Category: 31 days of creativeness
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#16: Short walk beyond the line
In small towns there isn’t always enough light to go around. Streetlights mark out the border: a square and measured constellation from the air. The secondary roads that stretch out beyond the town line dissolve into darkness — shadowy boundaries that quickly descend into black. Crossing from the half-lit sheets into the dark periphery, the…
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#15: When crows are not ravens
The large black-winged birds behind the brewery have a secret they want to share, yet guard it with the ferocity of Poe. But these dark creatures are more verbose than his dark visitor; these birds, leaping from flimsy birch branches, squawk rapid-fire in single syllables. Taunting, taunting, daring And curious listeners stop, look up —…
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#14: On the train
The train smells of exhaust and oranges. The citrus is a welcome change. Foreign on this Friday evening exodus from the city. Rumble of tracks shake the cars, pitching them back and forth, side to side. Through the window: a blur of broken backyards and deserted buildings, of flimsy fences and weed-choked parking lots. A…
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#13: Tower coming down
The water tower is coming down. It used to be dark green. And at some point it was painted blue. That was after I left town, after I stopped looking at it. And now it’s coming down. When I was young it was huge: a looming dark monolith in a field just in from the…
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#12: Bottling Autumn
The Autumn: people either revel in it or detest it. For some it’s the slow suffocation of summer: weeks of creeping cold and damp, and just a few last warm exhalations before the earth grows cold and dies. For months. Many freezing cold months. For others (like me) the arrival of Autumn is greeted with…
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#11: Lighter
Waiting in the darkness, waiting for the flick of the switch. Wondering when the light will come. The heaviness shifts: a breath-clenching weight that moves from muscle to muscle. Fluid but unrelenting, pressing against the contours of flesh and bone. Then the light: eye-slitting and brilliant. Bright as a revelation. And after a moment it…
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10 for 16
The ’31 days of creativeness’ has not quite gone to plan. There have not been 16 posts in 16 days. There have been just ten. So I thought I’d take a look at the distractions and dramas that have kept me from doing something creative every day in October and address them. There’s still time…
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#9: Time out of the shower
On the weekend I read a great article about strategies for finding “sacred space” and making time for “deep thinking.” Ok, I saw you roll your eyes just now. It’s not what it sounds like. It’s about taking a few moments (or more if you can) to just shut the world off and just think.…
barbara fletcher 