Whither the Mind Does Wander

Prompts are like dental picks but sometimes more like back hoes.

I cannot begin to say how much

Beth Kempton

’s Winter Writing Sanctuary, Spring Light, Soul Circle on Substack, and now Summer Writing Sanctuary have meant in helping inspire and inform my writing. Her online communities are always beautiful and soulful experiences with magical “aftereffects”. They are an aid to rediscover the magic in each day, every person, and most importantly, in oneself (this is not as egocentric as it may seem – magical journeys always involve both the internal and external).

Writing prompts sometimes leave me nonplussed but others begin to work like a dental pick, chipping, scraping and shaving away miniscule deposits of something that didn’t bother me at all until all the chipping, scraping and shaving began! Others arrive like a steam roller or a kite, burying me under a deluge of unearthed debris, or lifting me to soar toward the heavens. At any rate, the below prompts uncovered things that long to see the light of day…and in some instances, things that would prefer to fly on bat wings to a cave somewhere and fester in the dark.

I have put the outcomes from a few of Beth Kempton’s prompts or “sparks” together here. As I wrote this first poem, I realized that it was about both light and illusion and also that I was allowing the poem to end on a rather sinister note. In truth, I am all about the yin and yang, the balance of dark and light, and the notion that what is dark is not necessarily “bad”. It’s just that I’ve been writing quite a few horror pieces lately and ending the poem on this note felt right - even if not an entirely accurate picture of how I feel about giving the darkness its due (it’s not always the villain in the story). What I mean to say is that what our eyes and other senses tell us is right and true can often be an illusion and it is in the darkness that we come to terms with what lies beneath. In a way, light could be seen as a trickster and complicit in helping create and maintain the illusions we embrace each day.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

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LIGHT & ILLUSION

Light is only half of the sum
Yet gets the most attention.
She prepares a feast for our gullible eyes
To affirm our best intentions.

Finding our coat of many colors
Like a tattoo on our skin
We feel blessed and loved, safe and warm
And innocent again.

She illuminates the road ahead
To give guidance for each day
As we blunder through this world
Half-blinded most the way.

What we see, hear, taste and feel
Is the anteroom of all that's real!
For when she leaves us, and she will,
Darkness finds a space to fill.

BEGINNING

Just a tiny step toward the unknown
Is how it all begins and goes until we are full-grown.
At some point 'round the hormonal surge
A precarious life-plan will emerge
And leave us trembling in its wake
As trial and error, and each mistake  
Let's us turn our tattered page 
And tumble into middle age.
A limp, a cane, a slower pace
The lines soon scribble across our face
Reminding us that with each end
Another new step will begin.

MATERIAL

Just a bit of stuff
For some, much more so -
And never enough.

And yet…

The texture of wood or stone well-hewn
A gown of lace 
Under autumn’s moon
Is enough to make a faint heart swoon.
 
A thing, a bauble, a trinket will
Bring joy and hope, a heart to fill.
Rough or smooth 
Each day will come -
A textured life is one well-done.

BREEZE

A breeze is subtle and inviting,
It holds promises to refresh, caress -
It’s so enticing.
But a breeze is just diminished wind,
That comes and goes,
Peaks and flows
Until in stillness, you feel it end…

But then, surprise – it’s back again!

HOME

It was just like returning home at last
For something in the air
Was like a bitter breathing in
Of anger and despair.
She wishes she could start again
Time after time she won't -
The devils that you know too well
Still beat the ones you don't!