Gossamer Wings

Christine Ray – Word Wings

Brave & Reckless

you spin words into phrases
like silk thread
fine
lustrous
weave them into
a gossamer shawl
breathtaking to behold
delicate
iridescent
resilient
with unexpected
body
with strength
I long to wrap myself
in the cloth
of your words
cocoon myself inside
white mulberry leaves
nectar
shall sustain me
as I metamorphize
I will emerge
changed
by your breathtakingly
tender
words
luna moth
delicate
new
ready for flight
I shall glide
toward your moon
bathe
in your silvery light

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

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Risk Aversion: The Psychology of Biden and Warren's Candidacies

Calico Jack – Risk aversion and some of the candidates

The Psy of Life

This is the third in my series on the psychology that governs the candidacy of the five leading presidential candidates: the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. We’ve already addressed the psychology of the Ol’ Pussy Grabber (psychological threat), Bernie Sanders (authoritarian personality), and handicapping the race overall.

Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren’s campaigns seem to be opposite sides of the coin. Both are governed by prospect theory, the decision making theory of behavioral economics by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, heroes of Ye Olde Blogge.

Prospect Theory

Election 2020: Who beats Trump?

Prospect theory is the idea that people use the probable effect of a decision on their immediate situation as the determining factor in the choices they make. In other words, the way people make decisions is based on whether the outcome will improve their situation or make it worse.

When…

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Daily Writing Prompt: Once

The Daily Writing Prompt for 1/28 – Once

Brave & Reckless

My January 2020 prompts are inspired by some of the greatest movie musicals of the last nine decades in all their politically incorrect technicolor glory. Even if you are not a movie musical fan, I hope that you find these prompts intriguing.  They are designed to inspire you to write a poem, prose piece, piece of flash fiction, or create a piece of art in 30 minutes or less.

The only rule is that you use the musical title as your piece title OR integrate all the words in the title into your piece in some way.  Extra credit will be awarded to those who pay tribute to these fabulous films.

I love sharing your responses to my prompts.  If you would like to have your piece considered for publication on Brave and Reckless, please email your prompt-inspired pieces to me at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com.  

A short biography and…

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Coffee delayed

Pattimouse – Her latest on Coffee House Writers

Pattimouse

Normally I share these the same day they are posted, but yesterday there was a technology snafu… So here’s my post for coffee house writers from this week… I hope that you enjoy!

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Shifting Sands

Christine Ray – Beach story

Brave & Reckless

Several years ago I had the pleasure of taking my first and only Creative Writing Class.  One of our short in-class assignments was to take a pleasant memory and write it as if it were a horror story without altering any of the details. 

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high noon sun
baked sand
under their feet
cousins 4 and 8
bright plastic buckets in hand
aching call of the gulls
stranger at the pipe
where water flows clear
salt free
down to ocean’s taboo edge
they are not allowed to go down there alone
dangerous they are told
but adults distracted yards away
by their dime store novels
cryptic conversations
that bore them to tears
parallel digging with strange girl in the deep sand
few words exchanged
something about her eyes
unsettling
building ephemeral castles
before knocking them down
again
and again
tired of this ritual
her 8 year-old eyes slide toward shore line

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Daily Writing Prompt: Dreamgirls

The Daily Writing Prompt for 1/27 – Dreamgirls

Brave & Reckless

My January 2020 prompts are inspired by some of the greatest movie musicals of the last nine decades in all their politically incorrect technicolor glory. Even if you are not a movie musical fan, I hope that you find these prompts intriguing.  They are designed to inspire you to write a poem, prose piece, piece of flash fiction, or create a piece of art in 30 minutes or less.

The only rule is that you use the musical title as your piece title OR integrate all the words in the title into your piece in some way.  Extra credit will be awarded to those who pay tribute to these fabulous films.

I love sharing your responses to my prompts.  If you would like to have your piece considered for publication on Brave and Reckless, please email your prompt-inspired pieces to me at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com.  

A short biography and…

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Monday poetry

Pattimouse brings a different form of poem for this Monday.

Pattimouse

Today my newest poem on Coffee house Writers posts. The posting rules for Coffee House are slightly different for the poetry department. In the poetry department there are two types, the type I am is devoted to poetry and rarely post else. Coffee House is devoted to growth of their writers. So, the poetry department that I am a part of does a weekly assignment. A challenge if you will. The weeks that you post you are required to at least attempt the assignment, and to comment on other attempts. This way we grow, we learn.

I have written free verse my whole life. I am I think comfortable, overly so sometimes, with free verse. I love the lack of restrictions on my writing.

The poet ee cummings used a lack of following the syntax rules to separate his poetry from the mainstream. I am in no way comparing my…

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Mahogany

TheFeatheredSleep – Train to a heart

hijacked amygdala

The train to my heart is very slow

Stopping at many stations

On the crowded platform a young girl watches her mother go

She never turns around, the mahogany of her hair becoming indistinguishable against fading day

A girl who since loses sight

Listening rather than seeing

Smelling the impression of movement

Folded like a Spanish rose on my chest, I breathe you in

How you form words with your quick violinist arms

Taut tense musculature, willing air demons

Those same arms clutching me to you, heart beating, no words

It rained that day all day from morning to night

“That never happens here” you said, mouth full of plum

“The desert doesn’t like to give up its ghosts. Come here to me, come back to bed”

And I

In my shedding evening dress, trailing thought

Confessed my sum;

The train to my heart is very slow

Stopping at many…

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feverish

Christine Ray – Elemental Heat, Mad and Wise

Brave & Reckless

fever comes upon me
suddenly
flaming cheeks
streak with crystallized salt
as drops of sweat
meander from dark matted hair
to sharp bare collar bone
ice blossoms
silver calcium roses
deep in my marrow
such a beautiful ache
as I shiver-burn
shot of flash-frozen vodka
down the back of the throat
it is now
that I speak in tongues
phantom snakes
twined around my arms
it is now
that I sing the songs of my dead
in ancient syllables known only to poets
madwomen in their attics
and the ghosts that gather near me
reaching out hungry hands
to absorb heat radiating
from my blistered skin

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All rights Reserved

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The Authoritarian Personality of the Sanders Campaign and Supporters

Calico Jack has misgivings about Bernie.

The Psy of Life

The Psychology of Trump’s 2020 Campaign

This is part of a series of posts I’m making about the major psychology principle or theory behind each of the five major presidential candidates personalities, campaigns, and supporters. The candidates are the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, Handsome Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. Hopefully, I’ll finish before any of them drop out of the race.

Full disclosure: I’ve always been ambivalent about Bernie Sanders as a Democratic candidate for president. I love many of his positions on the issues: Medicare for all, college tuition and debt forgiveness, avoiding needless wars. You know many of the progressive issues that are popular today that were pushed by Sanders in 2016.

Sanders and Minority Influence

The chief concern I have about his candidacy and potential presidency is his tendency towards authoritarianism. I’ve written about authoritarian personality before, so let’s recap using some old posts!…

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