Category: writing

  • 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.

  • Case File #2: Copper on the Take

    an episodic Vivian Locke occult noir

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

    Sunny Day Parasol Co.

    Case File #2: Copper on the Take

    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…)

  • casting runes — 24feb26

    sowilo
    though skies still cast iron &
    ice still lies scattered
    across winter soil
    butter spread on doorposts
    grows softer each morn

    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.

  • night braille

    i read the night braille
    a chill breeze raises on skin
    all fingertip & firefly slow
    with a burning below
    while your fingernail
    stole away my breath
    whisper in crushed velvet
    while crickets fiddle
    under full moons

  • sharp

    all these sharp objects tempting
    of the thorn words piercing lips
    to suture and to bind and to seal
    away razor cantrips in sting

    dawnblade dancing broken wrists
    to pirouette to pain and thrust
    for scarlet upon the snowdrops
    at least, they will say, he had good cause

  • casting runes — 23feb26

    uruz
    slag cooling in drizzle grey
    trampled & gone back to mud
    under the muscle ache

    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.