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

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

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

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

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

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/316914

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

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/254310

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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