TO MOTHER

How shall I say I love you,

Since every meal we ever ate

Included just a pinch of love?

All cakes and pies were flavored

With just a drop or two of care.

When you placed your arms about me,

All the world seemed so good.

How did something this marvelous happen

To someone as plain of face as me?

All these years my heart was filled

So much with all the love you gave

That it seems almost impossible to me

That the love you gave so freely

Came to me much like an act of faith.

/0 Comments/by

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 MAY 2021

  1. Go Mexican – Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with:
    • Food, perhaps an ode to tamales, or other dish.’
    • Language: the language itself or the poets, actors, telenovelas
    • Ancient empires: Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, Mayan
    • Mexico under Spanish rule: write of this history
  2. In honor of Mother’s Day
    • Write a memory of your mother, grandmother or surrogate mother.
    • Write to the mother your child will one day be, or yourself as a future mother
  3. Celebrate Spring
    • Write an ode to your favorite Spring flower.
    • What makes you think of Spring?
  4. Memorial Day
    • Perhaps write about why this day is celebrated in May.
    • Write your message to those who serve or have served in the armed services.
    • Have you a special memory of this date and a special someone to remember?
    • Imagine you are the keynote speaker on this day. What would you say?
/0 Comments/by

Author’s Notes

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

The poem “CALL OF THE YUCATAN was written for local competition, the PanAmerican Festival of Lakewood, California, winning 2nd place. The author had long been fascinated by the ancient peoples of Mexico, especially their languages and myths.

REFR,CTIONS—a poem by Robert Roxby

“MOCTEZUMA’S MESSENGER REPORTS”. receiving 2nd honorable mention in Pan American Festival in 1993.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“CAME A STRANGER” is included for Mother’s Day. The story is true. When the author shared the poems the author had written to cope with a long depression, her mother woke from a dream in which someone she knew introduced an unfamiliar young woman to her. In the dream, the young woman was introduced with these words, “Of course, you know your daughter.” When her mother shared this dream with the author, the author wrote this poem as an apology.

 

 

 

 

/0 Comments/by

CAME A STRANGER

To my mother I read

My poemed cries

In a sudden release

Till she woke

Startled by a dream

Where a woman with unknown face

Wore her daughter’s name.

/0 Comments/by

CALL OF THE YUCATAN

Beautiful names of Yucatan,

Agua Azul and Kukulkan,

Land of the Swallow, Cozumel

lilting sounds in bell-like spell

in Spanish, English and Mayan they sing

dream-like songs beckoning

the arm-chair traveler whose heart thrills

to Loltun and City of Hills,

Palenque and Quintana Roo

calling, calling to one who

dreams and dreams with book in hand

of voyaging to an ancient land

with mammoth monuments ages old

and mysterious past in mystic hold

Chichen-Itza and Izamal

who could resist the luring call

of songs like birds winging time’s span:

the musical names of Yucatan.

/0 Comments/by

MOCTEZUMA’S MESSENGER REPORTS

“The tall ship dropped from the sky

To sail across our southern seas

And stood at anchor just offshore.

Soon a smaller boat left the tall ship.

Slowly, as oars rose and fell, it touched land.

The white god stepped out so all-aglow.

His beautiful breastplate shone, like the sun.

The helmet was like the moon above.

Then as the white god stood still,

He drew forth a spear, like lightning,

Touched it to the earth as he murmured

In a strange language a blessing on us—

 

The emissary of Quetzalcoatl has landed!”

/0 Comments/by

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 MAY 2021

  1. Go Mexican – Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with:
    • Food, perhaps an ode to tamales, or other dish.’
    • Language: the language itself or the poets, actors, telenovelas
    • Ancient empires: Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, Mayan
    • Mexico under Spanish rule: write of this history
  2. In honor of Mother’s Day
    • Write a memory of your mother, grandmother or surrogate mother.
    • Write to the mother your child will one day be, or yourself as a future mother
  3. Celebrate Spring
    • Write an ode to your favorite Spring flower.
    • What makes you think of Spring?
  4. Memorial Day
    • Perhaps write about why this day is celebrated in May.
    • Write your message to those who serve or have served in the armed services.
    • Have you a special memory of this date and a special someone to remember?
    • Imagine you are the keynote speaker on this day. What would you say?
/0 Comments/by

Prose and Poetry

A novel may sometimes reveal

the world more clearly

than we might ever see

 

A poem strips bare

our frightened soul

and lets us know the truth

of what we are

 

#Poetry #WhatIsPoetry

/0 Comments/by