Oceana

September 29, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Childhood Adversity, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Making do, Making it work, Micro Fiction, Nostalgia, Ocean, Sailing 23 Comments

They never understood, when they “put her into care,” that she already had all she needed: a trundle, a trunk, a life-vest, as many friends as any needed. Sure, she’d fallen overboard, but only in stormy weather, which meant all hands on deck to sound the “Lassie Overboard Alarm” and save her.

For years she pined. For the salt air. The open space. The freedom. Even for the callouses that Papa said were part of a sailor.

Now grown, and anchored by children of her own, the sea remained away.

But she could bring it home.

Create her Oceana.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Jennifer Pendergast

A Marginal Way

January 2, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Determination, hope, life, Marginal, Ocean, Poetry, Self-awareness, Strength, Weekend Writing Prompt 13 Comments

(Photo: Karen Forte)

At the very fringe

Of hope,

And even as embers

Of warmth

Barely flickered,

A marginal way

Lived on

In her heart,

Its waves crashing

Full of breath

Against

Life’s rocks.

For Sammi‘s Weekend Writing Prompt: Marginal in 31 words

A Silver Light

September 3, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Blue, Dream, Imagery, light, Meditation, Ocean, Poetry, Silver, WritePhoto, Writing prompt 25 Comments

A silver light,

In blue

It was.

A glimmer on

Still

Water.

A place of dream

Of home

It was.

A hope for

Time’s lost

Daughter.

For Sue Vincent’s WritePhoto

Favorite Place

March 22, 2020March 22, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Breathing Space, Calm, Current events, Favorite, Heartbeat, Memory, Ocean, Photo Challenge, Photography, Poetry, Sunday Stills 8 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

Of all scenes

And joys and sorrows,

Of all the steps

And breaths

And sense,

There is the ebb and flow

And stillness,

That makes this

Movement

My heart’s

Place.

For Sunday Stills: Places

Early Light

February 23, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Calm, Meditation, Morning, Ocean, Photo Challenge, Photography, Poetry, Potential, Promise, Stories, Sunday Stills, sunrise 20 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

Still

The promise of day sweeps

Broad calm in its sway,

And the sun,

Rising gold

Lights new stories

Untold.

For the Sunday Stills Photo Challenge: Early

A Different Kind Of Home

January 10, 2020January 10, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Breathe, Home, Just because, Meditation, Memory, Ocean, Photography, Poetry, Soul, Spirituality, Take a moment, Water Leave a comment

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

A moment

For the memory of

A different kind of home,

Where sun sparkles

On the water

And you feel your soul

Fold along the crease

Of rolling foam,

And where your spirit

Sings the song of places

It has long known

How to roam.

Zen Essence

August 18, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Being in the moment, Calibration, Creative writing, Nature, Ocean, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Sunday Stills, Writing prompt, Zen 29 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

In the moment of the soft swell

Of a calm curl,

The gentle foam

Belays the power of

The waves that lift ocean liners

And cradle whales.

A breath

Before

Exhale.

Thank you, Terri, for this prompt. Perfect for today. For me, the shore is the ultimate calibrator. I took this photo in Ogonquit, Maine, quite too many years ago. Time to go back. Time to go to the beach. Any beach. For breath, for awe, for space, for zen.

For Sunday Stills: Essence of Zen

Carefree

June 29, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Briefly, Carefree, Freedom, Micro Poetry, New Zealand, Ocean, Photo, travel, Weekend Writing Prompt 3 Comments

Photo: Inbar Asif

She could be

Truly carefree

When she strolls

The fine edge

Of the sea.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Challenge: Carefree in 14 words

Safe Angle

June 27, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Angles, Australia, Black and White, CB&W, Down under, Ocean, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Quietude, Safety, Swimming Pool 13 Comments

Photo: S. Levenberg

At the edge of the

Down Under

Where water angles

Into sea,

There’s an old pool

Where you safely

Hold the sharks at bay,

And be.

For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lines and angles

Endless Harmony

June 13, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Creative writing, Endless, Flash Fiction, Meditation, Memory, MicroFiction, Ocean, Photo prompt, Poetry, WritePhoto 18 Comments

a solitary figure on a beach against a wide ocean.

Photo: Sue Vincent

She’d never have believed the vastness had she not been there to see it.

In person.

On the edge of endlessness.

The breath of eons crashing at her feet.

The spray of ancient rhythms that had been there

All along.

Through war and storm and hope and flood and cold and warm and days like this when no one but herself was there to witness it.

She’d never have believed the power that it held, contained within each curl of wave, in every roll of whitecap licking sand.

It filled her.

With awe and ache and gnawing yearning to something that went beyond her words and into thoughts unformed, or perhaps ones made of memories in utero: the hiss, the beat, the drums of hearts.

And this.

Another memory

To merge into

In endless harmony.

For Sue Vincent’s WritePhoto (2nd week)