The wind hurls itself
across my roof in big waves
as I hold my breath.
The skylights receive
a violent drum solo;
I receive the awe.
The house bravely waits
for the next real world onslaught;
my faith is a gift.
(damage: usatoday.com; lighthouse wave: katu.com)
I hope everyone reading this is having (or had) a special wonderful day. Gratitude is a driving power in the Universe. We all should exercise it more often. Every. Single. Day.
This is from Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom:
“True gravity connotes the joining of awareness, delight, and embracing-force. But our modern world and its dominant philosophies work to separate them. True gravity is an experiential reality; a force-at-large in the world, the omnipresent heart power or feeling-force that permeates all things.”
~M. Murphy
(Looking southeast from between the 12th green and the 13th tee box at Gearhart Golf Links, the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi. Taken by yours truly.)
Okay. Another shameless plug:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/white-ravens/id1439393149?ls=1&mt=11
The collection goes live tomorrow.
Coming October 31, 2018 to your favorite book source from Word Hermit Press:
(Cover design: Vinnie Kinsella Book Publishing Services)
This is a collection of tales set in the modern American West with characters who somehow dispel the rugged individualist myth, while at the same time giving it new meaning.
Jim Stewart says: The first edition of White Ravens was self-published via Smashwords, just to see if I could pull it off. The editing was not rigorous and the whole concept of doing it yourself was fairly new. It was a great learning experience and I’m grateful to Smashwords for the guidance and encouragement. Then, Word Hermit Press offered to publish my novel, Ochoco Reach, and I was very happy at my good fortune. The original version of White Ravens And More Stories languished with very little attention from me or anybody else. I also self-published a short story single called Early to Rise because it made the rounds of literary magazines with no takers. Editors who said they liked the story told me the awkward length of it handcuffed them. So, I included it in White Ravens for this edition. Willy Hayes, one of the main characters in Ochoco Reach, makes her first appearance as a fictional character in Early to Rise.
Appearing for the first time anywhere is the story Bleeding Alder, featuring a young Mike Ironwood, the forthright hero from Ochoco Reach. After White Ravens comes Joshua’s Tree, the second Ironwood novel. It should appear in 2019.
Release: October 31, 2018
Publisher: Word Hermit Press
ISBN: 978-0-9982794-9-7 (paperback)
978-1-7327508-0-7 (hardback)
Paperback Price: $16.99 (library discount available)
Hardback Price: $27.99 (library discount available)
Kindle Price: $5.99
Pages: 85
Distribution: Ingram, B & T
eBook Distribution: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes&Noble
Publicity Contact: StewartInk Media
The breeze off Arrow lake
sways the curtains in my room,
robbing the ghosts of places to hide.
The fan blurs the ceiling where
peeled wallpaper casts vibrating
shadows, like insect wings
stuck to my leather.
The confused air stirs
this book on my knees and
my eyes flutter closed
to again see today’s road.
The fan circles my sleep as
the hot room strokes my sepia skin.
I am utterly still.
The ghosts will not let
those demons find me here
in the Leyland Hotel.
(Upper Arrow Lake: Kerry Oxford)
Ha. Life O’Wryly has another new one. jrs
Okay. Today we’re pointing to https://lifeowryly.wordpress.com/
I’m beginning a series of pieces written for ancient mariners like me.
(painting inset: starszz.org)
Thank you for my companions:
this journal; this pen;
this heart full of my blood;
my blood in the hearts of others;
my heart in the hearts of others;
the quivering guitars;
the gift of music holding me fast;
this love of the world, this brutal
beautiful world,
where life and death hold
one another in enraptured embrace.
I am more than the sum of my companions.
That is my contribution.
My gift to the world is the part of me
where there are no words,
the part I attempt to describe each day,
when I thank my silent companion,
brave Disappointment,
for not allowing despair.
(photo: matrixnutritionllc.com)
Here Poemy, here girl, here boy,
hweet, hwheet, wheet…
c’mon—atta girl, atta boy, c’mon.
Bronkbuster’s muse is a dominatrix—
demanding, abusive, beautiful,
alluring, cruel, and
dripping wet—smelling
of sea and sagebrush.
Mine is on cat’s feet,
shifting shapes and sometimes
howling at the moon—
her edge cuts my heart
with fear and hope
I bleed on the page.
She, too, smells of sea,
torrentially wet
with lust and intent, crying:
“Coming through, get out of the way. Do your job, Lens Boy!”
for Paul Zarzyski
(top: USDA Forest Service; bottom: Fine Art America: Craig Tuttle)
The audiobook is live!
