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  • taking pains

    11Mar26 | 02.08 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260311.0208
    blades bite thorn
    my hands, my skull
    my heart, my soul
    all wrapped in
    razor wire bone and
    scratched of fingernail
    pierced walled alone

    tagged:

    poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • casting runes — 10mar26

    10Mar26 | 19.16 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260310.1916
    sowilo
    snowflake but
    climbing up
    shadows slink
    to scheme away
    whiling until
    after the fall

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is sowilo, the sun. Sowilo is the source of enlightenment, for lighting the way and illumination. It is also called the “icebreaker” and gives power to an “attack”, ensuring success and/or prosperity. This rune also represents hope, the light at the end of a long darkness.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

    tagged:

    poetry, rewilding, rune, sowilo

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #8: Dredging Up Leads

    10Mar26 | 07.55 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260310.0755

    an episodic novelette | a Vivian Locke noir

    Image generated by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven

    This is a serialized story. Start with Case File #1 here.

    “So,” Cookie said, sliding a plate of fries onto the table. “You gonna tell me why a walking statue wants to turn you into a paperweight?”

    I grabbed the bottle of ketchup and gave the bottom a hard whack before remembering my burned fingers and it sent a nasty jolt of pain, a little deadly dagger that traced a line from my palm to my elbow. I considered asking Cookie to do the honors when I saw the cheap, red sludge escape its glass prison and splurt onto the chipped ceramic plate. A generous third of the bottle, enough to coat the next helping of grease without having to risk the razorblades of agony shredding my arm.

    (more…)

    tagged:

    episodic fiction, hardboiled, noir, occult noir, prompted fiction, sunny day parasol co., vivian locke, writing challenge

    filed under:

    writing
    2 comments on Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #8: Dredging Up Leads

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  • he fool calls

    10Mar26 | 07.14 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260310.0714
    he fool calls crow
    in pale wood, black stone
    he red calls ghost
    from the south to the north

    he road calls spirit
    to her medicine ride train
    he wing calls kindred
    to carry night skies again

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry, the dreaming

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • Half-penny Thoughts — 09mar25

    09Mar26 | 10.42 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260309.1042
    Photo by Bharath Kumar on Unsplash

    As I delving back into the habit of writing prose versus my habit in recent years of writing almost exclusively poetry, I’m tossing around several ideas to bounce around my largely empty cranium.

    Okay, it’s more like dumping a large bucket of superballs at this time.

    Or, if I’m more upfront and honest about what I’m doing, throwing the whole bunch of superballs all at once as hard as I can and see what comes out of the bouncy mess.

    (more…)

    tagged:

    fiction, fiction versus poetry war, forked site, forks, half-penny thoughts, poetry, readability, serial fiction, site details

    filed under:

    thinking
    18 comments on Half-penny Thoughts — 09mar25

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  • casting runes — 09mar26

    09Mar26 | 08.31 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260309.0831
    hagalaz
    crack seed pellet
    crystal kissed
    side-step, slipstream
    burning on within

    weary of voices ghost

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is hagalaz, which has a core meaning of “hail”, which was associated with potential, transformation, renewal and change; hail is imagined a seed from which change will arise. Hagalaz is also seen as representative of things beyond our control: a clash between fire and ice.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

    tagged:

    hagalaz, poetry, rewilding, rune

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #7: Teeth Are Rent

    08Mar26 | 13.28 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260308.1328

    an episodic novelette | a Vivian Locke noir

    Image generated by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven

    This is a serialized story. Start with Case File #1 here.

    Gallow didn’t bother to try to grab me, he just extended the stasis field in my direction. As my rear foot left the parapet, the air in the middle of the alley thickened into a cold, invisible molasses. My momentum died a drawn-out, gasping death; its final rattle was the only fast thing about my rain-drenched descent. I wasn’t falling; I was drifting. My arc flattened out, the cafe’s rooftop now a cruel joke I was destined to miss. Instead, I was going to hang there, a suspended fool in the ceaseless drizzle, until the Foundry’s enforcer reached out and plucked me from the sky like a rotten apple from a tree.

    (more…)

    tagged:

    episodic fiction, hardboiled, noir, occult noir, prompted fiction, sunny day parasol co., vivian locke, writing challenge

    filed under:

    fiction from prompts
    12 comments on Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #7: Teeth Are Rent

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  • brokework

    08Mar26 | 03.23 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260308.0323
    he mad dog barked at
    walls drawing down
    he jaw chomped hard
    at cage and at leash

    with hatpin hands
    and neck rust screech
    a brokework heart
    and tinsel teeth

    dragging behind loathing
    in razor wire, unsure
    which self to throw
    to mists from peak

    tagged:

    melancholia, pain, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • casting runes — 07mar26

    07Mar26 | 17.55 CST
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260307.1755
    uruz
    iron pierced these & thistle,
    in nettle & thunderhead

    dredge of horn furrows
    over open & naked hand

    lost teardrops
    lightning shatters sky

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is uruz. The rune is named after the now-extinct aurochs, a wild ox and has become associated with standing up to challenges, having both confidence and courage, stubborn tenacity, and boundless strength and health. Uruz is alternately associated with the more raw elements which include rain, primordial potential, and the slag/dross cast away during the making of iron.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

    tagged:

    poetry, rewilding, rune, uruz

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • Half-penny thoughts — follow-up to 05mar26

    06Mar26 | 14.25 CST
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260306.1425

    For those who are interested, I discovered the problem with my scheduled tasks (but not the weird refusal of Google’s search engines to crawl the site for indexing).

    I’m probably going to make a hash of the explanation. That said…

    (more…)

    tagged:

    half-penny thoughts, plugin woes, plugins, site details

    filed under:

    thinking
    15 comments on Half-penny thoughts — follow-up to 05mar26

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    Half-penny thoughts — follow-up to 05mar26

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