Painful Times and Being Real

All the Things Joni

The month of June is approaching and I am already feeling it. Let me explain a few things. Some might not understand why anniversary dates can affect you so much. I’ve even told myself, it’s just a day on the calendar, try not to let it affect you any more than any other day. But the reality is, that “just another day on the calendar,” is of much significance and whether I want to acknowledge it or not, they are just hard days. Especially the anniversary of the accident. It takes you right back there. The hours leading up to it. You relive it. It’s not a choice. If you think it is, you are wrong.

Some say, they don’t have to be hard days. No, they don’t. And believe it or not, it’s not up to me. I can’t help how I feel. And I’m not going to pretend…

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Let Me

Rhyme Smith

If given a chance to choose to live in my own way, I have surely got some of the fanatical ways…….

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The Role of Imagination in Creative Nonfiction

Commonplace Book Blog

Writing the truth as we see it — writing honestly — is not just about writing the facts, the way things are. Sometimes, it’s the way we hope things are, or how they could have been, or could be, or even were, as the case may be. Yes, sometimes, writing the truth is about imagining a different reality.

But let me back up.

The expectation of creative nonfiction, as its name implies, is that the writing is true.  Indeed, when it’s not true — when we find the writer has “made stuff up,” has intentionally deceived us — we feel betrayed as readers, as though the sacred contract between the writer and reader has been broken. But this intentional kind of deception is not what I’m referring to when talking about imagining a different reality in creative nonfiction.

Rather, I am writing about imagination as truth.

One of the things…

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Notes from Ann: Springtime, Death

via Notes from Ann: Springtime, Death

Staying Out Of The Headlights: On Finding My Own Writing Process

The Brevity Blog

By Kara Daly

I’ve always hated writing prompts. They shine headlights on me and I freeze. On-the-spot writing exercises fill with me with fear, creating a barrier between myself and what I need to say. The pressure does the opposite for me what it does for others. I require inspiration and an open field in order to write, whether it’s poetry, prose, or music. But I don’t have to resign myself to a life of being a helpless “vessel.” I can comb my life for patterns, name them, and learn to create the conditions for inspiration to occur, and my field opens.

I had a teacher once, who I love and respect, and whose passion for writing inspires me to this day. But I remember something she said at the beginning of the course that, at the time, struck me deeply, but which seems contrary to how I operate as a…

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Spring Awakening

Streaming thru America

According to the calendar, Spring arrived three weeks ago, but the latent buds on the trees in Northern New Jersey have refused to blossom, somehow intimidated by temperatures straining to reach historical averages during the day, and defeated by freezing cold at night. Even the early birds have postponed their arrival until they can be certain that crocus sprouts and freesia flowers are here to stay.

Things were no different in Vermont, two weeks ago, where the ground had a firm grasp on winter’s snowy mantle…

resisting all attempts to turn over a new leaf.

We joined my sister for Passover in Peacham, hoping for relief from Mother Nature’s less familiar plague of more wintery weather, but basked in the warmth of family around a beautifully presented seder table.

Nevertheless, the early promise of Spring is mostly evident in the thaw of the sugar maples surrounding the Peacham property…

as…

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Studies Link Anxiety and Depression to Gut Bacteria Imbalance

Source: Studies Link Anxiety and Depression to Gut Bacteria Imbalance

If Your Energy Drink Has These Ingredients, Don’t Drink It

Source: If Your Energy Drink Has These Ingredients, Don’t Drink It

Cracked but Not Broken

Roth Poetry

After twenty-five years of marriage things were unraveling.  Our boys were off in school and the empty nest syndrome was weighing down on us. Depression was challenging every part of our marriage. On our anniversary we went out to dinner and as was our tradition we exchanged gifts. She gave me the tile above inscribed with the words of hope for our marriage. I have had it on our wall ever since. A couple of years ago, it fell and cracked in half. I got some glue and cemented it together and hung it back on the wall. I thought, how symbolic of our marriage, cracked but not broken! Next year will be our fiftieth!

Cracked but Not Broken (a Quadrille)

Twenty-five years

Things were shaky

Gifts after dinner…

Tokens of love exchanged

For me ‘twas a tile

Words …of hope for the future

“Paint me a picture,

Draw me…

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Writing Poetry

Roth Poetry

I wrote this quadrille this morning, before I knew what our prompt of the day would be on d’Verse. Bjorn suggested that we look at silence in the poetic line and the different ways of marking those breaks.  It is know as Caesura, the breathe of the poem. It includes standard punctuation as well as other markings. I went back and put in the silent spaces and pauses in my poem. This is my first attempt at this, so I hope it is what is expected.

Writing Poetry 

My words // chosen carefully…

Like stepping on wet rocks

crossing a stream.

Hoping this one // will sustain me

to the next.

I am not interested in a big splash!

Simply making it across

One solid word at a time

Reaching my desired destination.

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Check out our group site on d’Verse~Poetry Pub at: https://dversepoets.com/

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

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