Sundowning

Christine Ray – Pattern of a day wending toward a darkness

Brave & Reckless

my days have become
hourglass-shaped
I rise
early morning hours
sit in front of my screen
in quiet stillness
feel alone in the world
reflective
internal
my thoughts warm
tumbled
amorphous
as I slowly wake
thick golden syrup after sleep
food
caffeine
percolates through my veins
brings world into focus
things become narrow
sharper
my wheels turn
a well-oiled machine
I commute
inhabit my day job
a different me
answer phones
emails
questions
tend to other’s needs
demands
the unwinding
unraveling
starts on the way home
I ooze out of the corset stays
that have contained me
simply longing to shrug off
workdays concerns
I no longer can
control the flow
I am without boundaries
drifting further
and further
deeper and deeper
into my dark recesses
I do not mean to go
to all the places
where the pain lives
where I only see failure
inadequacy
where loneliness
isolation
are daggers to the heart
a thousand stinging needles
I can…

View original post 37 more words

Submissions close today for This is What Love Looks Like. Poetry by Women Smitten with Women!

Last Call, Last Day to submit work for “What Love Looks Like. Poetry by Women Smitten with Women”

Brave & Reckless

Indie Blu(e) Publishing will be accepting submissions of poetry and art for This is What Love Looks Like. Poetry by Women Smitten with Women until midnight on Sunday, June 30th. This Anthology will celebrate love, attachments, and attraction between women.

• The maximum number of pieces for submission per writer/artist is FIVE (5).
• Writing can be uploaded as a Word or PDF attachment. If you are submitting a graphic poetry meme, the meme must be accompanied by the text in Word or PDF version.
• Artwork submitted for the Anthology must be able to be reproduced clearly in black and white.
• You will be notified if your work is accepted. Please do not consider non- acceptance as any diminishment of your experience, but as with any publishing venture, we must try to fit the individual pieces together into a strong whole.
• Submission of previously published pieces is acceptable if you still own…

View original post 64 more words

Brave and Reckless June 2019 Pride Anthem Challenge: Week Four

Week 4 of the Pride Anthem Challenge

Brave & Reckless

My deepest thanks to all the writers on WordPress, Facebook, and Instagram who participated in the June Pride Anthem Writing Challenge. I loved reading your writing and seeing all the creative and diverse ways you integrated the prompts.

If you missed any of this month’s prompts and would still like to write a poem, a piece of prose, flash fiction, or even make art using any of this week’s prompts, go for it!

To have your response piece considered for publication on Brave and Reckless, please email them to me at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com.

To participate via Facebook tag your writing with:

• # the daily theme
• #PrideAnthemChallenge
• @braveandreckless66

To participate via Instagram tag your writing with:

• #prideanthemchallenge
• @indiebluwritersnetwork

View original post

June 29, 2019 Writing Prompt Challenge: We R Who We R

The Pride Anthem Challenge 6/29 – “We R Who We R”

Brave & Reckless

Throughout the month of June, I will be providing a daily writing prompt based on a Pride Anthem.  You can integrate the words of the prompt or any element of the song (or music video) in your piece that creatively inspires you.  Although I strongly encourage pieces that touch on the lived experience of those who identify as LBGTQ, it is not a requirement.

If you would like to have your piece considered for publication on Brave and Reckless, email your prompt inspired pieces to me at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com .

You can also participate on Facebook by tagging your writing with:

• # the title of the daily theme
• #PrideAnthemChallenge
• @braveandreckless66

or on Instagram by tagging your writing with:

• #prideanthemchallenge
• @indiebluwritersnetwork

You can also share your response piece in the comments below.

We R Who We R

Hot and dangerous
If you’re one of us, then roll with us
‘Cause we make…

View original post 361 more words

Peering over the Edge

Jan Malique – More will come

Strange Goings On In The Shed

Tim Mossholder at Unsplash

The Shed is temporarily changing its business hours, not that it operated according to a regular schedule anyway. Writing has been a chore at times, more so now that I’ve engaged in this odyssey. There are hazards littering the path of a anyone who professes to emulate the adventures of one such as Odysseus.

Marc Zimmer at Unsplash

Who knows what manner of Stygian beasts will emerge from the shadows ready to test these foolhardy individuals. I think a few of them have waylaid me over the past few months!

What now? A distinct lack of creative juice has left me feeling, okay. Okay’s fine. I may diverge occasionally from ‘okay’ to shining a torch into darkened corners of the psyche. Once again displaying that dangerous trait, curiosity. 

KELLEPICS at Pixabay

At times it’s felt like I’ve peered over the edge of the world into…

View original post 150 more words

Please, please, please write book reviews. . .

A writer’s plea at Brave And Reckless

A writer’s plea at Brave And Reckless

View original post

Sudden Denouement Aesthetics

Sudden Denouement – Where to send submissions

Sudden Denouement Collective

[Art courtesy of @cypherchthonic]

The original vision for Sudden Denouement was a platform for divergent art. Literature will continue to be the focal point of SD, though we will be featuring artists who share the vision for pushing the boundaries of the status quo. We will be accepting submissions from visual artists. Any submissions should be sent to suddendenouement@gmail.com. We can also be reached through DM at instagram.

View original post

July 2019 Children’s Book Title Writing Prompt Challenge

Christine Ray’s July writing prompts

Brave & Reckless

Throughout the month of July, I will be providing a daily writing prompt based on the title of a beloved Children’s book. They are designed to inspire you to write a poem, prose piece, or a piece of flash fiction in 30 minutes of less.

Let your creativity go wild!  The only rule is that you use the book title as your piece title OR integrate all the words in the title into your piece somehow. 

If you would like to have your piece considered for publication on Brave and Reckless, email your prompt inspired pieces to me at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com .

You can also participate on Facebook by tagging your writing with:

• # # the daily book title
• #kidsbookchallenge
• @braveandreckless66

or on Instagram by tagging your writing with:

• #kidsbookchallenge
• @christabelle666

You can also share your response pieces in the comments below the Daily Prompt.

View original post

Mansplain by Adam Levon Brown

A new find, thanks to Christine Ray

Raja's Insight

(From a queer male)

Soap box mansplaination

of phallic proportions

Spitting objective rhetoric

faster than lightning strikes

root

Lack of empathy manifested

in constant back-talk and talking

over

Micro-aggression coffee stains

inhabit his pale-white shirt

While he rambles on and on

about how his views matter more.

©Adam Levon Brown

---

Check out our Submissions Page for future Anthology Publishing opportunities now:

Open Submissions Page

---

In this new hard hitting anthology byCreative Talents Unleashed, authors from around the world pour out their experiences of ‘Microaggression’.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “A comment or action subtly and often unconsciously expressing a prejudiced attitude towards a member of marginalized group”

Derald Wing Sue defines Microaggression as “ The brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, and sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to…

View original post 109 more words

Painting

Christine Ray – The Blues, like a painting

Brave & Reckless

blue
blue is the color
of my sorrow
not robin’s egg blue
too bright
too cheery
not navy blue
too flat
too traditional
i picture my blueness
a swirling cloud
of midnight blue
streaks of silver
periwinkle
on the outer edges
moving like a slowly
rotating constellation
through my head
 
it rains indoors
only over my chair
a purple rain
the drops large
iridescent
amethyst
lilac
slicking my skin
quivering
on my eyelashes
saturating
my clothes
the color puddling
beneath me
like leftover dye
from easter eggs
where is my paintbrush
a canvas
when I need them?

© 2017 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved

View original post