Hello everyone. “My gift is my song and this one’s for you” This cover goes out to one of the wittiest and sweetest guys I know. Everyone’s favorite Brit, Alex.
Find his blog here: https://alexraphael.wordpress.com/
Hope you all enjoy. Thanks for always supporting the blog. I appreciate every last one of you.
Big ideas are everywhere,
from religion to capitalism.
There’s always someone
trying to sell us something.
I’m burnt out on the peddling.
I just want to be left on the
side of the road while I still
have a little sanity.
Let nature stand for all I believe in.
As for faith, I’ll leave that to the sun.
We all die in the end,
the good, the bad,
the blissfully indifferent.
It doesn’t matter how well
you sing the hymn,
or if you know the slogan
by memory.
Life is freshly pressed and
the creases only hold for so long.
I’d like to believe in
the lottery, mail in rebates,
and a free trip to Hawaii.
In my crisis of faith,
I have moments where I wonder
if we all just fade to dust.
Our molecules scattered
in the wind.
Left with nothing but our
collective darkness,
where there are no charge
off or loopholes.
All I know for certain
is I know nothing.
Oh to have the wisdom of Solomon.
I look for assurance
in the clouds.
Punching the fog.
I fall back on my upbringing.
close my eyes and
pray for grace.
-Tosha Michelle
That fall he carried his notepad everywhere.
And on those crisp evenings,
I felt him shape and merge
words with paper.
Above us an inky sky,
and I longed to be nothing
but the syntax and nuances
taking form in his mind.
I rest my head on his shoulder,
watching the swaying of his pen.
I become one with the shuddering lines,
that won’t be still.
They reach out and caress my heart.
Stalling my breath.
Touching me here and here.
For a moment, I’m what he shapes.
What he imagines.
I glimmer in edges of the dark lines,
until the words splinter from me
The lines, like the writer,
elusive as the stray wind.
-Tosha Michelle
“Everytime I think of you, I always catch my breath
And I’m still standing here, and you’re miles away
And I’m wonderin’ why you left
And there’s a storm that’s raging
through my frozen heart tonight”
My cover of “missing You” by John Waite (For Alex)
Find him here:
“And the songbirds are singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before.”
My cover of Songbird, Many thanks to my friend Danny for the piano accompaniment
Sometimes I sing in incomplete rhymes.
I write in crayon and leave
my shoes beside the sandbox.
I sign my letters with x and o.
I ponder in doubt, the crisscross musings
speaking out loud.
Sometimes a woman needs
flowers out of season, homegrown vegetables,
sex, and easy to read instructions.
Instead she meditates on ice cream
and the Home Shopping Channel.
Attempts to become enlightened.
Prays to paper and pen.
Looking for an all encompassing view.
Hoping for an all embracing embrace.
She offers herself to drumbeat and sage.
The rhythm under the air, turns her heart
to some inferior door, finding something buried
in red.
-Tosha Michelle
My cover of “Never Saw Blue Like That”
Listen to Never Saw Blue Like That by Tosha Michelle 2020 #np on #SoundCloud
You thought you were at an impasse,
a standstill. But that was just your heart
slowing down to acknowledge the pain
You don’t realize there are worst things
than missing the train, busting
your knee, the morning wasted.
Running from your past.
Drowning your demons in gin and pills.
You prefer a prescription pad
to a subscription to pain.
Widowed from your feelings.
You crave the next fix.
Anything to get you where
you’re going.
You look for a treasure map
scrawled in a dome of stupor.
Where the winds remain static
and the gravel never get stuck
between your toes.
You swim in a diluted river
by trees that don’t shrink or grow.
Nature weeps for the despondency of you.
I weep for the unlived life beneath you.
-Tosha Michelle
My thanks to the lovely and talented Geetha B for this nomination. Please check out her exquisite poetry at:
https://geethaprodhom.wordpress.com/
The Rules
Say “Thank You” to the person who nominated you & link their blog to your post.
Answer the 10 questions given to you.
Pass the award on to 7 other bloggers and let them know they have been nominated.
Include the Award Badge in your post.
The Answers. (drum roll, please)
What made you want to start your blog?
– My friend Niles held a gun to my head and made me. No, really, he was always going on about how wonderful WordPress was. I finally decided to see what all the Niles buzz was about. I have to say, I am extremely grateful that he directed me here. The blogging community is so supportive. This is my favorite place to be on-line. People are so kind. It’s such a drama free environment
2. What have you wanted to do on your blog but haven’t yet? Why not?
– win a Nobel Peace Prize:) Honestly, I can’t think of anything. Perhaps, posting nude photos. I kid!!!!
3. Name one item on your bucket list, or more if you like?
– I would love to meet Jon Stewart. I’m a tad obsessed with him and James Purefoy. It’s totally innocent. I just want Jon to feed me grapes while Purefoy (with his lovely British accent) recites Shakespeare.
I would also like to get my MFA in creative writing. I already have one Masters degree, what’s one more? Oh, only a few thousands of dollars more in student loan debt. Meh.
4. What is your biggest fear
-the loss of my children. I never want to outlive them.
5. What is your best moment in life?
– the birth of my two daughters.
6. With New Years fast approaching, do you make resolutions? If so, name one. If not, why don’t you like to make them?
– I don’t. I think you should resolve to be better everyday
7. If you could host a challenge on your blog, what kind would it be?
– one to see who could pay off my student loans the fastest. 😉
8. What was the name of your first pet? What do you remember the most about them?
– it was a cat named Squirrel. In hindsight, kind of a silly name for a feline. I remember as a five year old, I thought it would be neat to see if he could swing. He couldn’t, but he was a superb clawer.
9. Did you ever go to a high school reunion? Was it fun or not?
– I went to my tenth. It was fun. I was such a nerd in high school. People were shocked by how much I had changed. Note, I’m still a nerd, I just dress better.
10. Do you have a pet peeve?
-so many but the main one- rude people. Manners matters. Kindness matters. Validation matters. It take so little to say thank you, you’re welcome, please, etc.
Now for the hard part.
The nominees
There are so many amazing women here. It’s hard to pick only a few. I love you all!
1. Stephanie from http://boldblindbeauty.com/
She’s truly an inspiration.
2. Meg from http://megdekorne.com/ an absolute delight.
3. Sarah from https://thesarahdoughty.wordpress.com/ She writes beautifully
4. L. T. Garvin from https://broussardlana.wordpress.com/ Author and word goddess
5. Sanghamitra from https://sanghamitrachakrabarty.wordpress.com/ Poet and just a lovely human being.
6. Rachel from https://findingrachelsway.wordpress.com/ Her writing is so raw and real.
7. Cooper Cranes https://coppercranes.wordpress.com/ One of my favorite poets on WordPress.
Questions for Nominees
What made you want to start your blog?
2. What have you wanted to do on your blog but haven’t yet? Why not?
3. Name one item on your bucket list, or more if you like?
4. What is your biggest fear?
5. What is your best moment in life?
6. With New Years fast approaching, do you make resolutions? If so, name one. If not, why don’t you like to make them?
7. If you could host a challenge on your blog, what kind would it be?
8. What was the name of your first pet? What do you remember the most about them?
9. Did you ever go to a high school reunion? Was it fun or not?
10. Do you have a pet peeve?
The year’s death is approaching
and my soul is in migration.
The breath of frost lingers
longer with each passing winter.
I sit looking out at the night,
coming down like calendar
pages falling to the floor.
The moon looks like a clock.
The wind whispers “tick tock”
The ghosts of 2015 stumble around in my backyard.
Unfulfilled dreams appear like
oracles at my front door.
I measure my loses.
I count my gains.
I write my life in blue.
Praying for the luminous dawn
of fresh beginning.
Hope diamonds the sky.
I long to dance with starlight
in a tango I’ve never danced
Hipswaying my way across
the galaxy.
Peeling off the last twelve months
like sheets.
The flakes of auld lang syne.
no longer glazing my bowl.
The skeletons of the past
under my feet.
Knowing biography is not fate.
There’s still time for revisions.
My heart quicken by the sun.
My soul renewed.
Bathe in the bright light
of a new year
-Tosha Michelle
Because I am scarred .
I find comfort in the broken ones
The flowers out of season.
The dark mornings.
The delinquent library books.
The residue that slips through.
The ones not half full but fully
shattered. The ones scarred by
bramble.
I fall toward them with open arms .
For those who are lonely, those
wandering city streets, lost.
I pack kindness in a carry on with
imperfections. The bag so full
it’s spilling over.
The challenge of life, making everything fit.
My back aches for all I tote. There
are exits all around me. The gift shop is giving away apathy.
But I’ve purchase humanity’s ticket and I’m not going back.
Realizing life is more than chiffon pie and summer afternoons.
Knowing it isn’t the sky that matters but how we fly through it.
Navigating with a fractured flight map of scars,
counter winds and all.
Compassion our wings
The destination, love.
-Tosha Michelle
Everything I Never Told You 