Tag: living

Jia-Li Yang (aka Cassa Bassa)

Published on by Susi Bocks9 Comments
Pixabay.com

Safety Or Anxiety

It’s getting harder 
to murder someone
and get away with it
Citizens feel safer

It’s impossible
to keep any secrets
while the tech giants 
are watching 

The anxiety 
of being stalked
is real

The Chapel 

She wore a black dress
to his funeral
Outside the chapel
the wind shook the pear blossoms
covering her hair and back
She walked that walk again
wearing a wedding veil of white petals
Pure and eternal
She saw her groom again
still and peaceful 

Masterpiece 

The land meets the sky
blue on green
The ocean meets the sky
blue on blue

The sun cuts himself
bleeds liquid gold
The palette is ready
for a masterpiece

You Made Me A Better Writer

If we are living the fairytale
I know 
I would stop writing 

This feeling of lack
this sense of tragedy
keep me digging deeper
into the human condition

For that
you have made me a better writer 

Give No Reason

The sun gives no reason to shine
The rain gives no reason to nourish
Children give no reason to laugh
Kitten gives no reason to be cute 
We give no reason to love

Being who we are 
is enough
Philosophical debate
is such a waste of time
Why don’t we just be
and be happy 
that we are 
who we are

~~~

China-born Australian writer Jia-Li Yang (aka Cassa Bassa) loves people and writing. She authored a collection of micro stories The Scars We Don’t See; poetry anthologies published by The Short of It, Raw Earth Ink, Prolific Pulse Press, EIF, Literary Revelations. Cassa blogs at https://flickerofthoughts.com. She was first featured in 2022. You can find her previous work HERE.

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Amrita Valan

Published on by Susi Bocks4 Comments
Eddie Koop – Unsplash

Solo

The long and lonely stretch
An emptiness of expanse 
My elegantly furnished drawing room.
No one in it.

Obsession

The kiss I didn’t give you
Shreds salt cheddar on my lips
Sears fierce lava on my lips
Smears sad jelly on my hips
Scooches, French smooches,
Invades, ravishes my sleep.

Abstinence

Bodhisattva obtained,
By letting go.
Semi-squat abstinence
Attained at cost.

Enlightenment’s sad
Knowledge gained,
Heavy-duty Nirvana!
Alas, Kurt Cobain.

Flesh maimed, bloodstained.
Soul flailed, stubborn pain.
Ghost of fat cells recall.
Undead, shrink film elastic
So well maintained.

Petrification

A tony tear trembles 
At my right eye, just so.
Pure molecular expression
Of elegant grief. Chic.
Like a facial gymnast I flex
Matrix of muscles to flick away
Puerile pain pearls.

Etched into Sphinx, I squat
Ozymandias in desert sands
Stoic and bland,
Scorning rain.
Lithos trembles
Sandstone atoms.

Watching Me Watching You

The sky is filled with dead people 
At dawn 
The eyes of a whole past world…
Looking on.

Diary Of One Poet

I rose at six today,
Wrote eleven pages
Rolled out handmade rotis
Perfectly puffed, for breakfast. 
Tiptoe-kissed tall teenagers
Downy cheeks turning
Rapidly raspy. Leaning down,
Grinning, they received kisses.
Mighty mamma is so tiny now. 

Time flies, writers write
Of time past, time to come.
Time flies, reels glide
Dead birds’ broken nests
Fledglings readying wings
Leave to take life’s tests.

The poet tastes life’s flavours
Dreads to tread downstream
Liminal currents cancel old dreams
But renews and resurrects fresh streams.
Future a dream to come, sweet past adieu,
The poet must rest in the present too.  

Magic in Optics

Magic is sunshine slanting 
Light angles between floor and wall
Making milk mirror pools of
Upside-down furniture, doors and
Ceilings.
Spooky serene upside-down land.
Make belief that it is a different universe.
A fairy-verse.

~~~

Amrita Valan is an Indian writer of stories poems and essays. She has been published in online journals nationally and internationally. Her published works are Arrivederci Fifty Poems and a collection of short stories on Amazon – In Between Pauses: US & In Between the Pauses: UK. Amrita was first featured in 2022. You can find her features HERE, some of which were featured in Volume 2 – Reflections & Revelations.

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#TheShortofIt – Vol 1 The Sound of Brilliance and Vol 2 Reflections & Revelations on Amazon

Layla Todd

Published on by Susi Bocks31 Comments
Niklas Hamann – Unsplash

Leap

My thoughts congeal under a loveless moon.
Where I still have blood to give
I give it. I would rather
Go first than be the one
Left behind to dance alone in the waterfall.

Aligning

If I can pick out the tiny purple and white
Violets on the earth’s bosom while
Standing on her thighs
I can grasp a handful of
Seashells with the sunset trapped inside
While balancing on the stale waves of yesterday and still
Fall in love with the moon.

Straight On

The wind strips my skin away
I savor the soft touch of
Unobstructed moonlight.
I do not see the sun rise until
It is upon me. The colors are harsh and
Demand I adapt myself to curves or
Forever cut myself on my corners.

Descent

You tell me to forget wings exist and to
Forget they set me free and
I fall back to you and
I try to move in a straight line and
You force me to
Deviate into circles and
I spiral toward the earth and land in the
Aftermath of a loveless yesterday.

Landing

The dirt draws me in and tries to love me
I tumble down a slope to find the river
In it I see the sky.

~~~

Layla Todd is a word witch and poetess from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She is studying Creative Writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and her work has previously appeared in Persona Literary Magazine, Delta Poetry Review, and Visual Verse. Visit her at ninchronicles.com for further writing. Layla was first featured in 2020 and then again in 2022. You can find her previous features HERE.

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Kritika Maheshwari

Published on by Susi Bocks7 Comments
I.am_nah – Unsplash

inside the head when you arrived

eyes 

tease me not with your eyes
speak to me in words
kiss me with the heart you hide
let go of the emotional flood

arms

wooing whistling
naughty knots untied
off the sheaths, on the sheets
in your arms is my paradise

it’s time

emotions unpaired
heart raised tearful tides
on and forward mode
the alarm rang, ‘it’s time’

stronger

leaning onto your shoulders knowing mine are stronger
helped me erase the part of my trying to be dependent on you

remains

there is no missing
there is no pain
my love for you
still remains

~~~

Mostly she pens her works on her personal blog – valorousbird.wordpress.com. A few of her submissions have made it through to international and national online publications. One of her works can be found in an anthology, And I Healed, published in 2022. Many of her short poems have been featured in the two anthologies by The Short Of It – The Sound of Brilliance and Reflections & Revelations. She writes because it’s magic. A solo traveler, a seeker, and a believer that life is magic if you are aware of your breath. Kritika, a Yoga Professional, can be contacted at valorousbird@gmail.com

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Goutam Dutta

Published on by Susi Bocks5 Comments
Nishaan ahmed – Unsplash

Development

A home is razed…
On hitherto tranquil space
A hundred apartments.

Natural Contrast

Outside the window…
Cooing in unison
Pigeons black and white

Troubled

Morning serenity…
Awakened by
An anxious mind. 

A Cup of Tea

Cloudy skies
A cup of tea, rusty-red and smelling of the earth
Monsoon flush. 

Changing climate

Less rainfall…
All the darkness
On the faces of earthlings.

Meet

Old friends…
Wispy smoke from the teacups
Warms up their chatter. 

Darkness

Dazzling city lights….
All the darkness
Inside lonely hearts.

~~~

Goutam is passionate about poetry and writes whenever something or someone touches his heart. His poetry finds space in a number of anthologies, including The Sound of Brilliance. Hues of Life (Notion Press) is another collection of his poetic works. Living in Kolkata, India, he can be reached at gdutta17@gmail.com. Goutam was first featured in 2020 and then again in 2022. You can find his other features and reblog HERE.

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An Involuntary Hold

Published on by Susi Bocks11 Comments
Ryoji Iwata – Unsplash

locked in my mind with all the thoughts
my emotions struggling
to coexist in my brain and my body
medication, therapy, lifestyle changes
one and all free me to live a better life
the doors of my personal prison are opened
yet i slowly begin to realize
i’ve stepped into a bigger cage

**My husband provided some inspiration for this piece. Thanks, Honey!

Cheryl Wood

Published on by Susi Bocks7 Comments
Mateus Campos Felipe – Unsplash

Sad Times

Grief
Tears flow
Regrets abound
Ask forgiveness

Choose Happiness

Smile
Lips curl
Eyes sparkle
Extend the feel

Grieve

Beloved sisters
Surprising, suddenly gone
Family feels lost
Shock waves to befuddled minds
Is this a god’s cosmic joke?

No Plans

life unpredicted
say your prayers if you believe
cling to the hopeful
somewhere over the rainbow
where colorful still exists

Attitude

live and love wildly
life can be seen a bummer
make it a party
roll with unpredictable
enjoy everything at will

~~~

Cheryl Wood is a mom and grandmother who enjoys scribbling some words, hopefully with humor. She started writing in 2015 after a second bout of cancer to keep busy while recuperating. Cheryl was featured in 2020 and in 2022. You can find her work HERE. Selected pieces of her work were published in The Short of It – Volume 1 – The Sound of Brilliance and in Reflections & Revelations.

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