The Wordsmith's Forge

Today is the last day of the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics, so if you're still shopping, please make your final selections now.

fuzzyred has closed the pool, which funded:

"How to Hold the Darkness"
"The Paramount Importance of One's Fishing Companions"
"Think First of the Action"
"The Mother of Trees to Come"
"Close Attention is Paid to Their Actions"
"Because Her Darkness Burns So Brightly"
"Often the Beginning of Great Enterprises"
"Who Chose the Darkness"
"More Valuable Than Money"
"Play With a Sense of Destiny"
"Two Thirds of Our Miseries"

So I have a ton of things to post!  Thank you for your generosity.

Today started out partly cloudy and then got stormy.

I fed the birds.

We trimmed the rest of the dead wood off the birdgift apple tree, but as we were taking it to the brush pile, a very cold rain came down and drove us into the house. 

Mom & Dad sponsored this batch of poems:

"Cooking Stones"
"Fix One Thing at a Time"
"Loss Is Like a Wind"
"Like Hugging an Alley Cat"

This poem is spillover from the March 17, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from mama_kestrel. It also fills the "Punch & Smash" square in my 3-1-20 card for the Food Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Aquariana thread of the Polychrome Heroics series, and follows "The Hottest Blood of All" so read that first or this will make no sense.

Warning: This poem contains intense topics. Hankie warning! Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It features the aftermath of a drunken boating accident that killed the human pilot and a mother whale, relationship tangles, traumatic grief, traumatic fear, survivor guilt, self-blame, accidental temporary paralysis, Steel's attempt at interspecies first aid, retrieval of lost memories, followed by grief, worry, and other challenges. Readers with unresolved family losses may need extra support. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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These are the notes for "How to Hold the Darkness." Many of them are intense.

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This poem is spillover from the April 21, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from technoshaman and Anonymous. It also fills the "Barefoot" square in my 4-1-20 card for the Spring Fest Bingo. This poem was sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Aquariana thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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This poem is spillover from the March 17, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from librarygeek, erulisse, and Anonymous. It also fills the "Energy Drink" square in my 3-1-20 card for the Food Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains graphic descriptions of anxiety in post-earthquake conditions. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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