Free Stories, Poetry and Essays
Our Kickstarter just officially went live, and it would absolutely mean the world to me if you checked it out and considered supporting us!
Also:
Two broken hearts,
One hidden, one revealed.
Only one had the man who broke it,
Also be the man who it healed.
What movie am I?
Hi guys!
I realise you haven’t heard from me in a while but I do have a good reason!
I recently got hired at a small publishing firm, which is just starting up. It’s super exciting but also a little scary.
Anyway, we’re coming out with our first book (yeah!), which is a Halloween poetry collection called Phantom Listeners.
We’re starting a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and I wanted to ask you all to check it out. We’re going live in a week, but the pre-launch page is officially up. We do have some Early Bird Offers if anyone is interested. Next week, I’ll upload an extract from my novel-in-progress to thank you all!
Anyway, here’s the link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mariasjostrand/phantom-listeners-a-poetry-anthology-of-horror
Hi guys! Another erasure poem here! This one is from Disciplines by Dawn Lundy Martin
If there is prayer, there is a mother kneeling, hands folded to a private sign. We recognize it. If there is a mother kneeling, hands a tent, she is praying or she is crying or crying and praying at the same time. Although it is recognized, the signals of it, it is private and no one knows, perhaps not even she, the content of the prayer, and perhaps its object. If there is a mother praying, she is on her knees over some object, as one does not often pray in the middle of the room. One prays at the window or over the bed, the head bent slightly up or down, the eyes open or closed. This is a prayer for prayers, you know, a wanting something equal to a prayer, even though I am not a mother.
Hi guys! Haven’t posted in a while, have I? Sorry about that!
Here’s an erasure poem created using the following four texts: Short Walk on Sleep Stones by Anne Carson, Harbour by Michael Ondaatje, the Orphan Lamb by Amy Hempel and the Deck by Yusef Komunyakaa.
Three of the chosen texts were pretty sad, so I wanted to subvert them and get something life-affirming out of them! Anyway, here’s the result:
I am living at night. It is real life. It is sincere. I sing and I love. Dancing at they wait. Anonymity and seduction. His body over mine. Like old lovers guessing each other’s move. With as much euphoria as we can expect from the living.
For me there are eight levels of how much I like a book.
One. I can’t read it. I just can’t. I mean, I’ll try if I really have to, but after reading the same paragraph half a dozen times, I’m just going to give up and google my way to a summary. It’s so extraordinary bad that I just can’t read it. My brain goes on a strike as soon as I try. It’s figuratively holding up a small sign saying “What do we want? Entertainment. When do we want it? Now!”
Two. I don’t want to read it. This is the part where my brain and I are sitting at opposite sides of the negotiation table, trying to work something out. My brain is threatening to go on another strike, but I successfully calm her down by promising her entertainment right after this one last job. Sure, neither of us actually wants to read the book, but we’ll struggle our way through it. Teamwork. Continue reading “The Levels of Liking a Book”
A/N: Very light spoiler alert for Lucifer.
The Great Character is a character, who can save a show. It’s a character, who can take a book, a movie, or a TV-show and make it worth your while. You can, of course, argue that subjectivity plays a vital role in this – as it does in everything regarding the worlds of literature and media. Just because I find a show dull and a character entertaining, doesn’t mean that you do.
But often, we do agree. Quite a few people agree that Game of Thrones is a great show. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have the budget it has today. Sure, taste is subjective but there are certain things that speak to ninety-five percent of us. And ninety-five percent of seven billion is quite a lot of people. If ninety-five percent of people like something you’ve made, you’re set. Or should I say almost set? You do, after all, need to get their attention before you can impress them. But that’s a post for another time.
Right now, I want to talk about characters that impressed me – and then I hope that in this case, I’m part of the ninety-five percent and not the five. Otherwise, feel free to comment and let me know why you might disagree.
For this post, I’ll focus on the characters of the TV-show Lucifer, which is currently airing on Netflix. And why I think the characters are what makes Lucifer worthwhile to watch. Let’s see what we have to work with, shall we? Continue reading “A Great Character”
If I were a book, I don´t think I would be a particularly educating one.
I wouldn´t be able to teach someone how to speak Spanish or how to make the perfect crème brûlée. Hell, I wouldn´t even be able to teach someone how to bake chocolate chip cookies. I couldn´t teach them the difference between a congress man and a senator, or why North and South Korea doesn´t get along.
And I don´t think I would be the next great American novel. I wouldn´t be full of clever comments about our current society. I wouldn´t be the next Gatsby or Animal Farm. I wouldn´t be particularly philosophical or expand your vocabulary all that much. I wouldn´t warn you against where our society might be heading. I wouldn´t be 1984 nor Brave New World. Continue reading “If I Were a Book…”
Warning: Includes cursing.
Okay, do you guys have something that pisses you off way more than it should?
And I can´t be things where it´s perfectly reasonable to be angry. It can´t be how you hate it when people lie, or when someone calls you ugly names. It´s reasonable to be angry when this happens.
I´m thinking about something that pisses you off, even when it really, really shouldn´t.
For me, it´s when people say that something taste like Christmas. Continue reading “Irrationally Angry”
Immortality
And Why You Should Definitely Want It
“You don´t really want to live forever, do you?” she asks me, face horrified as if the mere thought of it was more than she could bear.
You´d think I´d told her I was suicidal. The face would be more appropriate if “live forever” had been replaced with “die”.
“Of course, I do,” I answer. “I would always want one more day.”
And I do. I want one more day, and when that day arrives, I want one more day and one more day and one more day… hopefully forever. Because if the day comes where I don´t want just one more day…
Can you even imagine how miserable that must mean I am? Continue reading “Immortality”
If we go out from the assumption that there is one true religion, one true God, and one true life after death… then choosing our religion and our God is undoubtedly the most important choice we will ever make.
So how do we go about making it?
For most people, their choice is easy (but not very well thought out). They go with the same choice their parents went with.
This is undoubtedly very flattering to their parents, but hardly how you go about making the most important decision of your life. How are your parents sure that Christianity is the correct choice? Or Islam or Hinduism or whatever religion they might have? How come that´s the choice they made? The most likely answer?
Because that´s the choice their parents made. Continue reading “Choosing Blindly”
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