all daggers deserved,
crimson drifts to drain
Author: michael raven
daggers
tossing a rune — 11sep25
ansuz to spell you a song
of under dusk breath
of under branched canopy
we tanglelimbs wending
through winds these twine
riding old ash tonightA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is ansuz, which has a core meaning “a god” (intended to be Odin), “mouth” or “breath”. Odin is representative of many, many things… in this case, ansuz is most representative of the mouth/breath (speech) that gives life to poetry, magic, song, language, and spirit — largely inseparable in the Viking worldview — and Odin is considered the supreme master of these intertwined concepts.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
restitution
my jawbone in hand
waving away at wraiths
i offer this token for all
the insults & cruelties
it is not much, agreed
but it may yet yield
glass satisfaction at
the end of your fistHalf-penny thoughts — 11sep25
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com One thing that has nagged me recently is the concept of blue pills and red pills.
(more…)Useless
Photo by Andrea Sun on Unsplash I re-opened a blog site from ancient history (2007-2008) and made it public again because one of my new readers requested access to what had been marked a private blog (or maybe not, but it is back “live” regardless).
It is just a catalog of quotes and poetry that caught my fancy, namely of a Taoism or Zen Buddhism bent. There’s nothing terribly exciting there unless you are into those kinds of things, or if you want a peek into where my mind was about a year before I ended up choosing sobriety as a more enlightened path than wonton drunkenness.
Check it out, if you are so inclined: Useless Tree
I originally made the site private primarily to stop a reader from demanding new posts when I had decided I was no longer in the mood to be enlightened. And then I never got back to posting on it or making the site public again when that mood passed away.
tossing a rune — 10sep25
pertho digging for roots to
see what grows below
but there is no
untangling of that weave
so cover it back with soilA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is pertho, which has a disputed meaning and there is some indication that the ascribed meanings might be corruptions. The general consensus is that there is likely some relationship to ørlǫg (fate/destiny), luck/gambling or hidden knowledge.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
Half-penny thoughts — 10sep25
I started reading Jhereg by Steven Brust last night as part of my recent determination to create some air between my brain and various digital and social medias (streaming services including YouTube, mass-social media, news sites, video games, & etc.). I am annoyed with myself now that it has taken so long to read his writing aside from Freedom and Necessity.
I hope that no one is offended when I say Jhereg is just the kind of pulp fiction I was looking for. It is not high literature, nor does it pretend to be. The novel is a fantasy tale of an assassin and mobster, Vlad Taltos, who happens to be a second-class citizen (because he is human) in a fantasy city full of thievery, deception and double-crossings. Plus, he has magic and a reptilian familiar.
And, so far, it works — as a bit of a hard-boiled noir and fantasy crossover. A movie with similar DNA (except set in a futuristic Earth instead of a medieval fantasy world) might be Blade Runner.
Like The Witcher books I’ve been re-reading, it has an easy flow to the storytelling that I think might be missing from a lot of the more recent writing out there. Even some of books I’ve enjoyed that have been written in the past 25 years seem to be trying real hard to be “good literature” when they are, at their base, pulp novels. Or, maybe, I’m just more tuned into penny dreadfuls, pulp fiction, and weird tales and would prefer to read that birdcage liner stuff.
Sometimes I wonder if we put too much emphasis on structure, formulae and erudition, and not enough on merely telling a “ripping yarn”. I certainly don’t know. But I’m sure there are tons of opinions about the matter.
Random thought
On whim and a lark, I added feta to my breakfast of steel cut oats, almonds and pepitas. I have added feta with mushrooms, sausages and eggs on my oats in the past, but was hesitant without the other savory ingredients.
FYI: It tastes damn good, it is less work, and it is better for me than adding a tablespoon of chocolate chips when I don’t want to go through the hassle of frying up eggs, sausages and mushrooms.
waiting for
grey fading crabbed hand
clutching for the only, sleep
her slow eyes follow, arthritic
waiting on a sharp grin crooked
while he shambles thresholds
waiting for felling to comeBack to the books
Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano on Pexels.com On the opposite end of the spectrum from my recent nationwide chain bookstore experience, I found plenty of things to throw my money at last night at the used bookstore last night. It absolutely made up for the disappointment I experienced on Sunday.
For the same cost as buying a single hardcover, I managed to snag five used mass market books and one QP paperback. That’s six books, my friends, for just over $30. And all in good to fantastic shape. And I held back, because there were a few other titles I considered adding to the pile.
Now I’m set for a couple of weeks of reading material, including those books I already have in my possession that I plan to read.
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