Giggles and Ashes

Hannah Gosselin's Flashy Fiction Prompt 

They walked the way only young teenage girls can walk - bumping into each other through the dimly lit doorway - giggling under the yellowed "Physic Reading Sign." "Maybe we'll be given a laxative" one of them said and they fell onto the faded purple couch in what seemed like the waiting room, laughing so hard that they didn't hear him enter. In fact, they were curled up into one another like one four limbed soft creature when they both felt a hot burst of energy and looked up to see the man holding his face between long fingers, his hair spilling onto his shoulders, leaning on the black marble counter staring at them with burning eyes that charred their laughter into ashen silence.

I have been awarded and in turn have nominated 7 others for the newly created Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

I am delighted to announce that I have been selected as one of 7 recepients by Patricia Anne McGoldrick to receive this new award created by Hannah Gosselin. 

Thank you to Patricia Anne McGoldrick

Patricia Anne McGoldrick is a Kitchener Ontario writer whose poetry and reviews have been published in the Christian Science Monitor, The WM Review Connection and, most recently, at ChapterandVerse.ca, a review of the award-winning, Plain Kate. Poems published recently include these titles: Neighbourhood Find, Spices of Childhood, Haiku on Winter at CommuterLit ; Girls and Green Apples in taking a bite of the apple--revelations anthology; Lockdowns in Verse Afire, volume 9, Issue 2, 2012. History, literature, the environment and upcycling resources for bookmaking are active interests, as well; often, the focus of blog posts. Patricia is a member of The Ontario Poetry Society and the League of Canadian Poets. Completed the 2009 & 2011 November PAD challenges plus 2012 January Challenge with A River of Stones! W E B: Patricia-Anne-McGoldrick  BLOG: PM_Poet Writer http://www.patricia-anne-mcgoldrick.com/

TWITTER: @pamcgoldrick 

In addition to these wonderful achievements I am proud to claim Patricia as a "poeming friend" with whom I have written side by side for many years. Additionally Patricia shared some particularly profound and touching poems in our latest anthology Beyond the Dark Room. Patricia is a wonderful poet as one can easily see by her public acclaim - she is also a fine, gentle, compassionate and empathic soul and I am delighted that she thought of me as a recipient.

Stay tuned for my selected list and seven things that you might not know about me.

Once again my thanks to Patricia and for the opportunity to highlight her here on my blog.

***************************************PART 2. **************************************************

The Saga of the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award continues...

As mentioned above, my good poetic friend, the talented Patricia Anne McGoldrick was kind enough to nominate me for The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.  I in turn have nominated seven others. It could have been very difficult, if not impossible, to pick just seven, but I am cheered by the fact that in being so limited I will not be creating an undue burden on those I did select to find another seven– as so very many wonderful names remain to be chosen!

(If you choose to decline, and I do understand the inclination to decline such awards – your name will remain as having been selected and certainly and absolutely no offense will be taken.)

And now, I hear a small marching band playing as I announce my list of seven in alphabetical order:

Barbara Ehrentreu             http://barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com/

Ina Roy-Faderman             http://inourbooks.com/ (with Andrea Heiberg)

Richard Fenwick*               http://www.ruiningsterner.com/

Laura Hegfield                     http://www.shinethedivine.com/

Sharon Ingraham                http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/poet-treehouse

Madeline Begun Kahn*       http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog

Meena Rose                          http://2voices1song.com/

*declined with appreciation

The rules that accompany this award are quite simple . 1) thank the person who nominated you. 2) pick 7 others to receive the “Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award” 3) write 7 things about yourself.  Easy peasy.  Have fun visiting other blogs and getting to know one another even better than we think we already do!

And so, just when you thought you knew more about me than you would ever want to know...

???????

Seven things about me…that you might not know:

1.         I spoke in full sentences at 8 months old.

2.         I rode a trike at 10 months, prompting some to think I was a “little person.”

3.         I read complete books at age 2, wrote short stories and poems by 6 or 7.

4.         I peaked at 9 when everyone else could also speak, read, and write.

5.         I feel a moral imperative to bear witness and/or to attempt to stop injustice.

6.         I am vested in maintaining a good name and being thought of kindly.

7.         I finally accept that I am not likely to live either in a palm braided shack on a deserted beach nor in another age in a fully appointed and staffed castle.

            

PAD - Day 29 - Birth of Humility

Birth of Humility

They lived on a sandcastle
decorating heedlessly
as the sea snickered
and finally in unendurable
insult reclaimed her
rightful place
as their toys floated
away

PAD - Day 29 - Birth of a Mother

1. Birth of a Mother

   A yellow ducky pin
   pushed hard
   harder
   until the babe
   holds breath in
   unexhaled pain
   and she leaning
   over hair brushing
   his bare belly
   feels the stick
   and births a
   mother in her
   shivered gasp

   
   

   
   
2. 
   

PAD - DAY 28. Standing Up to Adversity in the Workplace

No Joke

Around the coffee machine

The drip

Of caffeinated talk

Manic

And malignant

Laughter

As one silent

Drinker puts down

The cup with a trembly hand

And asks – in a voice rippling

Loud in the sudden silence

“What – is - funny – about - that?”

PAD Day 27 - Heroes and Villains

Heroes and Villains

My father told me
there are no white
hats and black hats
just tons of gray
galloping into the horizon

PAD Day 27 - Heroes and Villains

1. 
   
   The “man”

   There he is
   the “man”
   no boy he
   pays his own
   bills with money
   he makes after school
   
   Swooning
   she flutters eyelashes
   without will
   just a girl dressed
   in a woman’s body
   
   Proudly permitting
   his heroic hands
   to roam stirring
   her blood
   
   Until it pounds
   in her ears
   and blocks
   the sense and
   sound of that
   first slap
   that splits her lip
   
   
   

   Reply
2. 
   

Catch Up PAD - Days 21, 22, 23,24, 26 Whewwww

DAY 26.  A "Something I Would Collect Poem"

Dreams and Wishes 

If I could collect dreams and wishes

I’d keep them in a horizonless aviary where they

Could fly free and safe from the winds

Of ever realized limitation’s lament

~ DAY 25. Opposite Poem
(opposite of )
Gathering our minds

Letting go of possessions

Hurricane Sandy

Loosening our grip they

Hold tight to mouse pads

And faded pictures - all sorts

Of stuff – clutched in clenched fists

Refusing to move – determined to hold

Back the encroaching tide

As waters rush inexorably forward  

~ DAY 24.  The Truth About 

The truth about truth

Unfolding orgami

Dependent on hands

~

DAY 23.  A Deep Poem

The Pebble

In the tumbled clink

Of a pebble

Dropped

Down an empty well

I hear

Love

Echo

~

DAY 22. Paradise Poem 

Bird of Paradise 

In crowning orange topiary

Craning as though readying for flight

It blooms

~

DAY 21.   5 Song Poem

Freedom

Imagine

that you are 

closer to fine

“Hey, Soul Sister” 

kick that prince of darkness

to the curb

and secure yourself 

        (Imagine, Closer To Fine, Hey/Soul Sister, Prince of Darkness, Secure Yourself).  

~