Thunderstorm

Serpents cloud the sky
Strike at unfaithful lovers
Thunderstorm justice

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Haiku written for Moonwashed Musings (thunderstorm).

Lightning Lover

He’s flashy and loud
Brings all the drama to town
He does not strike twice
Or so they say but still I
Wait outside with copper wire

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Tanka written for Tanka Tuesday (the nature of lightning).

September’s Song

The whisper of a cool breeze reminds me that sultry summer dreams are coming to an end. I welcome brown sugar oatmeal, crisp apple days, and cozy blanket snuggles. My cup overflows with the pumpkin spice of life.

Autumnal palette
Orange amber magenta
Brightens longer nights

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Haibun written for dVerse Poets September Song.

Letting Go

Apples, nutmeg, pumpkin pie,
Cinnamon-sprinkled afternoons…
I’m learning how to say goodbye
Under a sky full of lost balloons.
October bakes up crisp and sweet;
Old friends stop to say hello;
Leaves crunch softly at my feet–
There’s beauty in the letting go.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Double quatrain written for WQW (fall or autumn).

Emberglow

Summer slips out softly,
Leaving a trail of emberglow.
Warm memories of golden days
Will be savored like drops of honey
Sweetening steaming tea
When the chill winds swirl in.
Shadows lengthen on the walls
And nights grow long again,
But in my mind’s photo album
We are forever young,
Plucking seashells from the sand
And waiting for something
To begin.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

I decided to start using paint chip names for poetic inspiration again, though not necessarily on Fridays as I did previously (still using my PCF tag just because). These will happen whenever the mood strikes and an image from my library calls out for some new lines. I’m using the wall of colors from Sherwin-Williams. Join me if you like.

Seasonal Change

A rainbow of leaves
The whisper of intention
New pathways appear

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Haiku written for Ronovan’s Challenge (using a synonym for aim).

The Man Who Loved Elephants

I once fell in love with a man who loved elephants, though he’d never seen one in the wild. We yearn for what we can’t buy with a trinket and a smile. It’s easy to love a creature from afar or something that’s been placed in a zoo behind bars. And who doesn’t love elephants? With ears like butterflies and memories for a thousand years, their sweet nature brings us to tears. Gentle grey giants, vegetarians, agrarian, softly swaying trunks, never a threat to the men with the guns. We prize their ivory but not their child-rearing skill; what we fail to understand we tend to want to kill. And the man who loved elephants? He’s gone off on a safari for perfection, a woman who obeys without question, a lovely slave to his affection. I imagine him out there with his binoculars, under the burned out stars, waiting in the tall grass, his ideals remaining steadfast, long past sunset, listening for a distant trumpet…

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Skeptic’s Kaddish W3 Prompt 19 (love and/or elephants in a prose poem).

Eternal Vows

A gilded zephyr brings aliferous dreams;
A gilded prayer suffuses an empyrean sky;
A gilded promise holds two loving hearts,
As the moon witnesses these eternal vows.
The trees’ susurrus gives our wedding song;
Honeycomb sweetens our wedding cake;
Velvety blossoms blanket our wedding bed,
As the moon witnesses these eternal vows.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Moonwashed Musings (gilded), dVerse Poetics (aliferous, empyrean, susurrus), and Fake Flamenco’s September Poetry Challenge (anaphora with wind or a synonym). I added my own challenge of combining an epiphora with the anaphora.

Genre Bingo 5

Hello. I’ve been reviewing a bingo card full of different genres to expand my reading range. You can find my other reviews here: Genre Bingo 1, Genre Bingo 2, Genre Bingo 3, Genre Bingo 4. Thanks for following along. Here are the latest books I’ve finished.

1. I really wanted to love (or at least like) The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke for obvious reasons. It’s chock full of yummy cookies, along with their recipes, and the cornflake cookie sounds particularly tasty. But otherwise? Ugh. I thought this was an adult cozy mystery, but the writing is at 4th grade level. There is absolutely no deliciousness to it whatsoever. Sentences are simple and bland, and there is nothing to indicate that the author loves words. No metaphors, similes, or puns to spice things up. Fluke didn’t even give the characters cute names, which I’ve been told is a featured ingredient of cozies. 

Beyond that, the plot is simply absurd. There’s no reason for Hannah to run around solving murders just because her sister is married to an incompetent cop. Hannah even breaks the law herself on multiple occasions ~ for example, by breaking into a crime scene/private home and by impersonating a police officer on the phone to get info. We’re supposed to be rooting for her? She is an idiot. The whole town is full of idiots, and there’s no way I’d read another book in this series. Also, the date of publication is in 2019 and no one in the story has a mobile phone? Ridiculous. I gave it two stars only because of the cookies.

2. The Puma Years by Laura Coleman. Again, I wanted to love this memoir because KITTIES! Not only pumas, but also jaguars feature in Laura’s adventures in Bolivia. And there are cute monkeys, a funny pig, and silly birds. But… this book is absolutely disgusting and there’s no other way to put it. The volunteers have to battle parasites, fungus, horrendous body odor, moldy food, bugs everywhere (and I mean EVERYWHERE), animal poop all over everything, crude toilet facilities (if they can even be called that), etc. I almost quit reading this book because it was making me feel so sick.

But the writing is superb. Laura knows how to tell a story and her narrative is so vivid and lush with description and emotion. My heart breaks for these poor abused animals and the terrible destruction of their native habitats. I too fall in love with Wayra, the puma Laura bonds with and cares for during her stays in the jungle. Due to the constant conflict between the grossness and the beauty, however, I was at a loss on what rating to give. Finally, I settled on three stars, which may not be fair, but it’s honest. While I appreciate the excellent writing, I never, ever want to read anything like this again. Yeech!

3. The Island of Lost Trees by Elif Shafak. Oh wow, I love this book! Five stars, and I would have given six if possible. Where to begin? OK, so it’s partly narrated by a fig tree. Yes, a tree tells the story of love and loss and nature’s gifts. We also have the POVs of a displaced Greek man (Kostos) from Cyprus, along with his daughter Ada, who was born in England, yet feels the pull of a place she has never known. We learn about her mother (Defne), a Turkish woman from Cyprus, and her parents’ tragic and forbidden love story. We discover the oddities and recipes of her aunt Meryem when she visits them in England for the first time. I learned a bit about the history of Cyprus, which I never knew, and relearned how horrible people can be to each other and to nature. There’s also a lot of great info on trees, plants, bugs, etc., described in great and glorious detail by the fig tree.

So, here’s the thing about magical realism for me. When it’s good (like this), it is so good. So much better than a contrived series of coincidences to drive the plot. I’d rather hear it from a tree, lol, than constantly deal with people eavesdropping around corners. I do believe in staying strictly within a single POV during a scene, and if that POV is not a human’s, so be it.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Dazzling

Dazzling summer sun bathes the garden in golden warmth. From the porch, she watches a lone butterfly flit gracefully around the nectar-rich blossoms while a motor drones in the distance. She lights another cigarette as a cloud of dust swirls up from the road like a dirty ghost. It won’t be long now.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt (53 words).