chances and monsters might be allowed their desires while angels and dragons try to help. Happy endings occur, but perspective can blur the line between good and evil in these twenty-seven tales. Since the stories vary between 99 to 12k words, whether you have only five minutes or an entire evening to settle into reading, there is something that will suit your time and taste.

Universal Amazon Preorder LINK

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Hope you enjoy, Happy Women’s day. I’m always writing these short poems on my twitter. Feel free to follow me and engage @JItakali. Looking forward to your thoughts on any or all poems, and how about that Book Candy Corner…

Shallom
Namaste
Namarie

The trappings of Growth. #HaikuTales #TWT

Hey everyone, I got permission from Amy of HeavenOn Earth blog to use her amazing nature photos to write this haiku journey. Alongside, are short twenty word stories for Bookish Bubble’s #TWT. Hope you enjoy.

pale sun and cold winds
memories in the empty
where beauty lingers

Beneath the Vivid, are the secrets of where it all began. For who you have become, there was once nothing.

lost forsaken seed
you must fight lonely battles
to bloom from the murk

Beneath the Vivid, a story of defiance unfolds. Though the voice cannot be heard, a thought takes root. A dream!

against fell winters
comes the test of endurance
how bad you want it

Beneath the Vivid, the struggle goes unrewarded. And the one who is something, but not yet that intended thing, despairs.

the first fruits of spring
a pittance to thorough-breds
Was it all worth it?

Astride the Vivid, you come to a Crossroads: who you want to be, who you are, and who you can become.

twigs on the vine
fallen branches do not mourn
the room made for growth

Aloft with the Vivid, beauty flocks to beauty. But you were not born this way. You see deeper, further, Beneath the Vivid.

Book Candy Corner

HYPE is a story of survival and resilience and hope. 

Cici’s junior year in high school is going to be the best year ever. Popular co-captain of the varsity cheerleading team, she’s dating the starting quarterback. Even her jealous co-captain’s attempts to steal her boyfriend can’t curb her enthusiasm.

When her mom moves in with her fiancé, a handsome, wealthy man, only one small detail threatens Cici’s perfect life. The school’s social pariah is about to become her stepsister, and Cici wants nothing to do with her.

Everything changes when someone Cici cares about throws her life into a tailspin, and the one person Cici couldn’t stand becomes her only ally.

Warning: This story contains scenes of sexual assault. Visit Yvette’s website for more of awesome work: Yvette Calleiro.

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Hope you enjoy.

I may have gone overkill with five twenty-word-story submissions for BookBubble, but I’d promised to send one in yesterday, so this is me making up for being late. The prompt word was Vivid, so I made it a major theme and used it a lot, lol. But most importantly, it fit so well with the message arroused by Amy’s Photography.

Looking forward to your thoughts,

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Doors and blades of grass #poetry

#writephoto

Once, we painted the door to shared dreams of two
Unloved, it now reminds me of you
Fades of time corrode its sheen
Too long left unseen
Glum relic
Pinned
Pedantic
with hope grating thin
My soul barters for its queen
Must I swap new greens for an old blue
Or evolve, to sparkle in different hues

Great expectations
On the tip of a lone gaze
longing for the stars
I stretch for the heighest leaf
When grass below has all I need

#whatdoyousee

An Andaree poem for Colleen’s tankatuesday
Based on image prompt from Caley’s #writephoto
And theme from Reena’s xploration challenge.

The tanka continuation was inspired by Sadje’s whatdoyousee

Today’s Tiny Treasure

...
Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Lead us lest too far we wander
Love’s sweet voice is calling yonder

Shine little glow worm glimmer glimmer
Hey there don’t get dimmer dimmer
Light the path below above
Lead us on to love
...
Extract from this beautiful rhythmic poetry and song.
Glow worm by LadySighs

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An Andaree has an 11/9/7/5/3/1/3/5/7/9/11 syllable structure with an AabbcbcbbaA rhyme scheme.
Hope you enjoy.
Looking forward to your thoughts

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Flowers and gods

I live in a world of gods but they are silent
A lifetime of worship, devotion, and sacrifice
yet they deny me this one boon
They deny me you

Come back, my love…

A semblance of power pulses all around us
I reach for it, delve into the alchemy of the great mother
and preserve you in a stasis of aching beauty
but it is not enough
The gods hoard all the rest
And I need you, my sunrise

In a world without gods, our wills stir the cosmos
I reach into the infinite
and touch the divine dispersions once denied me
My chains are shattered
I see your soul in the chaos that must not be disturbed
But for you, my love
Anything!

For:
Reena’s Xploration challenge
Eugi’s moonwashed challenge

Tall Tales corner

The flowers which sank an empire
grew on a land rich in minerals of mass destruction
They came with gifts and lies, masked in dreams
But this time we refused them
They said the weapons they'd make would protect the world
But mining them would leave our land in ruin
Our air would be fouled
Our waters, poisoned
So we refused them
When diplomacy failed, they attacked our culture
Not long afterwards, their ships landed on our shores
And all we had were flowers
But this time, the world was watching
And one way or the other, these flowers would sink an empire

For Caley’s #writephoto prompt – battleship

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I feel I must disclaim that both the tales in this post are works of fiction and explored perspective and are not in any way intended to offend. Discussions are very welcome.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Evolving. A haibun #poetry and #prose

#whatdoyousee

It is not an impotence to shine, that anchors me in the obscure. Neither is it loneliness or despair that keep me from the sun. Perhaps it is the clarity from rays beaming upon glamour and gore alike, or the beauty that can only be dreamt in the dark, which keep me here, away from where I must go. Am I incomplete, if I bloom where the world cannot see?

demeure of shadows
does light hide in the hidden
where the pollen floats

#TankaTuesday

It is not wonder but a yearning to wander, that chains my gaze to the lady in red on a backdrop of sullen winter. The only cold I have known is the one from a shoulder, as my pleas wisped into nothing. She draws the eye, gay in the grey. And I think, maybe the light I seek, must come from within.

thralls of mystery
a rapscallion wonder looms
virgin decisions

The days of going-with-the-flow are behind me. These be monstrous tides. I cannot survive if I cannot swim. The old strokes won’t do, a minute’s breath falls short. I must find those pockets of air. Here in the depths, I must evolve.

dirigible ways
call the wide-eyed butterfly
to bloom in the dark

©judeitakali

Reena’s xploration challenge
Sadje’s whatdoyousee
Colleen’s tanka tuesday

Book Candy Corner

In this second book in the Fairies, Myths, & Magic series, step into a world where dark fairies, and other magical beings converge in a collection of poetry and short stories inspired by winter and the celebration of the winter solstice.

From Autumn’s scary fairies to the forgotten female characters of Yule, prepare to embrace the magical winter solstice myths from around the world. Book on Amazon

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Hope you enjoy this. Looking forward to your thoughts. Just one more paper to go.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie