The Saturday Symphony #39 May Musings

Hey everyone,
The 39th Edition of The Saturday Symphony welcomes you to May Musings.
Exams are done and I have so much fun-work to do and catch up on this summer break.

Dreaming of this.

I’ve completed the first draft of my next poetry publication on mental health. I’m so excited about this one, guys. About what it is, and what it will grow into when the editing and nuances are ironed out.

I haven’t been able to do wordpress posts because of papers but I’m now back to my favourite platform. Expect a bit more engagement from me. The poetry in this month’s symphony are short pieces I’ve written recently on my twitter. Hope you enjoy them.

We blur into the crowd
Drunk on passion
A kiss, a swivel, an unbreakable entanglement
It is a beautiful thing to belong
Even to the night life
We are seen
They wink at us
They approve
We do not need it
but how good it feels
To be accepted
And may the morning
never come

Blog reading time has been hard to come by recently but I managed to get some great pieces to feature this month:

Anamnesis by Kerfe on memedtwo is a short cathartic read that I greatly enjoyed.

Fish and Boat on Cannery Row by The Bubbly Tipsy Mermaid was such a refeshing read.

Yes, You should follow genre rules (Unless You’re Famous) by Jacqui Murray was very enriching and informative. I enjoyed diving into her linked catalogues.

The allure of dangerous obsessions
Grace plummets into an alamort existence
and enigma tones traits in forbidden hues
Blacks turn grey
and greys gloss to silver
Hope paints silenced lips with secret desires
and eyes glimpse a dream's mirage
Always out of reach

Ponderous Thought Prompt

This June, share a favourite verse from a favourite song. Feel free to incorporate it in any piece you’ll be writing. I’ll read it all.

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.

Last month’s Ponderous submissions (Apathy)

Eugi wrote in a really cool form called Hay(na)ku:

revel
in madness
inhale life’s folly
crowing
at dawn
shapes last stanzas
high
on oneself

Soul searching by Moonwashed musings

Soothing words by Where Stories can spark magic:

It takes courage to find yourself
The courage to unlocking that door and
keeping it open only happens when you
discover what had already been right in front

There’s something by WhereStoriesCanSparkMagic

A captivating and comforting story by Inkwell:

I couldn’t help but wonder if my perception of the world was unique or if this existential malaise was widespread. Was it the drudgery of daily routines that were sapping our spirits, or was there something more profound at play here, a sense of disenchantment with the world around us?

Apathy in the city by The Inkwell

Intense haiku and american sentences by Jules:

little monsters roam
don’t know or care for the rules
whisper and point; hag!

Three aspects apathy by julesinflashyfiction

Soulful Inspiration by Sadje:

We seek attention and love from others
Yet we cannot see beyond our own issues
When we put our own pain, hurt, and issues first
We don’t realize that others are suffering too

Dealing with apathy by lifeafter50forwomen

Click the citation links to read full posts.

Moulded by despair
Your skin thickens to a hide
The pits have pressed you smooth
And depression has polished you with empathy
You rise from darkness
Resilient
Lissome in the raking moonlight

Since I didn’t do any Book candy corner last month as I was promoting my new release, Broken Ties, now available on Amazon, you can expect reviews this June and July, as I begin going through my first to-read list. Most are wordpress authors I follow and interact with.

He wades a world of billions
And yet his journey is lonely
Born of sunrise, now made of dusk
Tartarus is weary of his presence
He holds vigil in its darkest abyss
Pertinacious
Tethered in the grim and gruesome
Where death laughs in the face of love

Hope you enjoyed this Symphony. Be sure to check out the links of the featured posts, and of course, have a peep at the Realms of the Mist series page.

I'm not who I once was
I cannot love as I once did
The morning breeze is not as fresh
City smells have annexed it
Pastries from the corner store
Sewage from down below
And memory from deep inside
I live a redolent existence
Yet life itself changes
It is the way
To adapt

I’m back to the working out schedule. Gotta tick the physical-health checkbox as well.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

The Saturday Symphony #38 April Apathy

Jambo everyone,
The 38th edition of The Saturday Symphony welcomes you to an April of Appreciation.

This is the last post before I go on tour with my latest novel, Broken Ties (Book 2 Realms of the Mist).

BlogTour schedule HERE.
I’ll be sharing the links. You can expect reviews, excerpts, Q&As, exclusives and giveaways if you follow me through the comments on the seven-blog tour.

Alright, on to the Symphony.

A heartbeat in the dark
Astride my own

Subconscious attuned
To a lost rhythm

Nights we lay so close
Sating need
with dirty deeds

Yet I linger in the wreckage of our dreaming
Alone
No compass to point north
No map through loss
What will I create
In the colors of night

This April, we seek some insight into apathy. Webster defines apathy as the trait of lacking enthusiasm for, or interest in things generally.

Ishaisms’ tanka poem is a brilliant insight into how we can so easily misunderstand somebody’s outer demeanor for apathy.

I also highly recommend this gorgeously written symetrelle from David.

Those words scraped in my mind
What was it about 'You can't'
That made me want To do!
Cacoethes
The thrill of risk
To prove I'm not who I am
Who I hate and yet should not!

So I laced my marrow in new fibre
And my bones ached from the change
For little I knew
Of the dark side

Shared lessons

I picked this little piece of wisdom from Sadje’s Keep it alive: “Some questions make us question our own beliefs
While some questions just make us want to beat our heads on the wall
Yet asking questions is necessary to gain insights
Without asking questions, how will we know?“

Book Candy Collage

Featured on my blog this month.

In case you’re looking for more mystery, thriller and fantasy reads, I recommend Tessa’s great bulletpoint reviews.

For some people, the mask of apathy is used to cage their darker proclivities. There is no rule that everyone should be open and share what’s inside. But even those who seem apathetic, have ways they express themselves. Gentler subtle ways, or perhaps sinister and dark. I wrote these gothic haiku for the #Gothiku hashtag

Joy's evanescence
won't you stay but a little
Yesterday haunts me

when night clouds the eye
rotten things fester unseen
what daylight reveals

my decaying love
don't flowers bloom in the mulch
seeds of a soulmate

willowed drapes
lure the fragrant breeze
Sad summons

Ponderous thought prompt.

For the month of May, do some research, or draw from experience, a way in which you’ve got someone who is seemingly apathetic, to open up.

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.

Featured submissions from last month’s prompt

Again and again, the marvel of the flexibility of human nature makes me admire its tenacity more and more.
The ability inherent in all human beings
The capacity to adapt, to make do with
What we get instead of what we desire…

Continued on Keep It Alive

wedded to April
spring clings to your heart and soul
listen carefully
silent is the dew
yet distinct the…

Continued on Moonwashed musings

I see a pattern of the seas,
prancing and prancing,
cherubic as they can be,
and yet stoic when need be.

I see a pattern of the seas,
impatient and energetic…

Continued on Kitty’s verses.

These were exquisite. Thank you to all those who submitted.

Raised by virtuous innuendos
He's taunted by a star's promiscuous winks
and the dyslexic beam of a lustful moon
The aphrodisiac of possibility stirs his unfettered spirits
An awakening happens in his virgin mind
Minimal
Subliminal
A precursor to pleasures once denied

Sadly we come to the end of the April edition. I hope you enjoyed it. I shared some of the poetry from my Twitter in the month of April. Be sure to follow the wonderful featured links.

Mystique embraces midnight's velveteen forest
You trail whiffs of new desire
A fresh start
Your brittle roots yearn for moistened umber soils
For a triple-threat love
A paramour whose flames lick at your snowing heart
Thaw your icy mind
And ignite your dampened soul

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

See you on the blog tour starting 26th April.

Deeper natures. #shadorma sequence #poetry

Adventure
Claims in its bosom
The willful
The untamed
Dyslexic hearts that roam
Slaves to the unknown
~
When the eyes deceive
Our minds become visceral
Logic fails
Plots set sail
We see beyond mist
Hidden truths

On the eve
Of past afflictions
Scars sting raw
Souls go numb
The mirrors on our walls speak
Of beauty unseen
~
In castles of fear
We imagine dark dragons
But the child
with a seed
Dares to discover
Grapes of spring

Book Candy Corner

In this fast-paced psychological thriller, Lisa and her brother embark on a quest to solve the mystery of their father’s murder. The journey takes them into a secret world where nothing is as it seems. Once the puzzle pieces begin to coalesce, they realize that their father had multiple lives. As the facts unravel, the siblings discover the true meaning of Redemption: Redemption by Gwen M Plano.

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Colleen #tankatuesday, challenged us to write a shadorma series with a twist.
I wrote four shadorma and my little twist is that I joined them in inverted pairs.
It is all one poem though, so I hope you enjoy.

The shadorma has a 3-5-3-3-7-5 syllable structure.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Soul-gazing and love’s doctrine #poetry

#Whatdoyousee

The death of love’s doctrine
Was a pain to behold
We watched it fade in our children
And wondered what signs we missed
What lessons were mistaught
For how could a Truth so strong it seemed eternal
Wither to dream and fairytale
Was it the dawn of self-love
Misunderstood by many, though not all
Awakening selfish trends
Ambitions that overlooked compassion
The Self at the expense of the bond
For who said one cannot love oneself
and still have love to spare for another

They tried to burn those words we hoped would guide them
But the flames blew out
For the winds of change
Would not accept this change
Love’s doctrine would survive.

Tall Tales Corner

#writephoto

An antic chandelier
From an age of mystics
Its crystals glisten
with light so soft it feels like starlight
and yet so loud
that when the wind gales
and the crystals chime
their voices wail
So flip that switch with caution
Lest you're trapped stargazing
Or rather, soul-gazing
For in perfection
we find the darkest secrets

Hope you enjoy these. For Sadje’s whatdoyousee and Caley’s writephoto.

Looking forward to your thoughts…

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Evading reality #poetry #prose

Fantasy is the faculty of imagining impossible or improbable things.
Reality is the state of things as they actually exist.

Oxford dictionary

To live in the now – we are often advised.
Plan for the future – the elders’ mantra
Learn from the past – a phrase piggybacked upon wisdom
Confusing, perhaps conflicting, but all drenched in reality;
Condemning many to a distressing now,
a scripted future
and a mundane past

So why then do we have this ability to imagine “impossible” things
To dream and dread alike…
Why do we think of fantasy unions with real-world lovers
or solve real-life problems with fantasy solutions.
Go to your happy place, a psychiatrist will often say
In essence, a place of fantasy.

For some, our rabbit-hole is that extra hour beneath the sheets each morning
Snoozing alarms and dreading the day’s monotonous obligations
but wishing for the spontaneous potential that hides in every moment
Today will be the day, we often hope
Today is the day! we often dread

I ponder on what weighs heaviest between fantasy and reality
My answers are surprising
My answers may not be yours
Many have evaded reality, choosing fantasy’s bliss
Seeing the world through a lens of privilege, or ignorance, hate, love, or bias…
It may be wrong but it is natural, testament to unacknowledged fantasy
For in the end, reality is around us
but fantasy is a part of us
and both cannot be ignored.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
“Of course it is in your head, but why should that mean it is not real.”

Albus Dumbledore.

©judeitakali

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Hoping for your thoughts on this. I just let my mind wander.

My books available below;

Realms of the Mist

Crossroads (Winds of love)

Stay safe everyone, stay loving.

The Saturday Symphony #29 Inner Child #JuneEdition

Hey everyone,
Welcome to the 29th edition of The Saturday Symphony. This is a monthly feature with its roots in giving back to the blogging community.
This June, we indulge our inner child.

We are all born as creatives, molded in the image of the Great Creator. But somewhere along the road, we abandon our inner child.

Paraphrased from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Well, the good news is that everyone on my wordpress is bristling with creativity. In this June edition, may we break the mental piggy bank, buy a bunch of candy, cakes, gold and silver stars, then dust old favourite toys, and let our inner child sparkle.

Silly slimy snail
with a pretty shiny shell
how slow you move
how boring you are
So I drink my chocolate milk
and take a nice quick snooze
to wake and find you gone
to where I only imagine

However insurmountable a dream may seem
if your inner child calls to you, answer
Reach
Nurture
let joy be your soul’s toy

digital art by Aryana Golchin

This month’s five featured posts

To further spoil your inner child, this month’s features are five awesome prompts. Go ahead and open these links, feast on the amazing roundup submissions, or find them in the comment sections. You won’t be sorry and your inner child will be spoilt for choice.

#Whatdoyousee

#Writephoto

#Reena’sxplorationchallenge

#Tastetherainbow Tanka Tuesday

#Eugisweekly

Brush, skulk, hide
Fifi the fox fetters in the meadow
Brush, skulk, hide
Railey the rabbit rushes
No nose so sharp as Fifi’s
No ear so true as Railey’s
Searcher and sneaker
My two fondest loves
But when fluffy-Railey is pinned beneath Fifi’s deadly paws
Instead of fear I laugh aloud
For I raised them together
And no matter how different they may seem
My Fifi and Railey are bonded for life

Art by Julia Taillon

PONDEROUS THOUGHT Prompt

This month indulge your inner child. Be goofy, be fun, be whiny. Rhyme, share or compose a favourite bedtime story, tongue twister, song. Tell tales of pets, old toys and forgotten delights. Just be playful and have fun.

You can use art, any form of writing or media.
Pingback to this post and drop a link in the comments so I can visit, and feature you in next month’s symphony.

As a toddler I clang to my sister Anna
We sat through late nights
with a candle in between
Then with spell-binding oration
and nerve-racking enchantment
Anna told tales so wonderful I could never get enough
And my inner child remembers
And I crave
And I long to feed my soul, and others like mine

May’s Ponderous submissions “Finding”

Enjoy these beauties from last month’s ponderous prompt.

From generation to generation. Sharing love, traditions, and faith. Gifting confidence amid turmoil of the people of the land…

Inner sight by Jules

peaceful solitude// a hit-or-miss to my soul// seeking to embrace…

Foggy deliberations by Eugi

Come, my darling,
and hold my hand in yours.
Never let go of my hand,
so don’t dodge me. Come closer…

You by Jane Aguiar

I dream of me
In a place with you
I dream of laughter
And pain accepted by two
Of fears shared
And hopes reborn
I dream of dreams
Coming true

©judeitakali

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Hope you enjoy this. I’m looking forward to your thoughts.

To further indulge your inner child with something I’d like to think is riveting, then my debut novel Realms of the Mist is available here.

Summertime Inspirations #haibun #haiku #Tastetherainbow

In my fledgling author career, I have found that summer months yield the bulk of my productivity. The summer inspires me most, so today I share just a hint of where summer can take me.

season of my mind
consolidates creations
chasing pots of gold

On the fifth day of the fifth month, I slosh from dewy spring into days of dry sun. It is ironic that heavy rains hail summer days, and cruel, that thunderstorms wipe away all traces of spring’s lingering sparkle. In ancient tradition, this was a time when the boy became a man, when the spike antlered into an elk, and the young lion-males were cast out of the pride. A time for first kills, first battles, first lovers…

paint of new summer
crimson for blood beginnings
Orion wakens

On the sixth day of the sixth moon, as proud sunflowers bask and lush wisteria bloom, I welcome mid-summer and seek the lotus of Iris; a symbolic gift for a daughter turning woman. At this time of summer solstice, I remember the crusaders who once sought to Christianize these pagan celebrations. For on this solstice, the Past shades its biased garb for revealing nudity, and I see clearly the Science of great women burnt as witches, and secrecy of young queens who sacrificed love to bring peace to their bloody realms…

mid-summer solstice
noon’s siesta abandoned
maiden voyages

On the seventh day of the seventh moon, the heat peaks, but for a lone gust of wind with cooling hints of autumn. It makes me ponder the inevitability of change, and the hope, or at times fear, that no situation is permanent. At this time the heavens are open to those who wish to divine them. It is said that amongst the stars blue is hottest, that white is warm and yellow is mellow, but coolest of all is red. So I scour the night sky for scarlets and rubies and cherries – for always in shades of red, my deepest emotions reside.

late chrysanthemums
sweet gifts of summer’s parting
festivals of fire

I chose red for Colleen’s #Tastetherainbow and wove it throughout this piece because for me, inspiration to create is directly linked to passion, and red is passion’s primary colour.

©judeitakali

Hope you enjoy
Stay safe, stay loving.

The Saturday Symphony June edition is this weekend. Those who want to join in from last month, click HERE