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.

Road adventures. Perspective

Hey everyone. I’m sharing a little today. Needed the writing break.

So my closest friend and I were off to a farm project recently.
Deep in the village we found ourselves in a sticky situation.
Two hours on an abandoned road,
No prior warnings of the wet season’s effects,
No phone signal, and a vital opportunity that threatened to pass us by. The stakes were quite high.
Where were life’s sticks and stones when we needed them; literally.

For the first half hour we dug ourselves into the hole you can see in front of the right front tire. Pushing the car proved beyond our physical capabilities, and my legs sunk shin-deep into the deceptive mud.

Eventually we accepted our fate, and drew lots for who would walk back to the last village-center, kilometers behind us.
I lost.

We decided to think things over. Solutions are often available if you take a moment to assess your goals and situations.
I wrote this in that time, as we walked around surveying the lay of the land.

The wanderer's path
Unfound but not lost
Right places, wrong times
As uncertainty cradles each moment
And hope straddles each stumble
Perspective is the light
That shines a way through the dark
A step back
To see forward.

We decided to see this as an adventure, a challenge. We were both happy to be on this three-day leave out of the capital.
We were still a couple of hours ahead of schedule. So we took many pictures and laughed at our misfortune.
In the end, before I walked back all those kilometers, we tried again. A combination of me bouncing in the cabin above the rear tire which was the only one on firm earth, coupled with a lot of four-wheel-drive cranking, finally backed us out of that hole. We were stuck in the middle now. Going any further behind would be as bad as going forward. So we took the picture above (maybe we can sell it to Nissan, lol). We chose to move forward.
A pairing of devout Hail-Mary acceleration and sheer luck got us through.

Until we found this pool just after the muddy section. It was much longer than it looks. Same quicksand-like soil and knee-deep water.

No way we were going through the pool, and no way we were going back into the demon mud behind us. So we passed this section by prospecting a firm path through the bushes and going around. We learn from every challenge.

After our farm business, we were shown a much better way back to the main road and continued our journey to Northern Uganda.

Needless to say, a gluttonous meal was our reward that night, once we were back to civilization. 1.5 kilograms of pan-fried pork and a whole grilled chicken.
The locals in the pub thought we were expecting more company but watched in awe, and with lots of shaking of heads, as the two of us got to work. The waitresses were shocked to find empty dishes, lol.

I draw from this experience now, as I face barriers to my immediate goals.

Thanks for reading. Have to get back to those goals now.

Namaste.

To tame an obsession #poetry

In the allure of a dangerous obsession
Your grace plummets into an alamort existence
And enigma tones your 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

Is it in darkness or light
That hope calls from boundless depths and unfettered hues?
Must yearning souls who glimpse a fading dream,
garb themselves in that memory too
Must they pamper desire to bloom in that endless moment
In their sentenced circumstance
Until one day,
a stranger knocks
And they find the dream
At the threshold to their door.

©judeitakali

---

Hey everyone,
I’ve been so busy with revision and scrounging up the remaining tuition fees before exams on Monday. Alas I could not celebrate my book as it launched into the world.

YES! Broken Ties is now live in both ebook and paperback versions on Amazon.
One more to go in this trilogy. I’m doing more than I can, breaking my current ceiling, to make it an EPIC Finale!

Gotta go,

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

Blog tour winners and Brand New full cover reveal.

Hey everyone,

It’s been an intense week of revision and discussions for me. But I’m here as promised to announce the winners of the blog tour participation.

It was a close count so instead of three, we have five winners who’ll get an epub copy of Broken Ties as well as an epub of my poetry book CROSSROADS (Winds of love). CONGRATULATIONS!

• Yvette M Calleiro
• Felicia Denise
• Eugi moonwashed
• Kerfe memadtwo
• Jan Sikes

It was a wonderful blog tour and we have three more winners who’ll get a copy of CROSSROADS (Winds of Love) Congratulations

• John W. Howell
• Cindy Georgakas
• Jacqui Murray

Hope you enjoy the books, and where possible, leave a review on Goodreads.

Full book Cover

It’s three days to Broken Ties going Live on Amazon and it gives me great pleasure to share the paperback cover freshly designed by Unicorn cats publishing services, with some little input from myself.

You can pre-order the Broken Ties ebook now on Amazon. Both ebook and physical copies will be live on 17th May.

I’ll be getting in touch with the recipients’ blogs for an email address to which I’ll send the books.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated. Remember to buy the books and/or spread the word.

I‘m off to continue revision for my semester finals. Catch you later

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Misunderstood. Poetry and prose

Pinterest

The hyacinth lingers on the cusp of depth
Roots in darkness
Petals in light

In a world where everyone outshines you,
Bright smiles and gay laughter repaginate social gatherings.
You rank amongst the dregs,
Stomped on by glamorous updates of couplings, new births, promotions, travels!
You find yourself drawn to the more macabre occasion.
A stranger in the corner at random funerals,
Blending in,
Ghosting in the melancholy.

Pexels

When life summons, you ask yourself:
What face will I wear today?
Which script will I follow?
When all you want
Is to be invisible!

In the middle of in-between
The mirror rips you apart
You endure the curse of reflections
Where each smile reveals an insecurity
And each gaze plunders your ailing depths.
You see your soul
A contrast from the masks you don
And you hope that one day,
Your soul will reflect-
as you mean it to.

Pinterest

Oh to loathe a tick-tock world of finites and norms
To long for the solace of a mind detached from reality
To want to dream
With another.

In the deepest of nights
On the edge of scorned fantasy
The Beltane moon weeps upon your despair
And what is barren-
Blooms anew.

---

Thanks for reading,
Looking forward to your thoughts.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie.

© Copyright

Broken Ties blogtour finale.

Hey everyone,
It’s the Broken Ties blog tour FINALE!
We made it back to ground zero here on Tales Told Different.

I’ll start by giving special thanks to the blog tour hosts:

• Diana Wallace Peach
• Robbie Cheadle
• D.L Finn
• Colleen Chesebro
• Elizabeth Gauffreau
• Pooja Gudka

I’ll be revisiting the comments sections in the blogtour stops this Saturday (14th), and will announce the three to five lucky winners of the giveaways (an epub copy of both Broken Ties and Crossroads Winds of love) on Sunday 15th May. I’ll then reach out through email and send you the copies.

I’m going a bit dark over the next two weeks. Brain and focus on defcon 2 (you don’t want to know what 1 is).
I’ll pop in to reveal the full print/paperback cover (you’re going to want a copy of this).
Here’s a final tour excerpt:

I’ve pre-written and scheduled some poetry and prose posts to keep my site active during the busy release time when I’ll be occupied with exams. I may not read your blogs in that time but I will fleet in to respond to any comments.

Remember, you can pre-order your Amazon copy today or wait for the full cover reveal and get one for your physical shelf, or get both, hehe.

Pre-order on Amazon

Catch you for the winner announcements on Sunday. Thank you everybody who’s been following the tour. The support was overwhelming. Catch you on the weekend.

Meet the Poet: Jude Itakali Broken Ties Blog Tour Day 4

Hey everyone, the stops are coming thick and fast. I hope you can keep up. We are exactly midway the seven-blog tour and we’ll be taking a poetry breather with Colleen Chesebro on wordcraft poetry.

Join us as we have a chat about syllabic poetry. Also, get to see a cat image promote the book. Oh, and there’s a poem.

Welcome to Meet the Poet, a Word Craft Poetry feature written to introduce you to the poets in our writing community. This post is also part of Jude’s Blog Tour for his new release, “Broken Ties.” This is a way to get to know more about the poets and their work. Many of our poets have […]

Meet the Poet: Jude Itakali

Don’t forget to leave a comment on each stop of the tour for a chance to win free copies of the book.

To catch up with the tour:

• Day 1 – Myths of the Mirror blog with Diana Wallace Peach
• Day 2 – Robbie’s Inspiration with Roberta Cheadle
• Day 3 – Author D.L Finn with Denise .

Stay tuned for a nerve-racking reading from me, an insightful Q&A, and the tour finale during this week.

See you at Colleen’s.

Love and pieces #poetry

Everyone has that moment I think, the moment when something so momentous happens that it rips your very being into small pieces. And then you have to stop. For a long time, you gather your pieces. And it takes such a very long time, not to fit them back together, but to assemble them in a new way, not necessarily a better way. More, a way you can live with until you know for certain that this piece should go there, and that one there.”

Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in pieces

#Whatdoyousee

Oh the hand that waits but never reaches!
When wisdom is cruel and love is tough
Is it wrong to save thee for me?
For kindness to be a selfish deed?
When ‘my’ is ‘our’, and self becomes a curse.

Once I held the hand that made my puzzle whole
The fingers that curved and lips that smoothed my jagged edges
I gazed into eyes that saw in me the things I never will
Don’t wait, don’t hope, I begged. Just reach and take. Don’t let me seek. Don’t let me be.

Your will can be mine
When the empty is so full
My soul will be fine
If another makes the rules
I do not want to be strong
When weakness lands me in your arms

#moonwashedmusings

Hallowed loneliness
On the bitter cusp of night
Serenity haunts
When loss cannot be replaced
deride flamingo whimsy 

Tall Tales Corner

#writephoto

I will never forget the joy I had when as a fledgling teen I read about the Quidditch world cup in J.K Rowling’s Goblet of Fire. There was something in that particular chapter that broadened the magic of writing within me. Here was probably the most famous author of my childhood, extending one of the most famous magical worlds to a global scale. I took special pleasure in seeing that Uganda had eliminated Wales(or was it Scotland). That, I think, was my first zing moment of a global world. Like, we were seen, and not the only ones doing the seeing. This most famous writer saw us. It was such a magical moment for me that now, whenever I see a gathering of different national flags, my origin memory is the Quidditch world cup.

This is not so much a tall tale as it is true.

• Based on the quote from Reena’s xploration challenge
• Also for Sadje’s whatdoyousee image prompt
• Eugi’s moonwashed challenge – serene
• Tanka for Colleen’s tankatuesday
• Tall tales corner for Caley’s #writephoto

Hey everyone, I thought I’d do a final post for my usual blog prompts before my book campaign begins. Looking forward to your thoughts.

I’m so excited. The blog tour for my latest book, Broken Ties, starts tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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.