Forgive me, the features are a couple of days late. I forgot, got mixed up with all the cleanup going on.
Sometimes things are fragmented, you’re not quite sure where everything is going and try to find an anchor or a map. This is what today’s features are about.
This image seems so simple when you first look at it, but there’s a world of meaning in the faded red glory.
Fading Passion by © Laurie Search
The words seemed to fit perfectly what I felt when I saw the image.
Venus Goes Retrograde by © Jenifer DeBellis
It never quite goes back to the way it was.
What was once healthy and taut has been pulled
and stretched and ripped, pushing the limits
of what nature’s elasticity was intended to contain.
Life-giving veins are overrun with toxins,
circulating bile and sludge in this river of blood.
Scrambling hands hold fatty piles of neglected flesh
as they droop and dip in their chaotic imbalance.
There’s nothing the latest fad plan can do to fix
the acute symptoms that have been ignored.
There’s nothing modern medicine can do to fix
malignant growth left too long to its own devices.
Surgically, most things can be repaired or altered
to appear as they once were, but to fool a heart
that knew every crease, crevice and flaw?
To restore years of neglect as if it never happened
is an impossibility within a sea of improbabilities.
Yet there you stand, with my heart in your hand.
Seems such a waste of a vibrant, potent organ.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bottle up our love and ‘bathe’ in it whenever we want to?
Love Itself… by © Tracey Mac
And here it is – the things you can do, the things you can stand and the things you survive if you have love.
HAVE YOU EVER by © cosimopiro
Have you ever danced naked
on the tip of a flame
or skipped on ripples
of a butterfly’s wake,
have you ever rode bareback
the wrath of a hurricane
or swam the molten rock
of a volcano’s lake?
Have you ever leapt blind
from a shooting star
or slipped down the throat
of a crescent moon,
have you ever touched
the screaming of a devil’s scar
or be trapped
in a spider’s cocoon?
Have you ever flown
in a hungry vulture’s eyes
or walked in a nightmare
of a lonely ghost’s dread,
have you ever drank
the sobs of a whale’s last cries
or desperately held
a heartbreak in a madman’s head?
Well…. have you ever?
I can’t say I’ve had such days,
but hell,
some moments feel like it!
If not for you
and Love’s caring ways
I’d crumble in a heap
bit…. by…. bit.
But things don’t always go smoothly and the devil will have its way and put obstacles in front of us we have to overcome, and rarely do we realise that it was those obstacles that helped us grow until much later.
Me and the Devil by © Jessica Walker
The friends we make and lose and re-make along the way…
Catharsis, or, Ode to Former Best Friends by © singerchick
I.
I wonder,
If I wear my argyle knee socks
And the chunky-heeled Mary Janes you adored,
Will I miss you?
Will I miss singing Journey in your kitchen
While helping you pack?
Will I miss the inside jokes, the giggling, and the feeling of belonging?
Will I miss biting my tongue because I don’t want to hurt you,
Or the ensuing drama when I fail to hold back?
Will I shed a tear because I believe you hate me?
Or will I simply smile because we once shared space
In one another’s lives,
And try to be a better (not bitter) person because of
The things I’ve learned about myself in the process (of knowing and losing you)?
Thanks for the memories …
II.
If there’s ever been one constant in our relationship,
It’s definitely inconsistency.
You floated in and out of my life (and good graces) as though brought in by an erratic tide
Or the prevailing winds—
At times carried on a light zephyr, and at others swirling tempestuously—
But always you come back, and for that I love you.
III.
I was truly bewildered by your good-bye,
Yet grew accustomed to the subsequent silence.
Once the self-righteous anger (and pain) subsided, I mourned and moved on
Only to be stunned by your out-of-the-blue apology.
(It’s okay, blue is my favorite color!)
Now we’re somewhere in the limbo between forgiveness and friendship
(Only I don’t know how to limbo. I’ve never been that agile!)
And I don’t know what the future holds,
But I know Who holds it.
I’m cautiously trusting…
Sometimes too much is just too much and we have to keep it at bay and ourselves distant.
Let Your Hand Do The Talking by © James Leader
At the end of the day we can only be who we are and not the faces people put on us.
You don’t make sense, why should i? by © DominicSavio
if i
bathe Your
feet
in
tears
will You call me Mary and
remember my
face?
will you embrace me
if I left
my
limbs
in the past?
can
You
stretch out my love
like
elastic to make it
last?
will
You touch me because i dance?
[am i lego
because You always
take me
apart
and put me back
together
again
but You said
this isn’t a coincidence
when
i begged You
“please
no more coincidences
i just need
to
heal”]
There are always dreams…
Dreams by © Matteo Pontonutti
And when those dreams are shattered there are the fragments of self, floating around, trying to find a place to settle and become.
Fragments by © ShadowDancer
I come to you in fragments of a dream
pieces & stems
& half chewed morsels of flesh
alive, dripping with honey
bittersweet
my eyes an awkward attempt
at seduction
digging my way down to your open
wound
to lick away your tears
Only sometimes the puzzle pieces can’t be put together again and we have to try and forget.
Trying to forget him… by © Eliza1Anna
And we start the long process of renewing ourselves, of becoming whole again.
Unraveling by © reindeer
My mind needs an unraveling
a transformation
a disentangling
a freedom from complication.
I am
a reflection
of all that is in it.
What does everyone see?
Engage my mind,
affect my mind…Holy Spirit.
Please
resurrect
and clear
my mind.
Might I have
a mind
like
His?
Hope you liked today’s (belated) features. Please say hello to the artists and writers and let them know you enjoyed their work. xo
Touched by Fire 