Author: michael raven

  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #4: The Ghost in the Glass

    an episodic Vivian Locke noir

    AI image based on this work & created with Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven.

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

    “Jesus, Viv. You don’t have to be some bitchy dame about it. Sure sure, I’ll help you out. Always have, haven’t I?” he grumbled, grinding his cigarette in a graveyard of butts in the overflowing ashtray. He muttered something low and ugly and, with a wave of his hand, coaxed the frost to slink back into the frost-encrusted case like a beaten dog.

    “First things first,” he added, his voice a low gravel. “Let’s get that little bit of nasty into containment.”

    (more…)

  • casting runes — 01mar26

    uruz
    hungry for a springtime rut
    the aurochs wanders
    misty morning moors

    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.

  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #3: The Kiss of Verdigris

    an episodic Vivian Locke noir

    AI image based on this work & created with Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven.

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

    The walk away from a fresh corpse is always longer than the walk toward one.

    The rain spat its static-kissed venom onto my trench coat, a thousand tiny drumbeats dancing off my shoulders before dissolving into the crackling cobalt-spark of the alley puddles at my feet. I slipped from the streetlight to shadow, leaving the spreading chalk outline of a problem for the boys in blue. That’s when it caught my eye — a sickly green stain creeping across my glove. The corrosion from the dead man’s identification coin had left its signature, thin, poisonous tendrils still foaming where they’d kissed the laminated identification papers. A dirty reminder of a dirtier business.

    (more…)

  • aglow

    endless in waiting
    in wishing moths to
    send pale of moon

    night gardens aglow
    fey motes dancing
    your head leaning shoulders

  • casting runes — 27feb26

    tiwaz
    an old warrior wearies
    of spear burdens
    trudging up northern fells
    antlers left under overhangs
    call to rest a spell

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is tiwaz, which is named after the Norse god Týr, and the second weekday (Tuesday) is named for the god. According to Norse myth, Týr offers his right hand to the wolf Fenrir, who bites it off when he realizes the gods have used the offering to distract the wolf while they bind him. The rune is typically considered symbolic of honor, loyalty and justice, as well as of sacrifice. It may be representative of discipline and faith. Some interpretations have associated the rune with the North Star.

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

  • winter hearts

    ‘the father saved the mountain yonder,

    i don’t suppose he was the one of yours,’

    she said smiling before she froze

    and turned an oily shade of rainbow

    opalescent in her age of old

    below they craved the market haunt

    but through skins twilight kissed i called

    down unto a sounding stained wood

    thrust out instead of shore

    this pain king rides swimming horse

    dragging out to the dust of rain

    in shattered wrists and waves’ refrain

    underground calling all winter hearts

    to strike in the below again

  • still, a singing

    i escher etch labyrinthine dreams
    & crawl my cobwebbed understair
    thumping feet on ceilings,
    pounding fists in sand
    empty-thoughted screaming
    along the promenade while
    their long gonnes fire rounds around
    bloodsoaked murder in every sound

    hammer march, hammer march
    one two and two through
    swinging scarlet soaks the gloom

    and here i am, blind corner sitting
    still singing of a time once free

  • casting runes — 25feb26

    raido
    i left wide trails behind
    the straight and the narrow
    each rock felt under wheel
    jolting the wain side to side
    with joined pine creaking while
    riding down to the last ford
    from the up high

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is raido, which has been translated as “ride” and the implied “journey”. This may be spatial and literal in practice (a physical journey), or it may be more figurative (an inner/shamanic journey, i.e., útiseta). The rune is associated with cyclic motion and the movement of the sun. Some consider the journey represented by raido to be that of returning.

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

  • Me no likey the block likey

    Some days, you can’t win for the losing.

    In trying something out for WordPress on a test site, I saw a new block that I thought would solve a frustration of mine about the .org version of WordPress, where you have to force folks to click on the post title to “like” a post when they visit outside of Reader. I finally had a block to add to my front page for likes (on those short poems).

    Which is fantastic. Except… It doesn’t appear to be registering likes in the notifications on either of the versions of Reader (web or Jetpack App), which is where I keep track of such things. Which means the functionality is broken and I need to rework the site design to get back that functionality to where it should be.

    TARNATION!

    This is a consistent problem with the Jetpack plugin for WordPress. They push out a feature without really testing it prior to launch and it breaks things. Last year, it was the commenting system until an update. Other times, features don’t do what they are functionally designed to do. Reader regularly gets web updates that are headscratchers at best, and breaks Reader until someone can hotpatch it at worst.

    I love the folks at WordPress, but they really need to do a better job of testing their incremental updates before something goes live.

    Back to your regularly scheduled programming. I just needed a quick vent.

  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #2: Copper on the Take

    an episodic Vivian Locke noir

    AI-generated image by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven

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

    Whatever happened down the street had a sound that scraped against the soul, even for this blighted patch of the city. More than my exposed skin prickled in the charged rain, thick with the scent of ozone and something fouler. Even a magically-disinclined Hollow like me didn’t need a gifted psychic to tell them that shriek was tied to the recent bagboy, not someone thrilled to be boosting a sports car. For one thing, no rubber burned to drown out the wee-hour drone. For another, the sound was less ‘joyride’ and more ‘soul-flaying’. Had that same sound clawed its way out of some window over The Red Door down in The Tenderloin District, my assessment might have shifted. I might have even paused long enough to offer a slow, dark clap of appreciation.

    (more…)

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