Posted in Fantasy and Adventure, Life and Awareness, Love and romance, weekly challenges

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

Posted in Fantasy and Adventure, Horror and mystery, Life and Awareness, weekly challenges

What comes Next #RXC #writephoto

Hey everyone,
This is a somewhat unique and personal post for Reena’s xploration challenge and Caley’s writephoto.

It’s no secret that writing is my dream and I mean to do it for the rest of my life. As I write my debut fantasy trilogy(book 2 coming this May), my subconscious has been thinking about what next.

For Sue in the ether
In the heavens
In the spirit.
We remember you
.

As I lined up Caley and Reena’s prompts, I thought about my own art- Writing. So I looked through my old journals dating back to 2013 and behold: I found my next projects.

Acknowledge the great creator’s role in your creativity. And use those gifts.

I was so excited to find that even then I’d made somewhat meticulous notes on how to write these books; the characters, themes, settings, plotlines, even handwritten 1st chapters for all three books.

The Universe is always conspiring to help us. We just need to ask. And the best way to ask is by beginning.

I didn’t have a blog ten years ago, didn’t even know that what I was writing in my journals was poetry and prose. I couldn’t have pulled off those projects then. But now and in the future as I learn and manifest, I think, I hope, I believe I can do them justice. The ideas are amazing(for me at least). I see them from much closer, like my nineteen year old self has passed me the baton, except I’m now much fitter and I know how to get to the finish line.

There is no patent on creating
At its heart, it’s freedom.
Soothing
Empowering

If we have the nerve to look, we can see in any face, our own vulnerability.

I hope sharing these encourages anybody else who is waiting to start. Do it for your inner child. Also, I hope to get subscribers for my publications, lol.

Writing projects for the near future

  1. May 2023 – Realms of the Mist Book 2
  2. November/December 2023 – Poetry book linked to mentalhealth
  3. Autumn 2024 – Final Book 3 Realms of the Mist.

Middle/Long term projects

Most details here are tightly under wraps for now. Tentative titles. My 19year-old-self had a real talent for blurbs and synopsis(es), a talent I seem to have lost.

  1. SurrensvilleA paranormal mystery (novel or series with a touch of the occult)
  2. Imagine Endless ThingsLiterary fiction (‘The play of the century.’ I used to love theatre. Definitely a stand alone novel)
  3. BestowedDetective horror (stand alone novel)

Poetry will always be in between the novels, where I’ll hope to share personal reflections and any wisdom and experiences I pick/have picked up.

May the universe accept these dreams, because I already have.

What moves people to genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

EUGTNE DELACROIX

Today’s Tiny Treasure

Physically weak
Mentally strong
Women the epitome
Of inherent strength
Shoulders the burden
Carries the entire weight
Of the family she helps raise
There are so many faces of her
Each in its own way perfect...

When she bleeds, she bleeds in Technicolour by Sadje.

I’m sharing a lot of personal things of late. Maybe that’s the universe pushing me to finally ask that girl out, lol.

I hope to post some poetry and prose for Women’s day tomorrow.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Posted in Fantasy and Adventure, Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

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

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

Posted in Life and Awareness, Love and romance, Nature, weekly challenges

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


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

Posted in Life and Awareness, Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Approaching the future. A #senryu series

Dire predictions
the dimple in a grim smile
Is my resistance

like changing seasons
heedless deeds spin fortune’s wheel
a chain reaction

I see with thine eye
Is this the lover’s edict
hybrid creations

In a lawless world
karma keeps a watchful gaze
the peasant toils on

Inhibited soul
you must bloom in their vision
to grow your wisdom

On a dreamer’s whim
pave new ways to withered ends
that you must rebuild

#writephoto

A Senryu series for Colleen’s TankaTuesday. See if you can pick a favourite.
Also for:
Sadje’s whatdoyousee
Caley’s writephoto
Reena’s xploration challenge
.

Tall Tales Corner

We named her Aangaz 
the village clutz
Clumsy to a tear

Tinkles trailed her tippytap step
pots and pans broke in her wake
coins and trinkets fell from her pockets
the children chortled with laughter
but always returned her lost treasures
and how she loved them so

One day the earth shook
trees fell, roofs collapsed, wildebeests stampeded
Many passed, more were injured
but none of them children
For Aangaz the village clutz
Tippytapped through the mayhem
Clumsy with everything-
except what she truly loved...

Looking forward to your thoughts. I’m still getting a hang on telling tall tales, I’m not writing them just right, but I’ll get better.

Shalom
Namaste
Namarie

Posted in Life and Awareness, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Alone, not lonely. #Symetrelle #poetry

Eugi’s weekly

Alone but never lonely

In the shadows, watching rays so bright
Afraid to be seen, entwined with night

Isn’t it enough to feel all emotions
but only stay intimate with own passions
To care when needed but hoard all devotion
Embracing within, answers to my questions

Seen reflections of what could, and might
The things only I can answer right

Alone but never lonely

#whatdoyousee

This family came to me

Not through blood or heart, but from afar
For my wailing calls met no answer

As I reached for souls so near yet beyond me
All my smattering summons, not meant to be
Yet still I heard the call, climbed the hills to see
And I changed, and I became, I paid the fee

I now find home in feelings bizarre
Epiphanies from peace’s reservoir.

This family came to me

#tankatuesday

There is no law that binds one person to one family
and there are many kinds of ‘family’
For if family is home, then even the loneliest can find home within themselves.
We can be alone, and yet never lonely.

#writephoto

©judeitakali


I wrote this from a number of my favourite prompts. Please click the image captions to join in on the fun.

The deeper underlying theme on our concepts of loneliness is aligned with Reena’s xploration challenge, and the theme of family came from Caley’s writephoto.

I wrote these two combined Symetrelle poems for Colleen’s syllabic challenge. Below is the structure of a symetrelle:

poetscollective

Still unable to visit most of your blogs because my final round of exams is this week. I can respond to comments though so feel free to share your thoughts.

Stay safe everyone, stay loving.

Posted in Nature, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Crowning Spring #Haibun poetry

misunderstood snows
preserving not destroying
life’s unsung lover

#whatdoyousee

The winter ice melts and these dark thoughts thaw.
Cold footsteps embrace emancipated earth.
We have waded knee-deep through time’s frozen paths
In days so long, and nights that seem to never end.
To find this place where crystals gleam in green rebirth-
The drip and drop of hope,
The trickle of new beginnings.

#reenasxplorationchallenge

cold’s molten portends
nature’s prisms refract futures
on the cusp of Spring

Colleen’s ekphrastic challenge
Title: Russian Dancers
Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

These paths be lonely, these paths be watched.
The destination must fuel the journey
And yet to skulk to an end, is to taint end’s reward
To sour the sweetness of memory, and to blight the lessons learnt.
So dance the path to dreams, and sing your jig of hope
Sing that we may find you, dance like Russians old
Making memories, meeting minds, melding music

season’s symphony
the blinded Russian dances
oblivious Spring

#writephoto

How else am I to crown the mysteries of Winter,
than with the discoveries of Spring
A crown of sunlight adorned in flowers
A crown awaiting its worthy heir-
An heir to bloom what has been preserved!

In the winter of beloved Sue’s passing, I’d like to thank Caley for taking up her crown, and for growing the writephoto legacy.

For Caley’s 1year writephoto anniversary

In case you missed it, my debut novel launched two days ago on Monday 14th March. Check out the purchase links HERE.

I have a few clarifications to make from that post. The ebook will be exclusive to Lulu and only the paperback will be available from other book distributors like Amazon in the coming weeks. So if you intend to wait for the ebook on your kindle, it might be in vain.

But good news is that Lulu ebooks can be read and stored on any reader you have, so you can still buy it from Lulu and read it on your kindle. I do apologise for any inconvenience, and hope this technicality won’t dissuade you from getting the book.

The haibun poetry in this post was written for;

Stay safe everyone, Stay loving.

copyright judeitakali.

Posted in Love and romance, Syllabic poetry, weekly challenges

Of Love and Time. #Diatelle #Poetry

#tankatuesday

Time chimes in my mind
I think of then, now, and when
Always in slumber and often in waking, I peruse perception’s many doors.
Through memory, imagination, and hope
I find ambition, inspiration, and fear
But there is one door I will never open again;
And that door is LOVE!

#whatdoyousee

You!
My curse
Dreams disperse
As love destroys
For better, and for worse!
I once pondered on Hellen’s ploy
Her plight they say brought the downfall of Troy
Sympathy and suspicion surround lies so true
When a loved one wields you, as Love’s decoy
When Time chimes; plays you like a toy
Till heart and bliss averse!
And love turns coy
Pain rehearsed
Hope’s farce;
You!

Everything about her was a lie
And now that door will not open
My heart remains an island, hoarding its bounty
Waiting…

#writephoto

-judeitakali-


Hey everyone. I hope you enjoy this. I often want to submit for all my fav prompts separately but my current blog schedule just won’t allow it. Feel free to check them out and join in the fun.

The diatelle is in italics. It is a challenging form with a (1/2/3/4/6/8/10/12/10/8/6/4/3/2/1) syllable count and an (abbcbccaccbcbba) rhyme meter. If you are looking for a new challenge, this form might be it.

Stay safe everyone. Stay loving.