When Words are Truly Free

"One Day I'll Fly Away"  Photography by Hayley Richards

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Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 66
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Some birds are poets and sing all summer. ~Henry David 

Once my words were caged

Strangled by silence

Like a shy child

They lingered close

In quiet spaces

Whispering in my ear

where no one else would hear

But with time they grew

And so did I

Old cages get rusty

but old birds still fly

now the silence is stifled by words

they reach far places

like migrating birds.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

The Unspoken Words of a Fool

"In the Middle of Freedom"  by Isabel Mansfield

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Linking with The Sunday Muse for Muse # 40
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The sharpest sorrows are those which remain locked within our own breasts.
 ~James Lendall Basford

Words do not die

 they wait in silence

as do the unspoken words of a fool

  they survive held captive

 like an abducted child

waiting in bated breath

 for a chance to escape

 yet never losing hope in the years that pass 

there are so many things I wish I had said to you

 I thought I would have the chance

 but time can be a nimble thief

  the chance has long since passed

songs on the radio send thoughts reeling

 like paper cranes in the air

 that will never make it very far

sentiments of hope and love

 lost down darkened halls

 so many feelings wishing

 for a way to be expressed

  perhaps that is why

I became a poet

to give expression

to all my captive thoughts

a million different ways

of saying.... I wish you were still here.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

The "F" Word

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Linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform brought to us by Vivian 

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. 

~Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

Frailty

fear

flame

far

finite

futile

frenzy

filthy

facade

fight

faulty

famine

fading

falling

fleeting

flood

final

fungi

fuss

folly

feces

F--- there are a lot of negative words that start with "F"!

But on the positive side:

Fierce

fearless

flow

focus

flourish

flawless

feasible

fine

faithful

friendly

fit

fulfilled

flexibility

free

future

frugality

forgive

flower

fair

fortitude

Female,

Fragile as a flower tough as a flame

 the force of a woman's heart
can stop a moving train
we may not have big muscles
but we have a gigantic heart
and when it comes
to molding people
we play the biggest part
we carry an influence
that is heavy like blocks of steel
and in our gentle nature
we have a strength that's real
for we are
fragile as a flower tough as a flame
and the force of a woman's heart
can stop a moving train.

To Not Be Forgotten

~Courtesy Carrie's desk at work~

Linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform

~Today is National Handwriting Day.~

So we are celebrating the art of hand-inking our thoughts and feels into words.

Brought to you by Magaly

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There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. ~William Makepeace Thackeray

Like soft spoken children they nudge me on the arm

and refuse to be forgotten

getting my attention one way or another

words

they have been a foe

and my faithful friend

an adored lover

and an annoying neighbor

relentless yet true

giving me a chance

to not just speak

but truly be heard

and ultimately strive

to not be forgotten.

************************************************************************

I used to write to not be forgotten

now I write to not forget

I spent years

filling pages upon pages

 with words and thoughts

ideas and rhymes 

hoping to be heard

and I still do

but now

I also have lists

upon lists of things

I need to do

it seems 

that list

never ends.........and

I am in a never ending cycle

of forgetting things on the list.

Life is Poetic

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A poet swallows life and exhales painted words. ~Terri Guillemets

A Mad Scientist with Words

Courtesy Google Images

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet,

then you must write it. 

~Toni Morrison


Stories.....
we all have one....
some love printed ones...
others have a favorite....
and we all enjoy to have one read to us when we are a child.
But in the course of things, some of us remain readers and others become writers.
I am not sure what triggers the difference.  Does a writer just have so much they want to say to the world that they have no choice in the matter?
I only know that when I was a child writing gave me 

a certain peace.
As an adult, writing went on the back burner for a long while, raising small children and learning to be on my own, however one day I decided to carry on.
I picked up a pen and a note pad and turned into a mad scientist with words. Most of my waking moments I spent dwelling on ideas and thoughts that I wanted to write into poetry.  I cleaned houses for a living and would jot notes on the job and I kept a journal with me most of the time.
Many years have passed since that time, and many things have changed in my life- marriages, homes, jobs- but one thing has not changed, my love of writing.

An Anthem of Knowing

Central Library, Manchester, U.K., by Robin Gosnall

The Mag #154

"A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of shadows." ~Henry Ward Beecher

Like etchings carved upon stone
 these words linger amongst the breathing
hidden within covers of leather and dust
an anthem of knowing inhabits the empty spaces
pressing through to the far reaches of the world
everytime there is a turning of the page.



All The Words Unwritten

She sorted her thoughts like pages of ideas that were never used
a blank canvas with dull edges unsharpened yet truly sharp                                                                    
it was like dusty guitars with no strings to play
or an empty crystal vase
her pearls were lost at the bottom of a drawer never to be worn
the creme brulee would remain untorched
each one a perfect thread to a beautiful quilt never made
.....all because when idea's orb was within her grasp
she did not take the time to get a pencil
and simply write it down.

Magpie Tales