Pursue, a poem

Pursue

I followed my heart, but it told me lies
nor could I put trust in my own two eyes;
reality names itself in some new guise,
each promising its more elusive prize.

Yet when I pursued the fools’ gold that gleamed
along some lost border of dreams left undreamed,
naught ever turned out to be as it once seemed;
all offered in hostage remains unredeemed.

Too easily have I been oft misled
by those empty words I myself have said,
as I set illusions to dance in my head —
pursuing tomorrow as it ever fled.

Stephen Brooke ©2024

More an exercise in language than in meaning, perhaps.

Mean Mary - Murder Creek

 

Americana music from the popular Mean Mary James. This is a video of the song 'Murder Creek' from the newly-released album, 'Woman Creature.'

Review: Incomplete

A review of the novel 'Incomplete' by S.I. Foote

Although ‘science-fantasy’ is not a term of which I am particularly fond, it does describe ‘Incomplete’ as well as any other. It could also be considered a superhero story of sorts; the ‘Nine’ are very much in the same vein as the X-Men, the Justice League, and so on. With their own unique quirks, to be sure.

Anyway, it’s pretty decent science-fantasy. Oh, sure I can find things to criticize. There are some plot holes and inconsistencies; e.g. why did Plan AZ exist when there had never been any problem killing a Rogue before? We have a ‘magic’ system that does not make a lot of sense, but does, for the most part, respect its own internal logic. There is quite a bit of reliance on coincidence to tie the plot elements together. A certain amount of slightly clumsy info-dumping occurs.

But the story holds together and is written well enough. Certainly interesting enough and entertaining enough to keep me reading and to get me started on the sequel. The characters are well realized and their actions are believable. They are people we can care about, sympathize with—even the antagonists. I can recommend ‘Incomplete’ to fans of speculative fiction and to readers in general.

More on the author and their books at: https://www.sifoote.com/

Pears Sijo

The last pears of the season
   have proven the sweetest.

Share them with me in the orchard
   before the leaves also fall.

Too soon, the wind will carry
   both of you away.

Stephen Brooke ©2024

A poem more or less in the form of a sijo.

Goblins, a poem

Goblins

The goblins are hiding somewhere in your house;
they’re spying on you, your kiddies, the spouse.

Nobody will see them, for they’re far too quick,
quite likely to disappear in one flick

of anyone’s eye, save maybe the cat
(I’m really not certain even of that),

for I suspect mine once did catch a glimpse
of the elusive, diminutive imps.

Her fur stood on end, she hissed and she howled,
but never caught one, though all night she prowled.

Those goblins had melted into the thin air —
that doesn’t mean they never were there!

The goblins are hiding somewhere in your home;
they skulk and they scramble, they sneak and they roam.

From this room to that room they search and they seek,
they peer under beds, into boxes they peek.

They’re eager for any loose loot they can pilfer;
look out for your jewelry, your watches, your silver!

When things will go missing, I know who’s to blame —
the little folk playing their favorite game;

so when people wonder who could be the thieves,
I tell them it’s goblins — but no one believes!

Stephen Brooke ©2024

 

Dodgers

I never have had a problem with those who dodged the draft, as long as they weren’t hypocrites about it (see Ted Nugent). As an act of resistance, it appealed to my inner anarchist.

Having said that, I myself chose not to dodge—despite opposing both the Vietnam War and mandatory military service—but registered as a conscientious objector and did my alternative service, working with kids in migrant camps. That ultimately proved almost as dangerous: I contracted Hepatitis B that nearly killed me.

I do not regret the choice. Nor would I, had I made a different one. This happens and that doesn’t and we move on. All of this, to sure, has given me material for my writing. Most notably, for the character Ted ‘Shaper’ Carrol, to whom I have assigned some of my own experiences as backstory. Ted most certainly is not ‘me’ but he comes closer than most of my characters.

The military draft was a very real concern when I was coming of age in the Sixties. That has shown up in the two ‘Women in the Sun’ novels (written under the Sienna Santerre pen name); at the time it is set, young men were still being sent off to the hopeless conflict in Vietnam and many didn’t return. That concern underlies much of the narrative, always a presence in my characters’ seemingly carefree lives of romance and beach-going.

It is not a concern I would wish on anyone. How each of us dealt with it was up to us; again, we made choices and should not regret them—much less attempt to deny we made them. But I think it was a choice no one should need have made.

_______

Incidentally, those novels I mentioned remain available as free ebooks (or may be purchased in print) at Arachis Press (arachispress.com).

On Haiku

A haiku—an English-language haiku, that is—need not, and probably should not, have seventeen syllables. ‘Syllable’ is a misunderstanding of the Japanese ‘on,’ a unit that is often shorter than a syllable. If we insist on the five-seven-five syllable structure, our poem may well end up longer than a haiku in Japanese. Twelve or thirteen syllables will tend to be closer in length to a Japanese-language haiku.

A ‘true’ haiku should contain references to nature and a season. It should not include any explicit metaphors. If it does not fit these criteria, it is some related form, such as senryu or zappai. All these descend from haikai, which in turn derived from the linked poetry known as renga (which also is ancestral to the tanka form).

I rarely pen a haiku in the strict sense. Senryu and related forms, yes, though I may or may not use the seventeen syllable structure. Definitely not more than seventeen!