Excerpt Week | Seeking Solace

June 2, 2015 / Callum McLaughlin / 13 Comments

Marcia has encouraged us all to share excerpts from our works and seeing as she recently posted a wonderful 5 star review of my poetry collection, Seeking Solace, it seemed entirely appropriate to share one of the poems she mentioned as a favourite, entitled ‘Rise’.

—

RISE

Rise dear phoenix from the ashes
spread your wings and fly.
Wouldn’t they just love it
if you simply lay and die?

Little one, I’ll dry your tears
and bruises they shall heal.
For though they see the scars they make
they know not what we feel.

Be the light among the dark
and guide the lost ones home
to show we fight for what is right
and our hearts are ours to own.

So stand upon the rubble proud
for you are still alive.
It is not about the wounds we bear
but that we do still strive.

—

Seeking Solace is the most recent of my publications and features sixty poems on a range of subjects. You can find it on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Goodreads.

Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to reading everyone else’s excerpts.

Poetry Month: Resistance

April 10, 2015April 9, 2015 / Caitlin Stern / 2 Comments

April is National Poetry month. I’m doing Writer’s Digest’s Poem a Day contest. I’m sharing a few of my favorites. This is from Day 1, a poem about resistance.

National Poetry rose

Negated

There’s a

in my heart but not

on my lips

You asked for something I wasn’t

willing to give but you didn’t

wait for my answer

You assumed it had to be

yes

My smile is a double agent

a carefully constructed lie

I drag my feet and hope you change

your mind

If you don’t

there will come a revolution

Excerpt #4 from Summer Magic

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 / Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

One more short one before heading to bed, perchance to READ! Summer Magic is divided into two parts. The first part is called “Mac At Ten,” and the poems involve MacKenzie Cole from Wake-Robin Ridge, when he was a boy of ten, and spent his summers camping on the Ridge, with his dad. This is the poem that gives the collection its name, and is the very essence of the little boy Mac was at that point in his life. Enjoy!

***

Summer Magic

Crawling quietly from his tent,
His dad still lost in slumber within,
He sits down alone on the granite slab,
Coltish legs drawn up to his chin,
And arms wrapped around skinny knees.
He gazes toward the pale horizon,
Watching the sleeping valley below.
With breath held in anticipation,
He waits for the magic
He knows will come.

There! A thin curve of molten red!
A far away sliver of fiery light
Breaks the horizon.
Rising slowly,
It bathes the tops of the rolling hills
In a brilliant spill of gold.
Mother-of-pearl dawn
Gives way to butter yellow
Morning light.

In front of his wide, blue eyes,
The world awakens.
Magic arrives and
Day is born,
Again.
He smiles to himself and wraps
His arms more tightly
Around his knees,
Shivering in private delight, and
Holding the beauty
Close within,
Having already learned
Some magic is
Secret.

Summer Magic: Poems of Life & Love

Poetry: Dictionary

January 16, 2015January 14, 2015 / Caitlin Stern / 4 Comments

Sometimes it’s fun to make a poem into a certain shape–so long as you don’t pick a shape that’s too complicated.

All those words together… it’s kind of magic.
Image from WikiMedia by alex756.

Dictionary

The tree grows

It grows, the tree

Each leaf, each branch

is cluttered with lots of little words

that

fall

softly

to blanket the ground

Love is Pain

January 1, 2015January 1, 2015 / Callum McLaughlin / 6 Comments

In the hush of babbling brooks
She whispers.
In the call of graceful gulls
She whispers.
In the song of whistling winds
She whispers.

Her slight and humble voice
It falls on deafened ears.
And yet she dwells in sorrow –
Generous stupor.
A Mother’s selfless blindness
To faults of sons and daughters.

—

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and wish you success and happiness for 2015. Apologies for the apparent randomness of this poem – I’d been enjoying the beauty of the scenery at this time of year recently and this emerged as a response. Given Marcia’s earlier call for us to share what we’ve been working on, I thought I’d post it all the same.

Thanks for reading,
Callum

The Write Stuff

January 1, 2015December 31, 2014 / Caitlin Stern / 4 Comments

May your year bring you all sorts of inspiration, success, and most of all, happiness.

You never know what will last…
Image from WikiMedia by Lin Kristensen.

The Write Stuff

If they ask whether you have

the right stuff–

the answer is

yes.

If you’re full of panic,

doubt and worry and frustration,

if you hesitate and erase,

stare at a blank page for hours

until a dull throbbing echoes

through a mind empty of words,

and you couldn’t feel more lost–

the answer is still

yes.

Because you have a fine mind

that can overcome obstacles,

an imagination that paints a picture

unlike any other,

and no matter how long

the paths winds,

or how steep the hills,

your craft will only improve

from the journey.

One step isn’t enough,

or one thousand,

but each step makes you stronger.

So can you write

whatever is right?

Yes!

It’s Time I Introduced Myself

December 4, 2014 / Callum McLaughlin / 10 Comments

Having followed this blog for a while now, I know what a great community it is, but for reasons I won’t even attempt to make an excuse for, I haven’t actually posted here yet. So, I thought where better to start than with something of an introduction to my writing, since a mutual love of the written word is what unites us all.

Fiction was my first love but poetry has really captured my attention recently (so much so I plan to release my first collection of poems early next year). I’ve been playing around with haikus in particular recently and just put together this short piece that seems quite appropriate for the season, which I’ve simply entitled Winter.

—

Crystalline in beauty,
one in a dance of many –
Welcome gentle snowflake

—

As for my fiction work, I’ve published two books thus far, both of which are thrillers. My debut, The Vessel, is a dystopian tale of a woman’s struggle to expose the truth behind a corrupt government in a desolate world. My newest release, False Awakening, tells of a teenager’s quest to recover her memories and readjust to life after waking in hospital with no recollection of what put her there. Below is a brief visual snippet from each that will hopefully set the tone and give you an idea of the feeling in each story.

False Awakening

The Vessel

If you’re interested, you can find more on my blog, Amazon UK page, Amazon US page, Twitter or Goodreads account. I always love to connect with more readers and writers so by all means come and say hello.

All that’s left for me to say is thank you for having me; thank you for taking the time to read this post, and I hope to see you all around much more in the future.

All the best,
Callum

Green Light Lady

October 10, 2014October 10, 2014 / Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

Just wanted to share this link with you today. Green Light Lady is a gardener, poet, and budding novelist. Her blog is always inspirational and uplifting, and her poetry and photos are lovely. She has some very good advice for those of us who spend far too many hours sitting at our computers, writing. I’m going to implement it today! Enjoy! (Be sure to keep scrolling and read the entire post.)

Red October In My Garden

Red by Caitlin Stern

September 30, 2014September 30, 2014 / Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

Image from WikiMedia by Lesekreis.

Red

Stop sign

gleaming fresh-picked apple

feathers over a robin’s fluttering heart–

a brilliant hue

meaning love or danger

and isn’t that apropos?

Star-Gazing

September 24, 2014September 24, 2014 / Marcia Meara / 3 Comments

Here’s a secret for you…I write poems, in addition to novels. I always have, starting before I was five. In my book, Summer Magic: Poems of Life & Love, I have a section devoted to MacKenzie Cole (the lead male character from Wake-Robin Ridge) at the age of ten, when he used to go camping with his father in the mountains every summer. Here’s one of my favorites. Hope some of you like it, too.

Look Dad, he cries,
Look how many!
I see a hundred,
Maybe a thousand!
I see them, too,
Dad says,
And together, they laugh,
Delighted.
Joy shared,
And excitement
Doubled.

Come see the meteors,
Dad said, as he
Shook him awake
Just before dawn.
He crawled from the tent,
Rubbing his eyes,
Then staring in wonder.
With the sky still a midnight black,
And bright stars wheeling overhead,
The fireworks came.
Racing toward Earth,
One after another,
The Perseids.
The miracle of hot August nights.
A late-summer light show
That electrified his soul.
His young heart transfixed
By the sight of the universe,
Lit with streamers
Of flame.

A meteor shower,
Dad tells him again,
But he knows nothing
So beautiful has a name
So ordinary.
Stars, he thinks, pulled loose
From the fabric of the sky,
And flung toward earth,
Trailing silver and gold,
And bringing pieces of Heaven
To those watching below.

He holds up his hands,
Cupped reverently,
To catch one of his own.
To be blessed by
This summer magic.
He holds his breath, waiting
For the illumination
Of his soul to begin.
Falling stars,
Falling from the
Summer sky,
For him.