Author’s Notes

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“CINQUAIN FOR CHRISTMAS” is the result of another workshop, this time in haiku and cinquain composition. This poem speaks of Margaret’s love of this season.

REFRACTIONS

“OLD PAINT” by Robert Roxby.  This selection describes a memory from when the author was 13 and living in Wheeling, West Virginia.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—works by Kathleen Roxby

“WILL CHESTNUTS EVER TASTE SO SWEET AGAIN?” The author wrote this poem the Christmas following her mother’s death. It was a gift for a dear friend of her mother’s, the woman with whom she had shared the love of chestnuts at Christmas.

 

 

/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 December 2020

For December, consider one of the following to spur your writing.

  1. Write your own version of “Christmas Is….” For examples, see this month’s features Glass Rain and Through the Looking Glass.
  2. If you are a musician, consider writing a song for the holiday season. For many years, the songwriter/poet Rod McKuen wrote something each Christmas to share with his family and friends.
  3. Write a fictional story or a family memory.
  4. Write a poem which might be used to send as a card to friends or family, perhaps go a step further and make the card.
  5. Try writing a cinquain like that by Margaret Roxby in this month’s Glass Rain. Try one of these versions of this 5 line poem.
    1. Count stresses or beats within the meter, using 1 for first line, 2 for line 2; 3 for the next then 4, finishing with 1 stress for line 5. Pattern being 1-2-3-4-1.
    2. Syllable version. Line one has 2 syllables, for each succeeding line add two syllables, returning to 2 syllables for the last line. Pattern of 2-4-6-8-2.

 

/0 Comments/by

THE GIVING AND THE RECEIVING

The smile I did not expect

The welcome for which I did not hope

The gift arriving for no occasion

 

They came unannounced

They came unsought

 

My heart stunned, could not beat

The Earth paused in its rotation

 

Then spun in an opposite direction

Proving Spring

Proving my being

 

Proving that I might allow myself

To live yet one more day

 

#FriendshipPoetry #DepressionSurvival #Depression

/0 Comments/by

WHEN THE MOON BLOWS COLD

Gypsy-voiced the oreads call

From their far-off haunted mountain halls

.            “Come away

.             Come away

The world is dreary, the world is old;

Stars are setting and the moon blows cold.

.              Come away

.              Come away.”

But I cannot go, though stars burn low,

Though hill-sprites call from enchanted halls:

.              “Come away

.               Come away.”

There’s a table to lay

At the close of day

And fires to light

On this wild wind’s night.

No. No. I will never go

Far away where the fey flowers glow.

In the firelight’s gleam my loved ones rest

And I know I have everything…or, all that’s best

 

#LovePoetry #LoveandTemptation

 

 

/0 Comments/by

UNTITLED

refractions

Who delivered that milk this morning,

Or that load of coal to keep you warm?

Is your newsboy a boy or man you know?

Did you say thanks to your gardener

When he has done an especially good job?

What do you know of that clerk at the store

Who is always so cheerful and helpful to you?

Are all your neighbors good friends?

/0 Comments/by

Author’s Notes

 

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“WHEN THE MOON BLOWS COLD” is a poem of old age. Margaret was beginning to feel the weight of years and the weariness that slowed her steps and sapped her energy. After contemplating her state, she wrote this poem which again reveals her persistent optimism.

REFRACTIONS

“UNTITLED” by Robert Roxby. This piece reflects an earlier time when milk was delivered to your door by the milkman, but still is applicable as so many now are ordering grocery items delivered. Robert felt strongly that we should acknowledge and be thankful for those who make our lives a little better. Robert’s poem appeared in his anthology, Reflections on a Lifetime.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“THE GIVING AND RECEIVING” is a poem discovered among the author’s papers. It is likely that this poem was written near the end of a long period of depression.

 

 

/0 Comments/by

NOVEMBER SPECIAL – A STORY IDEA

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.

As there were no reader submissions for this month, I offer one of my “story dreams” for development. I did begin to write my version, but it seems destined to languish. Perhaps you will be inspired to complete it.

  1. GENERAL PREMISE. It is a coming of age story and could be told from the point of view of either of two main characters.
  2. TIME AND SETTING. The time is up to you, long ago on earth, on some other planet, et cetera, in an appropriate setting for hunter-gatherers.
  3. MAIN CHARACTERS: twins, a boy and girl. They belong to the hunter-gatherer clan.
    • The boy is expected to be a hunter, but he has no talent for it.
    • The girl is expected to step into the role women fill in the group, but she wants to be a hunter and has the talent for it. Whereas, she does not have the interest or gift for the “womanly” tasks, especially cooking.
  4. IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION. In the folklore of these people is the story of a woman who was a fine hunter at a time when the males had been separated from the women and far from home.
  5. THE PROBLEM:
    • The siblings meet in secret moments while the girl tries to teach her brother what comes naturally to her, especially the art of tracking. It is important that the older males do not find out.
    • The boy suspects his sister is planning to use the clan folklore to enable her to become a hunter. He is worried that if she does, the clan may thrust her out into the wilderness and abandon her there.

Good luck to you. I would love to know what you come up with.

 

/0 Comments/by

Splinters for November 2020

  1. Write your own elegy or tribute to service men and women.
  2. Write about a time when a simple thank you meant a great deal to you.
  3. November is Native American Heritage month, honoring the indigenous people of the continental US, including Alaska.
    1. Many United States place names were adopted from the local Indian tribes. Write a poem using one or more of these names.
    2. Is there a custom of these people which hold meaning for you?
      1. Create your own family totem in a poem.
      2. If the beliefs of these people have special meaning for you, write about why this is so, how they have affected your life.
    3. Perhaps their history is your greatest interest? What event would make a good poem, story or article?

 

 

 

/0 Comments/by

FINDING FRIENDS

Sunlight dapples the creek with flakes of gold

As each small mirror-ripple rises

To catch the yellow brilliance

Spilling like melting butter

Into the narrow, winding open breach

Exposed between high walls of forest-night.

 

Here is other gold as well: fool’s gold

Pale and brittle, shafting

Brief bright arrows toward the sky,

While a softer, warmer golden hue

Flickers in the creek shallows

Lighting the underside

Where water catches images of the sun.

 

Any visitor here might be excused

For carrying away only fool’s gold

To warm and light a far

Familiar corner deep within a forest-night.

 

Another, more worldly wise

Might pilfer the riches

Hidden in the creek

To purchase furs and fires

To escape an ever present dark.

 

I would hope I would do neither

Upon finding such a golden place.

I hope, Amicoj, I would merely stay.

 

#FriendshipPoetry #NaturePoetry #ValuesandChoices

/0 Comments/by