A Most Surreal Year
A most surreal year it’s been,
As everyone has seen.
But we expected just as much
In Twenty Seventeen.
For after such a train wreck
Of a year that was the last,
It only stands to reason
That we’d feel we’ve aged so fast!
We’ve seen the worst offenses made
Against democracy
And been forced to endure the most
Blatant hypocrisy.
Some relatives think all is fine,
Or so they boast with pride.
(I smile at them politely
While I’m screaming deep inside.)
Yet though current events have put
My patience to the test,
Far from the worst of all my years,
For me, this was the best!
I left the world I knew behind
To start my life anew.
And every day, I’m grateful
To be with my love so true.
I’ve worked as hard as ever
To achieve my author dreams.
(It’s true that writing novels
Is much harder than it seems.)
So here’s to one more year past as
A brand new one draws near.
May Twenty Eighteen prove to be
A less surreal year!
A Night of Festivity
Dad and I hang the last of the lights on the tree and plug them in. I step back and smile at the colored display before us. Mom and my sisters have finished decorating the rest of the house to match the festive tree, just in time for the family’s arrival! Our guests arrive later in the day, and my parents, sisters, and I make sure to give them the warmest welcome. We spend the evening talking and laughing, until at last we all sit down to Mom’s delicious feast. When we’re all sure we couldn’t eat another bite, we gather round the tree to exchange the gifts wrapped beneath it. The evening passes in delight and peace, and I find I can’t stop smiling. I couldn’t have asked for a merrier Christmas!
Tidings of good cheer
Share the joy with family
Christmastime is here!
May your day be warm and bright
Have a happy holiday!
Merry Christmas to all my family, friends, and readers who are celebrating! May you all have a blessed holiday season!
Welcome Winter
White December rain
Virgin snow blankets the world
A welcoming sight
Gone are summer’s waves of heat
Wintertime is here at last!
A Day for Family
The moment I walk into the kitchen, I’m greeted by warm and delightful smells. We’ve been working on this dinner since this morning and looking forward to it for weeks, and it’ll finally pay off tonight. As I pull the turkey from the oven, the doorbell rings. Mom hurries to answer it, and within minutes, more of our relatives are filing into the living room to greet the other guests. I smile to myself in the kitchen; Grandma and Grandpa never get this many visitors in an entire year! The day passes in laughter and joyful conversation (and maybe the occasional “friendly argument”), until finally evening comes and we sit down to eat. We join hands and give thanks, then we indulge in the most delicious meal of the year. I look around at all the people I love and grin; it’s easy to know what I’m most thankful for!
I always feel blessed
On this day of giving thanks
With my family
Celebrate the joys of life!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy belated Thanksgiving to all my family, friends, and readers who celebrated! Have a blessed weekend!
The Warm Scents of Autumn (Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge – #Tanka)
Sweet scents fill the air
Colored leaves and pumpkin pies
On the crisp fall breeze
Autumn’s welcoming embrace
Always warms my homesick heart
My response to the third of Colleen Chesebro‘s Weekly Poetry Challenges for November: Smell & Cozy. The twist for this month is to only use synonyms for the prompt words! For this challenge, I chose to write an autumn-themed tanka. I hope you enjoy the poem! Thanks for the prompt, Colleen!
Homecoming
I stare out the window, watching, waiting. Mom says to be patient, but I can’t help getting excited. I’ve been waiting months for this day! Every passing car makes my heart skip a beat, until finally one pulls up in front of the house. I run to the door and throw it open. I’m outside before Mom and my brother can catch up. A man in a uniform steps out of the jeep. He kneels on the sidewalk and I throw myself into his arms. His hug is even stronger than I remember. I catch a glimpse of the neighbor’s flag over his shoulder, and without even thinking, I say “Thank you!” This is always the best part of the year. Dad’s home!
This coming weekend
Take the time to thank someone
Who’s served your country
Remember they risk their lives
So we can live in freedom!
Dedicated to all the veterans out there. Thank you for your service to our country! Have a blessed Veterans Day weekend!
Terrors in the Dark (Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge – #Tanka)
October twilight
Monsters rule the witching hour
Terrors in the dark
Hear their cries of “Trick or Treat!”
On this festive Halloween!
My response to the first of Colleen Chesebro‘s Weekly Poetry Challenges for November: Fright & Night. The twist for this month is to only use synonyms for the prompt words! For this challenge, I chose to write a Halloween-themed tanka. I hope you enjoy the poem! Thanks for the prompt, Colleen!
A Sonnet for Halloween
The sunset on the last October day
Will usher in the year’s most haunted night.
Throughout the streets, the monsters start to stray
To fill the evening air with screams and fright.
The autumn moon shines brightly in the sky.
The sound of howling werewolves gives you chills.
While vampire bats and witches’ broomsticks fly,
The ghosts and zombies fill the night with thrills.
Dressed up like all the monsters they adore,
Young children start their quest for something sweet.
They plan to knock on every neighbor’s door
And earn free candy shouting “Trick or treat!”
Enjoy the year’s most frightfully fun scene!
I wish you all a Happy Halloween!
For the Love of Writing
Writing is my life, my love, my greatest passion.
Writing is who I am.
Writing is who I was always meant to be.
Books were my first gateway to this world, the magical world of fiction.
I read them every day as a child, devoured their words like chocolate.
Every day, they welcomed me with open pages and promises of wonderful and imaginative stories.
And they never disappointed me.
I knew I wanted to join them, those great authors who had invited me into their minds, into their homes, into their worlds.
I aspired to share in their magic.
And I knew from that young age that I had found the only path on which I would always belong.
I had taken my first step on the greatest journey of my life.
I penned short stories as frequently as ideas came to me.
I started several books (though I never finished most).
I scribbled words anywhere and everywhere I felt the spark of creativity.
My magical world was open and growing every day.
Fiction was my whole world, but there came a time when my own writing fell behind.
I stopped creating so many stories.
Before I knew it, the ideas stopped flowing.
And my magical world grew dark.
For years, I felt lost without my words.
My stories hid in the corners of my mind, never to come to light.
I only ever wrote for school anymore, a tedious task with none of the magic I had once known.
And then, one day, the spark came back.
An idea peeked out of the darkness and whispered for me to create again.
So I typed a few words into my laptop.
Those words became a sentence.
That sentence became a paragraph.
That paragraph became pages.
And those pages became the beginning of a story.
At last, my passion had returned.
Once forgotten in the darkness, my dream reemerged in my heart.
I began to pursue my passion again, to reach for that star I had longed for as a child.
This time, I dared to share my stories with the world.
Readers gave positive feedback and encouraged me to keep going.
My stories even brought me real-life love.
As my courage grew, so did my creative skills.
And then the time came to seriously start chasing my dream.
Starting a blog is one of the scariest yet greatest things I’ve ever done.
It opened my creativity to a whole new world.
I’ve met other writers, made new friends, and shared my stories with likeminded creatives.
Never have I felt closer to that star.
Now I’ve taken one more step forward on my writing journey.
A hundred thousand words have freed themselves from my mind, growing from my imagination into my first major work of art.
My first novel, the fantasy story I’ve long wanted to tell.
And as I shape these words into order, I feel more excited than ever.
No longer will I be just a writer; I will be an author.
I reflect on all the joys writing has given me—freedom, creativity, courage, magic—and I know I wouldn’t change a thing.
From my childhood days of devouring books to my adult years of creating stories and poetry, writing has given me everything I could ever want or need.
Writing has made me the person I’ve always hoped to be.
And though I still have much to learn, I’m always ready to take the next step.
For the love of writing, I know I can never stop creating.
I will never stop being who I am, who I was always meant to be.
I am a writer!
My Biggest Fan
She’s always been there from the start
And loved me every day.
Whenever I was feeling lost,
She helped me find my way.
She gave me almost every book
That I read as a kid,
And nothing made me dream as big
As reading always did.
I started writing short stories
Around the age of nine,
Thanks to the books she shared with me
That sparked this love of mine.
I wouldn’t be a writer now
Had she not held my hand
And guided me from childhood on
Through books’ enchanted land.
And every single piece I write,
She always seems to love.
Her feedback never finds a flaw,
All “five stars” and above.
My whole life, I have felt so blessed
She played the biggest part
In pushing me to reach my dream
Of making works of art.
No matter where I go from here,
I know she’ll always be
The person I can count on most
To always cheer for me.
So have a Happy Birthday, Mom,
In every way you can!
I love you to the moon and back,
My all-time biggest fan!
Happy Birthday to my amazing mother! Thank you for always supporting my dream to be a writer! I love you!
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