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  • dabbles — folk horror

    11Nov25 | 20.13 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251111.2013
    Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

    I was invited by Ted (shredbobted) to join his Discord group to workshop some short fiction for cross-promotion amongst the participants. I’m only now getting some free time and energy to explore some ideas; it’s been a busy time for me, or I have been worn out.

    A few weeks ago, I cranked out an exploration into an old theme that I wanted to revisit, called “Drifter”. The idea was that there are a group of folks traveling in the “in-between” spaces and using dolmen as doors to try and find their homes back in realspace. After a week, I looked at the first thousand or so words I had written and realized that I’d left the tale completely without an anchor. To remedy that, I would probably have to at least write it as a novella, and more likely as a full novel — neither of which am I prepared to do at this time.

    A few days ago, I started working on a different idea, with the explicit intention that it would have a solid anchor prior to getting weird. And the weirdness was going to be quite a bit more grounded in nature. I’m a little more satisfied with this effort after drumming up around 2500 words because it doesn’t feel quite so airy and disingenuous (in places).

    (more…)

    tagged:


    filed under:

    writing
    11 comments on dabbles — folk horror

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  • on the ridge

    11Nov25 | 14.33 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251111.1433
    this, i foxfoot mine
    under the flint
    waiting on rime
    this, old ways skein
    tangled up on me

    here, mosshaired stone
    under the rain
    waiting on time
    here, poppet a pocket
    tangled up on line

    tagged:

    poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
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    on the ridge

  • Reading Progress — 11nov25

    11Nov25 | 13.11 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251111.1311
    Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

    Well, golly. It appears that I got ahead of myself.

    After putting down my phone and picking up a book or my ebook device in early September, I set for myself what I thought to be a modest reading goal to pull me away from doomscrolling and videogaming: twenty books to read in the last quarter of 2025. That’s roughly a book and a half a week. Nothing strenuous, but nothing to sneeze at. There are plenty of folks out there who might (might!) get in twenty books the entire year on a good year. I should know, I lapsed into being one of those kinds of readers until recently. Others might achieve that goal after a decade. Or more.

    (more…)

    tagged:

    2025 reading goal, reading, reading lists

    filed under:

    reading
    14 comments on Reading Progress — 11nov25

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    Reading Progress — 11nov25

  • casting runes — 11nov25

    11Nov25 | 10.35 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251111.1035
    hagalaz
    this crashing down
    to shatter against rock
    to freeze all ties
    ...to break

    some storms
    go that way;
    not all can bring
    forth gentle rain

    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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  • bondage

    11Nov25 | 08.51 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251111.0851
    seeking the heartwood,
    i throw off the burden
    of toxic positivity and
    viral negativity
    i cut all flesh to bone

    this is not a love song.

    gaining the blind
    securing the deaf
    embracing the empty
    i scratch
    my rune bones black

    all else is bondage

    tagged:

    poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
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    bondage

  • hungers the wind

    10Nov25 | 21.15 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251110.2115
    i have drawn lines
    along the trees
    dreaming worlds within,
    time to set aside fevers--

    we swing heartache
    for her hills hollow
    but now there is
    naught left but
    for the dying

    willow willow
    hungers the winter winds

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • reads | Ghost Story, Peter Straub

    10Nov25 | 08.48 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251110.0848

    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).

    (more…)

    tagged:

    folk-horror, Ghost Story, horror, Peter Straub, reading

    filed under:

    reading
    13 comments on reads | Ghost Story, Peter Straub

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    reads | Ghost Story, Peter Straub

  • casting runes — 09nov25

    09Nov25 | 09.41 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251109.0941
    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.

    tagged:

    fehu, poetry, rewilding, rune

    filed under:

    poetry
    3 comments on casting runes — 09nov25

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    casting runes — 09nov25

  • bone dreaming

    08Nov25 | 13.21 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251108.1321
    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

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry, rewilding

    filed under:

    poetry
    3 comments on bone dreaming

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    bone dreaming

  • tossing a rune — 07nov25

    07Nov25 | 12.37 CST
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 251107.1237
    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.

    tagged:

    ansuz, poetry, rewilding, rune

    filed under:

    poetry, writing
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    tossing a rune — 07nov25

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