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  • Past Penpals

    02Jun25 | 07.45 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250602.0745
    Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

    I received a lovely surprise thanks to social media yesterday morning: an old email “penpal” reached out to my Facebook account to ask if I was the Michael xxxxx they used to exchange emails with. Of course, I recognized her name right away as Kate (“K8”) from around the 00s, back when the internet was both a much more friendly place, as well as being quite a bit more “wild west” in feel.

    It was the era of making connections, the creeps and trolls hadn’t found a foothold in cyberspace yet, and MySpace was still the hotbed of the music scene. If I come off more as a “blogger” in the flavor of that time period, it’s because that’s where I cut my teeth on blogging, before everyone had to monetize every little thing they did, and influencers were still a daydream. We were largely an online journaling community still, the precursor to the oversharing of social media, which is why some of us learned our lessons very early on and are somewhat circumspect about what details we share online (all the while going to great lengths to sound like we aren’t being circumspect).

    (more…)

    tagged:

    ether aura, music, past, penpals, shoegaze

    filed under:

    thinking

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    Past Penpals

  • drifting

    02Jun25 | 06.36 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250602.0636
    Photo by Janke Laskowski on Unsplash
    needing not to need or
    to be the object needed
    a settle into sitting as
    do stone, moss and tree
    just a drift of fine snow
    blowing feathers across
    the long and open road
    whispers polish asphalt
    under a sun hung low

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, drifter, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    drifting

  • dicing

    01Jun25 | 14.09 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250601.1409
    Photo by Kevin Hessey on Unsplash
    under twilight longing
    restless and wrench ache
    ever just dreams slipping
    lacuna & moon dipping
    blood for the ash given for
    palms crossed with silver

    time to toss the dice,
    wondering at if
    they come up
    twin death's head moth or
    showers pouring over
    with a sighed name
    on the northern wind

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    dicing

  • at the fading

    31May25 | 21.25 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250531.2125
    black wooden fence on snow field at a distance of black bare trees
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
    wisp whisper am
    breath sigh on wind
    crisp and have shatter

    slender parchment thin
    unseenly and obseenly
    ghosting of wing

    tok tears am pale
    scene at the fading
    screaming on howl

    lack beginning

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    at the fading

  • forget

    31May25 | 20.26 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250531.2026
    Photo by Tengis Galamez on Unsplash
    stoic the stone &
    cold the rain
    quench at flame &
    seek the space darkly
    under wave nine

    quell, quell
    the fever for that
    inside remembrance
    forget the old
    forget the old

    tagged:

    fantasies, poetry, realities

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    forget

  • lost for

    31May25 | 17.12 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250531.1712
    i am lost and
    i need to get
    more lost to see
    a way through
    for the forest and
    also the trees

    on a long and
    winding road
    is where silence
    begins

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, melancholia, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    lost for

  • burning acres

    31May25 | 06.30 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250531.0630
    Photo by Andreas Haslinger on Unsplash
    only ever illusion
    seclusion the only
    solution to retain
    a sanity amongst
    all the confusion
    burning acres of
    this heart, if one
    might be found...

    tagged:

    melancholia, poetry

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

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    burning acres

  • learning to talk

    30May25 | 11.22 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250530.1122
    Photo by Ronin on Unsplash
    can we speak plain
    cos i have forgotten
    how to speak
    and the words lost
    all meaning in
    the fog of dream

    anyway

    we needs must find
    them again

    we sought meaning
    in rootsoil and mycelium
    turned over understone
    beseeched the sky
    (i think you know why)
    and whispered to crows
    for their insight

    and as for our meddle?
    we still sit speechless
    about all the things
    under the oak tree
    under the wings

    come, kiss me
    to spoken, my dear,
    under a turquoise sky

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry, rewilding

    filed under:

    poetry, writing

    To like, click comments or:

    learning to talk

  • Half-penny thoughts — 30may25

    30May25 | 07.22 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250530.0722
    Image of a writing journal and a pencil.
    Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash

    One of those ideas that keeps coming back to me is a question that has been on my mind for at least ten years. Whether it is music, writing, or art in general: Where is the disruption and subversion?

    (more…)

    tagged:

    disruption, half-penny thoughts, iterative iteration, luddite, subversion

    filed under:

    thinking

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    Half-penny thoughts — 30may25

  • Strife | a fragment

    29May25 | 19.59 CDT
    © 2025

    michael raven

    c: 250529.1959
    Photo by Marjoline Delahaye on Unsplash

    The following is a lightly-edited fragment of a what was intended to be a longer bit of fiction I wrote in January 2015. I found it while looking for old files on a portable HDD to see how hard it would be to recreate “Rust” from my post yesterday. No dice… yet, anyway. I may be looking for the wrong filename and it could be under another name entirely. The song I referred to as “Myrrh” (which is only one of many “Myrrh”-titled songs I’ve worked on) is actually fully intact and on my modern DAW, so I might have to share that (with vocals!) once I decide what those lyrics should be. But, on with the story… I’ll say a bit more about this piece after the fragment.


    Strife

    The smell of excrement, rot and chemicals rose from the waters as the barge Vivienne and Llewellyn were riding floated across the River Strife to the slaughter yards south of the river. The copper smell of fresh blood drifted over the other smells and Llewellyn had to choke back a the bile that threatened to add to the miasma of roiling in the dark twilight waters below.

    “Good gods, how does anyone deal with this stench on a daily basis?” he asked no one in particular, and didn’t expect to get a response. He covered his face with a handkerchief.

    (more…)

    tagged:

    fantasy, fiction, fragments, gaslamp, old stories, unfinished

    filed under:

    prose, writing

    To like, click comments or:

    Strife | a fragment

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