Letting Go

Stephanie Bennett-Henry – Letting go easily? Not exactly.

Stephanie Bennett-Henry

Who says you have to let go gracefully? Someone who never had more than half their heart in to begin with, one foot in while the other foot is on the mark, ready to run?

And who gets to define letting go anyway?Everyone is different and we don’t all let go the same way. I can only speak for myself when I say, I let go with blood on my hands, bruises across my soul, hands filled with pieces of my heart I’ll use to destroy myself with.

Then I’ll let go. Only after the tantrum thrown like a kick and scream in my heart from the throat of ugly before it knew it ever was ugly, before it knew that grace isn’t digging a grave to jump into.

Well, who knew? Not me, the one who never could love lightly with a heart beating half ass barely for the…

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Teardrops -Twittering Tale #95 – Raindrops on Glass – 31 July 2018

Jan Malique – Water versus ice

Strange Goings On In The Shed

rain-stoppers-1461288_1280 Photo by markusspiske at Pixabay.co

For Kat Myrman’s Twittering Tale.

Twittering Tale #95 – Raindrops on Glass – 31 July 2018

I wasn’t  sure how to approach this challenge but, like the rainfall, I let it flow. Where there is glass instead is ice:

The water elementals watched the weeping woman standing on the parched grass. Her grief was deep as the oceans and as endless.

They felt her sorrow and pain, searched for the cause. There it was, a shard of ice piercing her Soul. Free me it cried. So they wept, teardrops of rain.

(279 characters)

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Undertow

TheFeatheredSleep – A persistent grief, a downward pull

Where My Ghosts Come Out to Play

Christine Ray – A room full of ghosts

Brave & Reckless

The room is tastefully decorated
Respectful distance is kept between her desk near the door and the comfortable chair that I decided the first time we met will be mine
Arms folded tightly across my chest,
hands in unconscious fists
Small table next to me holds kush balls and engraved stones with reassuring words like hope and peace and a box of tissues that I do not like to need
Art on the walls is soothing colors
mostly abstract compositions
except for the print of  colorful umbrellas that rests on the floor against the small filing cabinet
This is my favorite
She keeps the office lights dim and I watch the dust motes dance in the open space between us
Where do we start talking about the trauma? asks the kind voice across the room
Where do we start?! I ask myself
The usually tightly barred door that swings slowly open on rusty hinges

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Interview: Composition of a Woman by Christine Ray

Christine Ray is interviewed on the occasion of the publiction of her first book.

Sudden Denouement Collective

You started you journey in the past two years. In that time you have made enormous strides as a writer and a publisher. Is there validation in getting a book to press?

My life has changed a great deal in the last two years, hasn’t it? I knew nothing about blogging when I started Brave and Reckless, let alone publishing. It has been quite an education as I have learned how to negotiate the blogging world and then the world of small press publishing. I think my writing has improved dramatically over the last two years as I have found my voice and been exposed to some really incredible writing. Joining Sudden Denouement has really challenged me to refine my writing and take more risks.

If someone had told me two years ago that I would be publishing my first book of poetry this month, I would have laughed at…

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Composition of a Woman Now Available

Christine Ray’s book is available.

Brave & Reckless

My first book of poetry and prose, Composition of a Woman, has been officially released by Sudden Denouement Publishing!

Nicole Lyons, The Lithium Chronicles: “Christine Ray’s debut poetry collection ‘Composition of a Woman’ is an extraordinary glimpse into the essence of what it takes to make, and sometimes simultaneously break, a woman as strikingly powerful as she is beautiful.  Christine Ray brilliantly split Composition into five thoughtful sections that work together beautifully to deliver the maximum impact of each poem while taking the reader deeper into a stunning journey of the mind, the body, the very soul of this person. In Composition, Christine Ray reveals so much of what we try to hide, and she does so while dancing between ruthlessly beautiful and heartbreakingly painful. ”

You can find Composition of a Woman at Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Europe ( Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de,

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What Lies Beneath? Christine Ray

Christine Ray – The beating heart of the survivor

Blood Into Ink

what lies beneath
this skin
no longer
supple and new
etched with
time’s fine lines
that radiate
from tired eyes
faintly shimmering scars
that circle my neck
and pelvis like
ironic smiles
black ink
needled carefully
over time
marking territory
finally and
unequivocally mine?

what lies beneath
these ribs
grown of mineral
laced with steel
that allows blood
to pump
strong and steady
even when memory
bites harsh like frost
against tender fingertips
and toes
and loss sweeps wild
and bitter
crimson tides
down my throat
that try
but fail
to drown me?
the heart of the survivor
beats on

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Thinned

Christine Ray – More than a headache

Brave & Reckless

Brought to her knees
By the pain in her head
in her body
The weight of her world
pinning her to the ground
leaving her feeling flattened as if
she were a wildflower
pressed within the pages
of a heavy book
She considered simply
baring her naked throat in submission
to the wolves with their yellow eyes
growling in a circle around her
Let them finally have their way
with her

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

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As you may imagine

TheFeatheredSleep – Not such a simple thing

TheFeatheredSleep

She was known as the girl with the waist length hair

The girl without siblings

The girl with turquoise eyes

She had a 23 inch waist

Those were the paper cut emblems of her life

She was vain

Though not empty headed

Her vanity was a poor replacement

Covering up loneliness and uncertainty

Perhaps if she’d had children, the size of her waist

Would have seemed so trivial

But she stayed in that sticky fingered past, sucking on old boiled candy

Where teenagers plume and forage

Because she found no other purchase

And that was sad and pathetic and lost and theatrical

And it was understandable

To those who like her

Watching themselves through glass

Like half packed suitcases

No hope chest

Using the acutrements to fill empiness

With

Costumes and colors and measurements

Because what her true circumference was

She had no idea

And how people could love her…

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I Shall Rise: Regeneration of a Knight

Jan Malique – A continuing tale of a knight, gods and goddesses, and more.

Strange Goings On In The Shed

cocoparisienne, Pixabay

In a previous chapter of this saga, Walking the Labyrinth, we left the Knight Templar at the centre of the Labyrinth. He stood face to face with the Great Bull and partook of his nature but wasn’t a devotee of Mithras. Another important encounter was with a mysterious angelic being who bestowed a great gift. Their paths will cross again, as both destinies are entwined in ways I have yet to unravel.

My hero has been lingering on the periphery of consciousness, for a reason. Perhaps to remind me to continue his story. He’s survived the massacre of the Cathars and seen much bloodletting over the centuries. Did I forget to mention his immortality? The Knight Templar’s story is one of trials and the facing of and triumphing over adversity. How do I describe his nature? In my mind’s eye I see a master swordsmith fold a piece of…

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