• reads | Ghost Story, Peter Straub

    michael raven

    This book is a reread, but might as well have been a virgin read for the length of time since I last read it and the various growth potential of the reader since that time.

    When I was younger, we often spent a lot of time up at my aunt’s lakewoods cabin in Northern Minnesota. So did plenty of other aunts and uncles, their friends and otherwise. Someone along the way, someone left a copy of Ghost Story behind, which was put onto a rickety suspended shelf for such books left behind, kind of our family “little library”: take a book/leave a book mentality. I was a budding Stephen King fan at the time (up until I got into King, I read plenty of other juvenile-focused horror, and King was one of my first forays into adult horror, along with Lovecraft). This book was on that shelf, next to Flowers in the Attic (VC Andrews, which had been read as well).

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    reads | Ghost Story, Peter Straub

  • casting runes — 09nov25

    michael raven

    fehu
    i plant my ash
    on the windswept—
    lichen, mycelium, moss,
    the rolling hummocks
    littered in stone

    overcast, the skies
    weigh down

    what riches i have
    to share

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is fehu, which has a core meaning of “cattle” or a more generalized “livestock”, which was a representation of personal wealth or earned prosperity. Sometimes luck played a role. Wealth and prosperity was valued, but was looked down upon when material accumulation appeared to be excessive, greedy, miserly or turned to hoarding, especially when those around you were lacking.

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

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    casting runes — 09nov25

  • bone dreaming

    michael raven 

    bone dreaming
    we rattle under ash
    crisp as leaves
    kissed of rime

    bone dreaming
    we slip that streaming
    to rest at sieidi
    longing of the everlast

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    bone dreaming

  • tossing a rune — 07nov25

    michael raven

    ansuz
    burned onto
    my heartwood black
    hung over meltwaters
    the old gals sing spears
    to the blind

    A 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. By way of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, the rune is named æsc, which is translated to “ash”, a tree associated with Odin and is representative of resilience and strength.

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

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    tossing a rune — 07nov25

  • nonsense verse

    michael raven 

    we cut away the fat:

    there is sun, there is moon
    there are seasons and stars
    there is above and below
    and there might even be here

    there are stones and plants
    the living and the dead
    what more can
    you really desire?

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    nonsense verse

  • Half-penny thoughts — 06nov25

    michael raven

    Why is it that some of us are not allowed to be “not okay” in some manner or another? Why is it that we always seem to be the ones who have to be available?

    And when we happen to be less than rosey, why do so many people act like it is less important than their own trials and tribulations?

    Yeah. I know. There is no real answer to that question. Therefore, comments are closed. Food for thought is all, as meager a fare as that might be…

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    Half-penny thoughts — 06nov25

  • hermitage calling

    michael raven

    Campfire
    Photo by Ville Palmu on Unsplash
    hermitage calling,
    i shuffle to mountaintops
    to sweep out the debris
    from my simple shack
    a facet of memory,
    what hint of comradery;
    it is slow work with
    a single black quill
    but it pleases
    spirits when i do—

    we flamegaze the dusk
    telling tales 'til dawn
    between long silences

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    hermitage calling

  • casting runes — 06nov25

    michael raven

    berkana
    pale lady riverside
    beckoning down narrow trails
    to where soul & spirit dwell
    carved of wood &
    filling of stone

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is berkana, which translates to “birch”. Birch are associated with earth-mother and maternal energies. Because birch is a “pioneer tree” which tends to grow in advance of other tree growth — especially after forest fires — berkana is associated with renewal and rebirth. Additionally, berkana has ties to liminal thresholds of all types, especially those paths to the underworld.

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

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    casting runes — 06nov25

  • dirges

    michael raven 

    a dreaming of you
    and shadowfell in
    the forgetting at wake
    they sang love dirges 
    in the fading away
    slipping umbral
    of fingers slight

    the better suture 
    my lips tight

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    dirges

  • A close hit

    michael raven

    Photo by Warren Umoh on Unsplash

    Chatting with my mother last night, she mentioned that she had seen a new close relative that she didn’t know on a DNA service we both have used in the past. Color me intrigued, mostly because my mother knows distant relatives intimately, so it seems impossible that a close match could avoid her knowledge.

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    A close hit