To Know Good

May 31, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: better future, Cruelty, Current events, Elders, End violence, Good, kindness, Moral compass, Poetry, Promises, Racism, RDP, Support, Truth 20 Comments

Photo: Valario Davis on Unsplash

“So how do you,” he asked,

“Know good

From bad?”

“By the heart,” she replied.

“By the actions that

Build

And prop up,

And the words that

Support

And patch the

Cracked places

Inside broken parts.”

“And how,” he pressed,

“Do you know what

Just needs

Giving up?”

“By the soul,”

She patted the warm place

On her lap.

“For breath

Matters,

And hope

Matters,

And kindness

Is superior to any

Pass-by-night

Emperors

Full of promises

Of might,

Touted

For our good

But seeped in

Falsehood meant

To bring on

Plight.”

He shuddered

And she stroked his wet cheek

And held a cool

Palm to his brow.

“Now sleep,

And let spirits

Of light,

Hold back the bad

And

Fill your cup

With good

Till the world grows

Up.”

For RDP Sunday: For Our Good

Resolute Rose

May 30, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: big-sister, Determination, Finding a way, Helping, Ouch, Poetry, Practical solutions, Resolve, Siblings, Tenacity, Weekend Writing Prompt 17 Comments

Photo: Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

The least of hardship was when

She broke her toe,

Age nine,

Her youngest brother

Then a mewling newborn

In her arms.

She’d been pacing

Through the night

To let Mother

Recover some.

Ever the intrepid

Elder child,

Rose missed but

A step,

Taped her toes,

And walked on

Till the morn.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Intrepid in 52 words

By Heart And Hand

May 26, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Allegory, Caring, CFFC, Current events, Desert, Life Lessons, Making do, Nothing is Impossible, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Practical solutions, Science, Water 14 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

There is water

For the thirsty

Even

In the desert,

Where heart and hand

Were put to work

With foresight of what

Must be done,

To hold

What would otherwise

Be lost

To shifting sands

And blazing sun.

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Manmade

If It Rains

May 23, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Downpour, Family, Finding a way, Flash Fiction, healing, Homecoming, hope, Micro-fiction, Poetry, Transplant, Weekend Writing Prompt 23 Comments

Photo: Javardh on Unsplash

“If it rains,” she said.

“It pours,” he answered.

They laughed and touched palms

Over glass.

The barriers that divide

Not keeping them

Apart.

“And when it shines,” she said,

“It glories,” he responded.

She grinned and then the corners

Of her lips

Shook and her palm pressed

Again

Toward his

And her eyes unleashed a

Downpour of

Longing.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered.

“I’m almost ready

For the transplant.

My cells will welcome yours

Into my own.

As they had

In the womb.

It is like coming home.”

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Downpour in 88 words

They’ll Return

May 19, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: America, Current affairs, Eagle, fpj-photo-challenge, Future, Have a voice, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Politics, Symbolism, Truth, Vote 11 Comments

Photo: Karen Forte

They’ll return

To the sky

To the bluffs

To the forests.

They’ll return

To true pride

To the strength

And the chorus,

Of the way

Things can be

When the truth

One can see

And the powers

Of we,

Will refuse to

Agree

To deceits of those

Pretending

To celebrate

Being free.

For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Return

If It Ain’t Broke

May 18, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Challenges, Creative writing, dVerse, Help, Independence, loneliness, Poetry, Poetry prompt, Pride, Quadrille, Stubborn 28 Comments

Photo: Will Malott on Unsplash

She refused to budge

Or borrow.

She would not allow herself

The slightest

Reach.

“If it ain’t broke,” she said,

Hiding sorrow –

Holding on to life

In tatters

Yet refusing to

Give in even

A stitch –

“There is no need to seek

A fix.”

For the dVerse quadrille challenge: Fix

No Fade

May 16, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Current events, Dawn, Finding a way, hope, humanity, Micro Poetry, Poetry, Weekend Writing Prompt, World's future, Writing Challenge 13 Comments

Photo: Lerone Pieters on Unsplash

Where faith remains in morning’s dawn,

There will not fade

The hope of light,

Breathing

Life

On.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Fade in 17 words

The Footprints Of Her Years

May 12, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Betrayal, Creative writing, dVerse, Flow, Just for fun, Patchwork, Poetry, Poetry prompt, Relationships, Stream of Consciousness, Writing prompt 30 Comments

Photo: Louisa Potter on Unsplash

She spilled

A trail of tears

Along the footprints of

Her years.

At first she was the

Princess.

The apple of her parents’

Eyes.

Half-grown, she had become

The Black Beauty

Sitting on the class’s

Throne.

When she first met him,

He was her wizard.

Jacob

Of the dazzling blue eyes.

They all followed him

Like cattle.

She swooned

Into his charm.

Into what she believed to be

His tender and true

Heart.

But her prince charming

Turned into

The Czar

Who wielded

A sharp tongue like a

Purple sword.

Who called her

Drab.

Unlovable.

A lazy housewife.

With her

No longer his

Purple queen,

He left in search of

Better.

Found his golden acre.

And she,

In tears of ice

Wept storms,

As blue fire

Drew Aurora Borealis

Across her broken heart.

For dVerse poetics

His Shadow

May 11, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Memoriam, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Flash Fiction, Guilt, Maya Angelou, Moral injury, Poetry, Posttraumatic Stress, Prosery, PTSD, Quote, Seeking help, Trauma, Veterans, War 30 Comments

Photo: Andy Falconer on Unsplash

They want to add more activity to his day. More interests. Better engagements. A hobby. A new skill.

They don’t understand.

He is fine during the days. It is the night that haunts him. Not the dark, but the solitude. The walls closing. The suffocating silence where his breath fills all the space till there is no air left. No room for words.

Then there’s the fatigue and how it erodes all his resistance. Lets the blackness in.

They offered medicine. Said it will help him fall asleep and stay asleep.

It did.

And it made it worse.

Now his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream and he cannot find the door to waking.

He feels mummified. Lost in the abyss of thoughts and memory.

The bombs. The mines. The child.

He couldn’t save him.

Guilt swallows all.

How could there be a dawn?

Note: Dedicated to all whose deepest wounds are unseen. May you find your dawn.

For the dVerse prosery challenge: maya angelou

The quote prompt: “his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” from “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

Make It Home

May 9, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Adversity, Camping, Creative writing, Finding a way, Home, Homelessness, Making do, Poetry, Shelter, Solutions, Weekend Writing Prompt, Writing Challenge 17 Comments

Photo: Osnat Halperin-Barlev

They strung up the hammock, and called it home.

There was a tent.

There was shade.

There was view.

There was fresh air.

And in the morning, sparkly tears of dew.

It wasn’t much, perhaps.

With a long trek to get water,

And so a lot to learn. Anew.

Still, they made do.

There had been little time to plan,

After they got the letter.

It was pay up, in whole,

Or let the owed sum fetter

Their everything into

Being a forever debtor.

So they packed what they owned

And drove away

With broken hearts and eyes the wetter.

At least here,

Even with no walls

There was shelter.

Which was, already,

Better.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Home in 114 words

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