Thursday 26 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (36): The more

And the moral is... not too worry so much over small things. That's what today taught me. :)


The more

the more she sees
the more she laughs
the more she knows
the more she loves

the more she loses
the more she fears
the more she dwells
the more she stops

the more she lives
the more she is
the more she is she
the more she is free

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Tuesday 24 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (35): Rain

Hi! Been to work and physio, and I'm knackered with a capital K, so here's a poem from the past. It's one of my favourites out of the ones I've written, and I published it in Kaleidoscope and Travelling Light (usually free). I was actually listening to Kate Bush when I wrote it. Cheers.



Rain 

She sits and dreams of making rain
In the dark, shadows dancing mimic
Colours of the aghast
Sights and sounds, murmurs
Still breathing
Watching over the edge
Of everything
The glass splinters into a million shapes
Cast in a myriad lights
Bright and sparkling, dancing
In the spring sun
Here, she dreams of making rain
It tears and crashes
Washing away the shards of glass
Splattering the colours rent
With droplets of ice-cold nothing
Cuts and caresses
Spikes of grass peeking through
Clouds gathering
Dust.

copyright Vickie Johnstone


Monday 23 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (34): Flash of red

This one is about our resident garden robin. Mr Red.


Flash of red

A reddish brown leaf
takes a spiral plunge downward
off a spiky branch

it topples to the ground
swirling lightly upon the air;
a leaf but not a leaf

gradually it takes form –
beak, legs and brown feathers;
it’s a red robin swooping

eager, sprightly, hopeful
with one eye upon the ground
full-splattered with seed

with speedy small pecks
he makes haste to eat before
the weighty pigeon waiting

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Sunday 22 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (33): Magic dust

Happy Sunday! I haven't been on here since Valentine's Day as I've done my back in. Currently have sciatica for the first time - oh joy! Makes me feel for anyone who has it all of the time. Commuting to work in London becomes a unique kind of hell as it is always overcrowded, and designed for the able-bodied and no one else. Anyway, turning to something nicer, here's a poem I wrote about dreams, escapism and fairy tales. It was written for JD Mader's 2minutesgo challenge on his blog on Fridays - check it out :) 


Magic Dust


Upwards they soar and I follow
On the breeze of awakening

Magic dust

In free air I paddle my legs
Flipping feet and flying arms
Not knowing why
Or where I am going
Will I fall?

Catch me if you can in an open net
Let me sit upon your floating carpet
Flying through these towers drawn

Between fairy tales we’ll weave
Rewriting these stories of old
Laughing at dragons blowing fire
As we dip our carpet this way
In awe as knights battle for fair maiden

Magic dust

Do I have enough of you to find
Merlin pottering in his endless caves
Or Rapunzel washing her lively hair

These days are worn as dreams
And in between I tiptoe lest I wake.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Saturday 14 February 2015

Happy #ValentinesDay - free books & a poem

It's that day again. Get out the roses, the poetry and stuff your face with chocolate!! Or run like the wind. I've done my back in and I'm spending the day in with my cat, horrah!
Here's a love poem I wrote for a friend's wedding (and was too embarrassed to give!)

Two

In love with the beloved
Love will know no end

There is no end to love
If beloved is the one

In love is the beloved
She is loved as he is loved

One to be forever more
Two in love entwined

copyright Vickie Johnstone


To celebrate V-Day, I'm giving away 2 ebooks with a touch of romance in them. If you'd like a copy, just grab them off Smashwords.com. Alas, Amazon doesn't let me make them free for a day.

The Sea Inside



A fantasy adventure full of enchantment and unexpected twists. Following an accident, Jayne wakes up in hospital paralysed. As she battles to regain her strength, a visitor gives her a crystal with a shimmering blue mist at its heart. Jayne finds herself in an alternate world beneath the waves in which she is whole again. But when her world shatters, it seems the crystal could be a bringer of chaos. Appropriate for readers aged 13+.

3 Heads & a Tail



When nature lover Josie moves into a house share with two pals, dreamer Ben and model man David, she sees it as a short stop and doesn't bank on an attraction developing with one of them. Meanwhile, Ben's dog, Glen, has the hots for Miss Posh, the beautiful golden Lab in the park. When dog meets dog it's puppy love, but a complication leads to Glen taking matters into his own paws. In this comedy of errors, romance and walkies, it's anyone's guess who is going to win the girl/dog and live happily ever after. Appropriate for readers aged 16+.
"Laugh out loud funny" - Donna Brown.

Enjoy!

A Poem a Day 2015 (32): Flutter #2minutesgo

This one is written for writer JD Mader's 2-minute challenge on his website, Unemployed Imagination. If you fancy writing something, head over there right now - http://www.jdmader.com/2015/02/2-minutes-go.html


Flutter

Flutter goes the heart
goes the butterfly
flitting into the open blue
escaping the inevitable
the everyday, this normal,
wishing to remember
the special
the singled-out time,
or is that me
who wants to recall
back to when we were small,
chasing and running idle
always laughing
joking, wondering?
seeking the meaning true
in everything
taking in every shape
each bend
the curve of the thing
its essence
what made it unique.
so here we are
as the butterfly lifts
staring into an orange sun
wondering again
as we did when we were kids
because nothing changes
ever changes,
it’s all rebeginning anew
still as unfathomable
still as unique.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Flash Fiction 4: Finite #2minutesgo

Something different today. No poetry, but some short and fast fiction. This one was written on Friday for JD Mader's 2-minute challenge on his website, Unemployed Imagination. It's as I wrote it and unedited. If you fancy doing some writing on Fridays, why not check out his website. It gets that hamster huffing in your brain. Cheers :)



Finite

There’s a yesterday in the morrow, but I can’t fathom it. Shuffling through the yellowed pages, these things matter none to me. Everything finite. Everything used, forgotten, recycled, jaded. I wonder at the meaning of things with no sense. The reason to forgive it all is a joke in itself. This wandering. Of wondering. I mean where will it end? With a treasure map, a fallen hero, a harp plucking its own strings til death takes it? I stoop in this darkness among the stricken litter where the liquor man lurches, singing his midnight blues. I feel nothing for him. Who is he to me? The ghost walking at my back? Blowing this cold breeze down my neck? I forget. The urge to remember fails me as I fail myself. Who am I if I am not he? Lost on the wind in the company of these ripped-up pages, only an echo of yesterday. A taste of the tide.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Monday 9 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (31): Her

This is another of the 2-minute poems I wrote for JD Mader's #2minutesgo challenge on his blog, Unemployed Imagination, which is a Friday thing. Look out for it! Write what you like! I normally nick prompt words from his opening story and he mentioned blood, so I took that and my brain switched to imagining a crime. Well, it was coming up to midnight and maybe I'd eaten too much cheese. Here we go.


Prompt - blood

Her

Blood red
Dripping
Cascading into pools
I dip a finger
Scoop it
Lap it up
Tasting the evidence
The thrill of it all
This caresses me
Sends a rush
Where none would dare
I did this
I, alone
The achievement of
My life’s undoing
Where I stand
Here in this kitchen
Oblivious to all
Except her
Lying prone, uncovered
Eyes open, staring
And I stand alone
The last man she ever saw
I relive every last drop
Of her.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Sunday 8 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (30): Flash of red

I had a cute close encounter yesterday with Mr Robin when I went out to feed the birds in the garden. He hopped on the branch of the tree right by my head, unfazed and kind of interested. Today, I saw a flash of brightest orange red come down from the tree, so here we go... 

Flash of red

A reddish orange leaf
takes a plunge downward
off a spiky branch

it topples to the ground
swirling lightly upon the air;
a leaf but not a leaf

gradually it takes form –
beak, legs and brown feathers;
it’s a red robin swooping

eager, sprightly, hopeful
with an eye upon the ground
full splattered with seed

with speedy small pecks
he makes haste to eat before
the weighty pigeon waiting

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Saturday 7 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (29): Forgive me #2minutesgo

Another one written for writer JD Mader's 2-minute Friday challenge on his website, Unemployed Imagination http://www.jdmader.com/2015/02/2-minutes-go.html. This one took longer than 2mins, probably 10. Cheers.


Forgive me

If I count the hours
Will the light come quicker
Squeezing the endless dark
Until it has no breathing space?
I need more than a flicker
To gently remind myself 
The knowing is meaningful

Is this a jail sentence
This whispering in my ear?
Criticism upon witticism
So insincere and damning
Or solely the creation of my fear
I need this light, only a little
I need this morning to arrive

If I ignore the hours
Will the dawn come not at all
Offering me a final escape
From myself, the only one to blame
For my rise and my foolhardy fall
I pause, awaiting the hour to bring forth
The hangman dressed in black 

If you forgive me all these things
Will it render me sane?
Or will the tide drift further
Tugging me to its farthest reach
Away, where agony is my true bane
These minutes grate on my soul
Tearing the skin from my bones

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Friday 6 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (28): Streams #2minutesgo


This one is written for writer JD Mader's 2-minute challenge on his website, Unemployed Imagination. If you fancy writing something, head over there right now :) http://www.jdmader.com/2015/02/2-minutes-go.html


Streams

The rain will never stop
if I can help it
where I wander
nothing grows
nothing meanders
nothing tells a truth
when nothing else is needed
so I flow
as a river in June
rushing forth
caressing stones
polishing
making the dull less so
casting up a mist in my wake
as a mirror shines
reflecting the true self
so I carve a path
anew
where the dog laps
and a robin trills
I bring life to it all
Before the coming
Of the rain.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Thursday 5 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (27): Stepping off

I check the news websites and find the times strange at the moment. But then these things have always been here. War never stops, violence never ends, the pain people suffer around the world never seems to change - it's a constant and only the players alter. I read the newspaper on the way to work yesterday, and the suffering I read made me so angry and feel so numb; numb in the way we can't change these things. On the flip side, the craziness makes me appreciate the little things and good people, and how precious life really is, lest we ever forget. Whatever this poem means to you is what it means. Keep safe and happy. 


Stepping off

Like petals falling
Blood red
Against a blue sky
This vast expanse
Of limitless possibility
An endless rush
Of deafening sound
Plunges thankless;
A moment in time
Forever burned in memory

This endless chaos
Flutters upon wings
To a swift beating heart
Fragile in movement
Neither loveless nor tried
Forever in the never
As a bird
Sings caged
With no song unsung
In torment

Should I give a care
If the world stops
Its incessant spinning
Or I step off it
To stand still
In perfect balance?
My own rhythm
In the midst of motion –
A semi-conscious chaos
I did not make

Never will I understand 
This constant buzz
This effort to take flight
In a dead straight line
Without a curve
Or a meander
Or a pause
Ever rushing, pushing
Never sorry
Always there

I think I’ll step off
Right here.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Tuesday 3 February 2015

A Poem a Day 2015 (26): The whole world inside out

Oh, my first post of February! Happy February! It's a chilly one and it was snowing today brrrr. Love the snow! This one was written for JD Mader's Friday Unemployed Imagination challenge. You write whatever you like in 2 minutes and I kept taking odd words or lines from his initial story as my writing prompts. Check out his blog on Fridays :)  http://www.jdmader.com/2015/01/2-minutes-go.html


The whole world inside out

He paints it
The whole world
Inside out
Where I stand
Beneath the rain
Falling blue
Pink petals swirl
Upon this gainful air
Creating magic
Twisting, playing
A Catherine Wheel
Unlit, whizzing
For me to catch
If I can
As the world turns
Tilting
Flickering
He leads the way
With a brushstroke
This merry dance

copyright Vickie Johnstone