SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.

Guidelines for submission:

  1. List Splintered Glass prompt which inspired the work in the text of your email.
  2. Submit material to be published as Microsoft Word document. Submission should not be longer than one page. Editing will not be provided, please be careful.
  3. Include two brief sentences about the author. Example: Michael Whozits is the author of A Book and The Curl, a blog. He is a retired pilot and avid surfer.
  4. Submission must arrive no later than the 3rd Wednesday of the month in which the Splintered Glass prompt appeared. Only one reader’s submission will be selected for any given month.
  5. Send submission to karoxby@gmail.com.
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SPLINTERS FOR FEBRUARY 2022

  1. February 5 is Rosa Parks Day. Do you have memories of the Civil Rights Movement of her time? Perhaps you have thought about the same subject in current conditions in the US?
    1. Write a poem or memoir essay to express these thoughts.
    2. Write a tribute to champion(s) of human/civil rights.
  2. February 7 is Send a Card to a Friend Day. Have you lost touch with a friend?
    1. Write a message to the friend or the message you wish the friend would send to you.
    2. Are friendship cards obsolete? What is your opinion?
  3. February 14 is Valentine’s Day. Thoughts of love and friendship abound.
    1. Remembered love, the immediacy of first love, the enduring love. All can be captured in a poem. Choose one and create your poem.
    2. Or write a memory from childhood about homemade or store-bought Valentine cards, the candies you shared with a friend, or other related memory.
  4. This month has a day that honors the telling of Fairy Tales.
    1. Do you have a favorite? Why? Or, one you hate? Why?
    2. Do you have a fairy tale of your own you would like to share?
    3. Rewrite a well-known fairy tale or create a spin-off tale.
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WHERE IS THE ANSWER?

Down

Down into the rabbit hole

Searching for the answer

Alice, don’t you know?

You will not find it there.

 

Step right on through

The glass will part

To let you pass,

But Alice,

Don’t you know?

You cannot find it there.

 

Poor silly Alice,

Ever facing forward,

You will never find it there.

No, don’t turn around!

Now you’re forward once again,

…And it’s behind.

 

Through the maze backwards

(That’s a clue)

Now, try again.

Through the maze backwards…

That’s the way.

And…Alice…?

You will find it there.

 

#LewisCarrollandAlicestories #ThroughtheLookingGlass

#AliceinWonderland

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A Stranger Seeks Fairyland

It was whispered all through the fairylands

That one was coming who was not of them,

But who would walk among them in their tiny realms.

And panic gripped their little hearts

So that they covered all their houses of dreams,

Hid away their birds of happiness,

Locked away their rainbow treasures,

Camouflaged their every delight,

Built their fortresses of invisibility.

Throughout the wispy empires

Was stillness, absolute, profound.

 

From a distance

Came the wind of the invader’s breath

Like a whirling cyclone

And the weight of the alien’s step

Startled the ground

And filled their hearts with fear.

 

As the tempest came nearer,

It grew in fury

Yet they kept the silence

Till at last the other left their realms.

Then off came the mantles of gloom

And the tinkle of fairy laughter

Rose high on the winds

 

Far from their fairy palaces,

Thundered a voice

To fall on a multitude waiting:

“These creatures are non-existent,

Figments of the imagination only.

They dwell within our minds.

I spoke so softly,

Tread so lightly.

I saw nothing. Nothing.”

#FairiesFaeries #TellaFairyTaleDay

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OVERWHELMED

Almost everyone knows what it is to be overwhelmed, that feeling you are surrounded by so much coming at you, surrounding you, that you cannot see an exit anywhere or help.

The opposite, underwhelmed, can sometimes be so underwhelming, the moment is missed altogether. The vast roar of an ocean that melts quickly into a bare ripple that wets your toes.

The first word has been around for a long while (14th century), the second not so long—only appearing mid-20th century.

While it is obvious both words are built on the base of “whelm”, you would hope not to discover that “whelm” is offered as a synonym for overwhelmed. I guess we English speakers were just not content be “whelmed,” but needed to make things very clear by creating the hyperbole “overwhelmed.”

Speaking of “whelm,” I do not believe I have ever heard this used in speech. Have you? Maybe it is dying out. By the way, it is related to the word “helmet.” If you are wearing a helmet, you are “whelmed” or covered. For the original meaning of the word is to cover. Therefore, covered dishes, like pheasant under glass for instance, are all whelmed.

But then it also meant to “overturn or upset.” So, if you were to go topsy-turvy, or end over end, you will be whelmed, too.

Assuming I have now both overwhelmed you with trivia and underwhelmed you in all other ways, I will end this essay.

#Englishlanguage #OverwhelmedUnderwhelmed

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AUTHOR NOTES

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“A STRANGER IN FAIRYLAND” was found among the author’s papers. It is included this week because February 26 is Tell a Fairy Tale Day.

KALEIDOSCOPE—an essay by Kathleen Roxby

“OVERWHELMED” is another of the author’s musing on the oddities of the English language. It is included this week because February 21 is Mother Language Day.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“WHERE IS THE ANSWER?” first appeared in Chameleon Woman, 2000. It is included in honor of Tell A Fairy Tale Day, February 26.

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.

Guidelines for submission:

  1. List Splintered Glass prompt which inspired the work in the text of your email.
  2. Submit material to be published as Microsoft Word document. Submission should not be longer than one page. Editing will not be provided, please be careful.
  3. Include two brief sentences about the author. Example: Michael Whozits is the author of A Book and The Curl, a blog. He is a retired pilot and avid surfer.
  4. Submission must arrive no later than the 3rd Wednesday of the month in which the Splintered Glass prompt appeared. Only one reader’s submission will be selected for any given month.
  5. Send submission to karoxby@gmail.com.
/0 Comments/by

SPLINTERS FOR FEBRUARY 2022

  1. February 5 is Rosa Parks Day. Do you have memories of the Civil Rights Movement of her time? Perhaps you have thought about the same subject in current conditions in the US?
    1. Write a poem or memoir essay to express these thoughts.
    2. Write a tribute to champion(s) of human/civil rights.
  2. February 7 is Send a Card to a Friend Day. Have you lost touch with a friend?
    1. Write a message to the friend or the message you wish the friend would send to you.
    2. Are friendship cards obsolete? What is your opinion?
  3. February 14 is Valentine’s Day. Thoughts of love and friendship abound.
    1. Remembered love, the immediacy of first love, the enduring love. All can be captured in a poem. Choose one and create your poem.
    2. Or write a memory from childhood about homemade or store-bought Valentine cards, the candies you shared with a friend, or other related memory.
  4. This month has a day that honors the telling of Fairy Tales.
    1. Do you have a favorite? Why? Or, one you hate? Why?
    2. Do you have a fairy tale of your own you would like to share?
    3. Rewrite a well-known fairy tale or create a spin-off tale.
/0 Comments/by

Yes

You caught the word

With your mouth

Even as it escaped my lips

Flavored by my breath

You held the taste of it

Upon your tongue

Like a large sweet candy

Allowing it to roll about

 

Before you swallowed it

Making the word, my breath

And all of me

A part of you forever.

#kiss #love #loveandproposal

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Night Song

Castle towers and crystal light

And silent dreams invoke the night

And love, a bird with moon-white wing

Sings.

 

#love #dreams #nightandmoon

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