The forest, when bare, reveals all. A few days ago, we discovered, leaning over the parapet of our terrace, that there is a log cabin, oozing fairy tale vibes, on a clean strip of mowed hillside below. Someone had lit a huge bonfire in the fire pit that day; an ancient gathering call to come …
Tag: Writing
Merciful Mary
Winds of change Please do carry the voice of truth far and wide Across battlefields And burning skies Over charred remains Mothers' empty sighs Over homes laid bare Hey sir, can you spare Some Love and some Mercy? So much hatred Blacker than the sea Rife with fear Let everyone hear Our shouts our screams …
The courtyard
Back then, during the cold winter evenings, the five women would gather in Ida's barn to keep warm. They looked forward to this time of day when they could meet and talk; seated on wooden chairs huddled close together in a circle amidst the familiar scent of manure, feed and dust. The body heat off …
A Bad Habit
She was very attractive, but her nails were bitten to the quick. This meant that her hands were usually balled into fists on her lap or tucked away into her pockets, belying a cool easy elegance rather than what it actually was. Embarrassment. Strange, this one flaw, when all the rest of her was so …
Pewter Sky
The day we met, a major storm was brewing. The city was a flurry with bits of paper and garbage whipping about in a crazy dance of leaps, swirls and dips; choreographed by the erratic wind. Street vendors were battening down the hatches in their kiosks. Shop owners were wheeling their wares back into the …
Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls
What a read! A confession of sorts within an answer to a question..."What were you to my father?" A declaration of having existed on this earth and left a mark. The highs are dizzyingly so and the lows are lower than pond scum. Somewhere in between is the exercise of living. Living to do, to …
Vermilyea Avenue
I was hit squarely with the strong distinctive odor of cabbage and fried schnitzel while descending the stairs from my friend's fourth floor apartment. Then, it happened. You see, my nose, having been accosted, sparked the memory which stopped me in my tracks somewhere between the second and third floor... And there we were. My …
Chineasy by SHAOLAN
Back to basics Characters representing words placed on an associated pictorial (see cover page drawing where feet and a head were added to the two black strokes representing person). That is how SHAOLAN proposes to teach us the basics of the Chinese language. Intriguing. The author/artist/businesswoman came up with the concept while teaching her own …
Express yourself
An explosion of ideas Basquiat, Haring and Banksy did it via their Graffiti art. Madonna did it via her music. Writers, architects, actors, designers, dancers, chefs, and more, do it. They express themselves through their creations; announcing their presence to the world. Their genius lies in making the expression seem facile, when it certainly is …
Virginia Woolf and doughnuts
A Room of One's Own Consider this...The doughnut hole is an integral part of the doughnut. It has a designation (doughnut hole) and a function (it allows the dough to cook evenly inside and out). Many, though, perceive the doughnut hole as meaningless empty space. Consider now the doughnut hole as a representation of women …
Manu writes 