A patterns of shape, colors,
Imaginary hopes, dreams—
Life, like a river, moves ever onward
Gathering all the events of time,
Blending the good, the bad
And the indifferent into one stream.
Only in that one place in its embrace
That holds our individual life
Is there a clearness of sight.
We perceive love, hate, friendship—
All the personal relationships
That make our life worthwhile
As through a clear window.
For others, only sepia brown water
Flows by in the river we know.
Who knows, they might be right.
UNTRAMMELED
If I cannot be free,
Then I wish not to be.
I must smell the wind,
Touch the sun’s warmth,
Walk where few men go,
Feel the grass between my toes,
To be alone when I think,
With friends when I talk.
If I cannot live this way,
Life is as a broken bough.
DEATH OF A VOLCANO
Miles and miles
Of rock and dried ashes
Roll across the desert floor
Far away the rounded cone
Testifies to a hot, boiling past
THE WILD STEPPE WIND
The wild steppe wind
Thrashes the air
Plummets across the grasses
Where the khans rode
With their thirsted horde
Where the rains of Naga
Wandered displaced
And lonely
Where sings the grass
Of wars and Spring
And the earth aches of history.
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN—poetry by Margaret Roxby
“DEATH OF A VOLCANO” is included this week for March 23 World Meteorlogical Day. This poem was found among the poet’s papers. It was perhaps written after her one time visit to Hawaii late in life.
REFRACTIONS—poetry by Robert Roxby
“UNTRAMMELED,” is included this week for March 23 World Meteorlogical Day. Once again the author revels in his love a nature engendered in the days of his youth spent in the hills of coal country: West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania. The poem first appeared in the author’s collection, Reflections on a Lifetime.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“WILD STEPPE WIND” is included this week for March 23 World Meteorlogical Day. This poem is the result of a poetry workshop where the author was given several prompts, one of which triggered memories of the Asian continent.
#worldmeteorolgicalday
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 MARCH 2025
RIVER OF LIFE
A patterns of shape, colors,
Imaginary hopes, dreams—
Life, like a river, moves ever onward
Gathering all the events of time,
Blending the good, the bad
And the indifferent into one stream.
Only in that one place in its embrace
That holds our individual life
Is there a clearness of sight.
We perceive love, hate, friendship—
All the personal relationships
That make our life worthwhile
As through a clear window.
For others, only sepia brown water
Flows by in the river we know.
Who knows, they might be right.
A SHOWER OF IRRIDESCENCE
The thought
That fountained
Northern lights
Into the mind
From some far realm
(I tried to snare
With a net of fragile words)
Vanished in a shower of iridescence.
Dimension-denying
Like a crystal rainbow
Dissolving into glass rain
The colors fell,
Tone-splintering at earth’s touch,
Fragmentize a million million times.
ATTACK OF WORDS
The words are not mine
Yet they fill my mouth
With their life,
Carving canyons
Into the sensitive tissues
Strangling my tongue
Spilling acid down my throat
If I were to tell you all
That happens
When their sound
Steals up the secret passage
Of the inner ear
Onto the landscape of my unguarded mind
You would weep
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN—poetry by Margaret Roxby
“A SHOWER OF IRIDESCENCE” was found among the poet’s papers and did not have a title. Another poem (possibly written at the same time) by the author, “The Uncontained,” appeared on this website in April of 2021. That version was missing the following lines:
A crystal rainbow evolves
Dissolves, tone-sundered
Glass rain falls
The second poem originally appeared in the author’s self-published collection, Glass Rain, Golden Rain.
REFRACTIONS—an essay by Robert Roxby
“RIVER OF LIFE” is included this week for March 20 World Storytelling Day. The poem originally appeared in the author’s collection, Reflections on a Lifetime.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“THE ATTACK OF WORDS” is included this week for March 20 World Storytelling Day. The author evidently is sharing her reaction as a audience or reader to the work of another apparently gifted and powerful storyteller.
#worldstorytellingday