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NaNoWriMo and Rediscovering the Joy of Writing
A blank cork board on Scrivener holds so many possibilities. Every year I talk to fellow writers just around November, and we discuss the quiet dread that surrounds NaNo: deadlines, timeframes, word counts, ideas. Some spend entire October planing and plotting for November just to unleash the ideas and fulfill the daily quota. And for…
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On Writing Poems and Darning Socks: Robert Southey’s Advice to Charlotte Brontë
‘…she rather needs keeping down than bringing forward; and then I think, monsieur—it appears to me that ambition, LITERARY ambition especially, is not a feeling to be cherished in the mind of a woman: would not Mdlle. Henri be much safer and happier if taught to believe that in the quiet discharge of social duties…
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When We Were Free
We trod the cobbled courts around Karluv Most Played the fiddle in Piazza San Marco Gambled with rain in Gamla Stan Bought books in Berlin Awaited the spring in Amsterdam And then it stopped. In seven days the world ended Packed up in a box Labeled ‘Fragile’ and put away On the highest shelf in the pantry Above…
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Happy People
Happy people don’t write poetry, they say Words and thoughts don’t burden their days © 2020 Erna Grcic
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On a Cloudy Day
The sun appeared out of nowhere and cast its golden breathacross the furniture. It stroked the pillows,ruffled the plant’s rowdy leaves and upset the candle. I blinked a couple of timesand it was goneas if it had never been there before. © 2020 Erna Grcic, Beneath the Surface Comment: We had a sandstorm this morning and…
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The Sea
Close your eyes and listen to the sea As it crashes against the shore Rocking the bones of long-lost ships Grinding mighty rocksInto smithereens © 2020 Erna Grcic, Beneath the Surface Comment: This is the first stanza of the poem ‘The Sea’ from my collection, Beneath the Surface. I play with the water imagery because,…
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Socially Distant
Tedium and isolation have arrived holding hands and pirouetting along the balcony railing on a rainy afternoon. © 2020 Erna Grcic
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To the Surface
Hello my lovelies, it’s been a couple of months since I started my self-imposed hiatus and, I’m glad to say, it’s been quite a creative and productive period for me. Good news and announcements first: the project that I started almost exactly a year ago, my poetry collection titled Beneath the Surface, is ready for…
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In the Darkest Depths
Be not afraid of whirlpools, of strong winds, and murky waves. Fear the creature that dwells in the darkness deep, the ice-shackled Kraken, that threatens to surface and your soul to keep. With your every stroke in the cheery water green, it stirs in its slumber, veins on its eyes’ centuries-old husks that its sight…
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Once Upon a Time
Ghosts hover within these walls Unseen footsteps patter in the halls Lions couchant guard the gates Marble pain on their sealed fates The stain on the carpet – blood or wine? Remember when we used this room to dine? Abandoned toys beside the crib A dull pain underneath the ribs Mess left mid-play Nobody here…
Myths & Stories 