Haiku & Other Poetry, Random Rants, tutto e niente

Buoyant

Buoyant.

What a great word. If we say something is buoyant, we could be saying it is light or possibly tough. It might be afloat or maybe flexible. If I’m buoyant, am I resistant, optimistic, or both?  Has this last year been a buoyant one? If you define it as tough, then yep. But carefree? Not so much!

But, weirdly, as I commemorate my birthday week, it seems the perfect word.

I am positively buoyant that my work is featured in The Sound of Brilliance. I’ve been a bit overworked, so I’m late to say THANK YOU to Susi Bocks and The Short of It for choosing me and for all her hard work getting the book published! I am truly afloat! You can also see a preview of my piece (and Susi’s hard work) in the Edge of Humanity Magazine.

I’m also buoyant after finding out this morning that a piece I submitted over one year ago (!) is being published in an upcoming issue of 50 Haikus: The Serious Poetry Journal with the Funny Name. I am feeling quite happy about it!

I feel remarkably buoyant after weathering this last year. I HAVE been tough and resistant. I’ve also been lucky to have friends and family that have helped keep me afloat (or should I say buoyant).

And I’m trying to feel buoyant about the unfolding days of my next year of life. We could all use some optimism!

So here’s to the light, resistant, tough, and hopefully happy tomorrows.

And of course, I must commemorate by day of birth with a haiku!

another year gone

and I may not be carefree

but still I’m buoyant

Thanks for the inspiration to Fandango’s FOWC BUOYANT and to Susi for being such a great supporter for my work.

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Flash Fiction, tutto e niente

An Impromptu Decision

It had been an impromptu decision.

A be in the moment, what could possibly go wrong, you only live once, I’m not THAT old, you’re not the boss of me kind of non-decision decision.

The kind that had ruled (or almost ruined if you asked her) his life until she came along. No. This couldn’t be on him. Surely an alarm would have gone off.

No. Not his fault.

As the water crept closer, he tore his gaze away from the gushing pipe. Put on his game face. She’d be back soon. And this was definitely not his fault.  

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Image credit: Anne Higa

Thanks to Fandango’s FOWC wonderful word prompt of IMPROMPTU and Anne Higa’s great photo prompt, I’m back to Rochelle’s Friday Fictioners Challenge after a long absence!

Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

defying destiny (a tanka)

seeking to avoid

an unchosen destiny

she slips through the gap

like a whisper in the night

a bounded servant no more

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Author’s Photo 

I love cemeteries. A recent visit to the historic Oaklawn Cemetery in Tampa inspired thoughts about escaping an unwanted destiny; whether that fate is death or something else is up to the reader to decide.

But, here’s hoping that 2021 offers some respite from 2020.

Thanks also to Linda’s JusJoJan Challenge word (servant) and to Fandango’s FOWC word (avoid) for giving me added fuel for my vague thoughts.