Tag Archives: hope

ROSALEEN LYNCH: Paper Cranes

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

The paper cranes are folded from receipts for doctors, buses and climate magazines, from my five year old’s drawings of our family, prescriptions for her meds, sweet wrappers and cigarette packets, and hang now to be counted, over her hospital bed, one more for every day since she didn’t die.

Rosaleen Lynch, an Irish community worker and writer in the East End of London, pursues stories whether conversational, literary or performed and believes in the power of words to make the world a better place.

VIVIAN LEUNG: When Night Falls

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Sitting on the grassy hill,
the day goes by slow.
Then night falls.

I reached for stars in the sky,
wanting troubles to
end and die.

Only at night can the soul
and body and mind
take a rest.

So, I pray that in its splendor,
the night is long.

Vivian Leung lives in Scottsdale, Arizona and has always held a love for music and writing. One of her goals in life is to land a career in healthcare. There are few things that are more rewarding to her than helping others.

ESZTER MOLNAR: Again

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I hurried to the restaurant, my heart full of hope.

Will she smile at me today? I wondered. Ask me how my day was? Comment on my haircut?

She was sitting in the corner, reading. She didn’t look at me.

“You’re late,” she said as she turned a page. “Again.”

Eszter Molnar is a former teacher who lives by the windswept British seaside with her partner and two children. She has been published in one of the UK’s biggest subscription magazines for children. By day, she cleans up after preschoolers, by night she writes picture books and Middle Grade fiction.

LINDA VIGEN PHILLIPS: The Lion and the Lamb

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

When the lion emerged from the quarantine, he sidled up next to the lamb.

They had lunch together.

This happened before its time, contrary to Messianic prognostications.

Some say it was a hoax.
Some say it was a miracle.
Some say the vaccine.

Hard to know the truth these days.

Linda Vigen Phillips’ poems have appeared in The Texas Review, California Quarterly, NC Poetry Society Award Winning Poems 2001, Wellspring, Main Street Rag, Independence Boulevard, and The Whole Idea. She has published two young adult novels in verse: Crazy and Behind These Hands. She lives in Charlotte, NC.

CATHRINE GOLDSTEIN: Starting Over

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

“I will make this bad week good,”
she says with the tenacity of a teenager
clinging to the lie of a broken curfew—
the tire flat; the phone dead.

Hunting and pecking key after key,
certain each stroke will not just create
a new world,
but wash away the old.

Cathrine Goldstein writes a whole lot of gritty, real-feeling “stuff.” Most of it takes place in NYC. She also eats boat loads of chocolate pretty much every day. To find out more about her bestselling novels, award-winning plays, and other writings including articles, short stories, and poetry, please visit CathrineGoldstein.com

ALAN KEMISTER: July 2020

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Her look was summery; the weather was not. She stood shivering in her flower-speckled sundress, staring upward as the heavens opened, and torrents descended. Colourful ribbons in her hair were soon plastered against her scalp.

The forecast promised hot and sunny, but during the pandemic, nothing unfolded as it should.

Alan Kemister is the pen name of a retired scientist experimenting with more fictitious writing. He’s currently working on a climate change novel. Get the gory details at alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com

MICHELLE CHRISTOPHOROU: Message in a Bottle

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Greetings from July 2020. I’m watching a stickleback build his nest: his hustling, bustling busyness, his lips tug-kissing at leaves, his eyes turned blue and throat bright red with love. I really hope that, by the time this finds you—whenever, wherever you are—you can still watch stickleback too.

Michelle Christophorou’s short fiction has won and been placed in competitions, including the latest Strands International Flash Fiction Competition, and the Retreat West Fire-themed flash competition, for which she received a ‘Best of the Net’ nomination 2019. In another life, Michelle practised law in the City of London. Tweets @MAChristophorou

MARILYN McFARLANE: Priorities

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

On the street, strangers quickly glance away. At the mirror, the ravaged face smiles, because the mass of angry red splotches says the chemo attack, the destroyer, is working. Hurt vanity—and it is hurt, no question—has lost its hallowed standing to the incomparable treasure of a longer life.

Marilyn McFarlane is on hold from travel writing and takes pleasure in writing and reading the gems in fifty-word stories. She’s the author of Sacred Stories: Wisdom From World Religions, for children, and The Healthy Seniors Cookbook, for any age.

RAN WALKER: Cotton Candy Clouds

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

At night, her mother put her to bed by telling her stories of cotton candy clouds and a winged unicorn named Percival. She dreamed she was flying on Percival, occasionally trotting along various rainbows. Heaven couldn’t be that far away, she figured. She could sense her father waving to her.

Ran Walker is the author of 21 books, the most recent of which is CAN I KICK IT?: Sneaker Microfiction and Poetry. He lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.

HELEN ROWLANDS: The Room

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

It is always evening in my room. One wall has a painting, the winter cove, water now grey blue, cliffs dominant. Black ideograms; strong cursive brush strokes; the characters telling a story I don’t need to understand.

I go there as they lock down my radiotherapy mask again.

Helen is an experimental Artist and Writer based in South Wales, U.K.