GLASS RAIN – poetry by Margaret Roxby
“CROSSING THE LAKE,” was found among the author’s papers with this note: “when in the Sierras at a mountain retreat, a pause to reflect….” The author and her husband often traveled into mountainous and forested areas which he liked to share with her, places that reminded him of his West Virginia youth. The poet did not considered this poem finalized, and the page on which it was typed included an excerpt: “gun-metal promise of morning,” which she had apparently cut, but not fully abandoned. There is also an unexplained reference to Ohio—perhaps the scene brought back memories of her early years living on the Ohio River?
REFRACTIONS – poetry by Robert Roxby
“A LIFE AHEAD,” is one stanza of a two stanza poem bearing this title. The second stanza will appear at a later date on this website. This stanza in appears for August 18, World Never Give Up Day. The complete poem is included in his collection Reflections on a Lifetime.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – poetry by Kathleen Roxby
“FOR WE WERE YOUNG TOGETHER” is a poem inspired by observing the interaction between residents in the old age facilities the author visited as a volunteer and also during the last months of her grandmother’s life. It is included this week for August 21, National Senior Citizen’s Day.
IN A WORLD APART
I am lonely
Left bereft.
When you are gone
To that far highland place
I cannot touch
Your flaming heart
That lives
In a world apart
When your heart flees
To that far highland world
What makes your fragile heart
Cry low
Yearning for the gypsies so?
The music and the dancing flow
Like phantoms through your dreams
And will your yearning heart
Pursuing your dream
Throughout the night
Find the misted way
Into the dawn?
I stand forlorn.
What makes your heart ever beseech
The gypsy world beyond your reach
A realm quite fair
That only exists within
Your dreams or so it seems?
CITY BY THE SEA
The city holds the day
In a hammock
Of mountains and ocean tides,
Measuring the hours
In the rippling of waves,
The sundial shadows of the hills.
The one same morning or evening star
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN – poetry by Margaret Roxby
“IN A WORLD APART,” found among the author’s papers, bore the title of “Unfinished” as the poet had not completed the final edit. In it the poet, once again, touches on one of her favorite topics: gypsies. The poem is included this week for Kiss and Makeup Day, August 25.
REFRACTIONS – poetry by Robert Roxby
In “OUR POND,” the author takes us back to his youth among the hills where he lived with his father who worked in the coal mines of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This poem appears in his collection Reflections on a Lifetime. It is included this week for National Just Because Day, August 27.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – poetry by Kathleen Roxby
“CITY BY THE SEA” is included this week for August 30, National Beach Day.
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:
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2024
A LIFE AHEAD
Through all the aches and agonies,
I can still hear the calls—
The cheerfulness of fifes,
Drumbeats of the heart—
All calling the mind to mend.
There is a life ahead to live.
Somewhere someone waits patiently.
Seek, if you would, the trail.
CROSSING THE LAKE AT SUNSET
The big boat swishes through the waves,
That swell and break in rhythmic splendor.
Dark wraiths of smoke hover
Over matte-colored pools of reflected glory.
The wind grows cold—
Only a memory of recent warmth wanders
Through the air.
High above, in a street of green light,
Two angel clouds
Fling misty snow-white gowns
Across the sky, flow with the departing sun
(Sinking now beyond the horizon),
And fade finally into the spreading roseate
After-glow and are lost.
Only twilight remains.
FOR WE WERE YOUNG TOGETHER
When you were young
I was young, too
in the same time
though not beside you
We lived apart
we never met
But
We played the same
childgames
and laughed
and cried
and grew
older…
Now you are old
and I am old
and you will be
a friend
For we were young
together
and this is enough
for now
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN – poetry by Margaret Roxby
“CROSSING THE LAKE,” was found among the author’s papers with this note: “when in the Sierras at a mountain retreat, a pause to reflect….” The author and her husband often traveled into mountainous and forested areas which he liked to share with her, places that reminded him of his West Virginia youth. The poet did not considered this poem finalized, and the page on which it was typed included an excerpt: “gun-metal promise of morning,” which she had apparently cut, but not fully abandoned. There is also an unexplained reference to Ohio—perhaps the scene brought back memories of her early years living on the Ohio River?
REFRACTIONS – poetry by Robert Roxby
“A LIFE AHEAD,” is one stanza of a two stanza poem bearing this title. The second stanza will appear at a later date on this website. This stanza in appears for August 18, World Never Give Up Day. The complete poem is included in his collection Reflections on a Lifetime.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – poetry by Kathleen Roxby
“FOR WE WERE YOUNG TOGETHER” is a poem inspired by observing the interaction between residents in the old age facilities the author visited as a volunteer and also during the last months of her grandmother’s life. It is included this week for August 21, National Senior Citizen’s Day.
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: