Category: poem

Release Day for “The Hedge Witch & the Musical Poet by M. J. Mallon! @Marjorie_Mallon #newrelease #writingcommunity #readersoftwitter #poetry #shortstories #flashfiction #poetrycommunity

I’m excited to have fellow author, M. J. Mallon here today to share the release of her latest book: “The Hedge Witch & the Musical Poet.” I’ve included my review.

Blurb

The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet is a collection of poetry and flash fiction celebrating the beautiful vulnerability of the forest kingdom. It begins with the poetic tale of the kind-hearted Hedge Witch, Fern, who discovers an injured stranger in desperate need of her woodland spells and magic.

The sweet pairing learn from each other and through Fern’s guidance, Devin embraces the power of magic to leave behind his trouble past to become The Musical Poet.

Poetry/flash fiction titles in section one of the collection include:

The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet, Rain Forest Love, A Forest Baby Boy, A Forest Baby Girl, A Modern Witch, Rock of Mine, Chester Don & I, The Network of Trees, More Trees Not Less, Two Boys Watching War, Mum Climbing Trees, Let’s Play, The Scorched Tree, Owl’s Holiday Home, A Man’s Holiday Home, A Child’s Excitement, The Teddy In The Woods, Run! The Organutans, All Hallow’s Eve Candy Girl The Forest Bash, Dreaming At Halloween, A Face on Bark, Golden Willow Tree, Rainbow – Parasol of Light, Lollipop Sunshine Tree,

In Section two I pay tribute to the following poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Ruby Archer, King Forest, Bliss Carman, Woodland Rain, Emily Dickinson, Who Robbed the Woods, Rupert Blake, Stopping by The Woods on A Winter Evening,Oscar Wilde, In the Forest.

With my poetry:

The Forest Weeps, The Forest King, Raindrops and Childhood Dreams, The Woodland Treasures, Winter Woodland Moon, Child Me.

Paperback to follow.

Cover and Formatting by Colleen Chesebro’s marvellous new formatting service, more about that here: https://unicorncatspubservices.wordpress.com/my-services/

PURCHASE LINKS:

https://books2read.com/u/mv1OeV

Amazon US Purchase Link

Amazon UK Purchase Link

My Review

A unique and beautifully written collection of poetry and fiction weaved magically together. I love trees and nature, so a forest setting pulled me right in. Section one starts off with “The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet.” A whimsical tale of an injured man, Dale, found by a magical woman, Fern, who takes him in to heal. It was great to see a couple more poetic pieces continue this sweet journey. Section two offered poetry based on some famous poems. The beautiful imagery captivated me throughout this book. I appreciated all the poetry and prose, especially “The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet” but here are more favorites, “Rock of Mine,” “The Forest King,” and “The Scorched Tree.” It was great to see a couple of samples that I enjoyed from “Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose” included. If you love poetry and flash fiction, especially the forest and magic, this is a collection you won’t want to miss. I plan to add the print version to my bookshelves so I can keep enjoying it.

 

Author Bio

MJ’s favourite genres to write are Fantasy YA, Paranormal, Ghost and Horror Stories, various forms of poetry and flash fiction. She celebrates the spiritual realm, love of nature and all things magical, mystical, and mysterious at her blog home: https://mjmallon.com

She is a reading, blogging and photography enthusiast!

M J Mallon was born in Lion city Singapore, a passionate Scorpio with the Chinese Zodiac sign of a lucky rabbit. She spent her early childhood in Hong Kong. During her teen years, she returned to her father’s childhood home, Edinburgh where she spent many happy years, entertained, and enthralled by her parents’ vivid stories of lliving and working abroad. Perhaps it was during these formative years that her love of storytelling began bolstered by these vivid raconteurs. She counts herself lucky to have travelled to many far-flung destinations and this early wanderlust has fuelled her present desire to emigrate abroad. Until that wondrous moment, it’s rumoured that she lives in the UK, in the Venice of Cambridge with her six-foot hunk of a rock god husband. Her two enchanting daughters have flown the nest but often return with a cheery smile.

MJ writes fantasy/magical realism because life should be sprinkled with a liberal dash of extraordinarily imaginative magic! Her motto is to always do what you love, stay true to your heart’s desires, and inspire others to do so too, even it if appears that the odds are stacked against you like black-hearted shadows.

AWARDS
The First book in the Curse of Time series Bloodstone has received many fantastic reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and other platforms and was awarded a finalist book award recently from Amazon influencer N. N. Light, receiving a review rating of 5+stars.

Her writing credits also include a multi-genre approach: paranormal, best-selling horror, supernatural short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She has worked with some amazing authors and bloggers compiling an anthology/compilation set during the early stages of COVID-19 entitled This Is Lockdown and has also written a spin off poetry collection entitled Lockdown Innit.

She’s been blogging for many moons at her blog home Kyrosmagica, (which means Crystal Magic.) where she continues to celebrate the spiritual realm,her love of nature, crystals and all things magical, mystical, and mysterious.

Her eclectic blog shares details and information about her new releases, author interviews, character profiles and her love of reading, reviewing, writing, and photography: https://mjmallon.com/

INDIE PUBLISHED BOOKS

Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose, (with photography,) This is Lockdown, (an anthology,) and Lockdown Innit Poems about Absurdity and The Hedge Witch &  The Musical Poet.
http://mybook.to/MrSagittarius
mybook.to/Thisislockdown
mybook.to/Lockdowninnit

Next Chapter Publishing

YA Fantasy series,  Bloodstone and Golden Healer in The Curse of Time.
For details of publications please visit:
https://www.nextchapter.pub/authors/mj-mallon
Bloodstone Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bOyrgW
Bloodstone Audiobook:
UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Bloodstone-Audiobook/B09SK9GFB1/
US: https://www.audible.com/author/M-J-Mallon/B074CGNK4L
Golden Healer Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mgjY67

 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO VARIOUS ANTHOLOGIES

Word Weaving #1: A Word Craft Journal of Syllabic Verse
Moons of Autumn by Colleen

Chesebro (Poetry,) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09DWDMXWK
Poetry Treasures 2 Relationships compiled by Kaye Lynn Booth & Robbie

Cheadle: https://books2read.com/u/3kP8aK
100 Ways To Write A Book Alex Pearl (proceeds to Pen International.)

Stay Home A year of writing through lockdown – Chantelle Atkins (Chasing
Driftwood Writers Group.) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stay-Home-Writing-Through-Lockdown-/dp/B09HVB6SZ6/

Contributions to Best Selling Horror Anthologies

Nightmareland compiled by Dan Alatorre

“Scrabble Boy” (Short Story)

Spellbound compiled by Dan Alatorre

“The Twisted Sisters“ (Short Story)

Wings of Fire compiled by Dan Alatorre

“The Great Pottoo” (Short Story)

Nightmareland: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZG3ZXP3/

Spellbound: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DM83XKR/

Wings & Fire: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08KJ5SQND/

Contributions to Ghost Anthologies

Ghostly Rites 2019 compiled by Claire Plaisted “Dexter’s Creepy Caverns“ (Short Story) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZQV2Y4Q/

Ghostly Rites 2020 compiled by Claire Plaisted  “No. 1 Coven Lane” (Short
Story) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9HYBLH

AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA DETAILS

Linktree: (all my links in one place.) https://linktr.ee/mjmallonauthor

Author Blog: https://mjmallon.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-Mallon/e/B074CGNK4L/

Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mjmallonauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mjmallonauthor,

Bookstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjm_reviews/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/m-j-mallon

Spiritual Sisters: https:/www.facebook.com/5SpiritualSisters/

Authors, Bloggers Rainbow Support Club #ABRSC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1829166787333493/

 

 

 

#TankaTuesday #Poetry #Challenge No. 284, #SpecificForm: 4-11 #poems #poetrycommunity #poetrychallenges #poetsoftwitter

Here is Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge #284. This week is Specific Form. Yvette Calleiro chose Gwen Plano’s 4-11 format. It is 4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4 with the first and last lines the same. This one was a challenge!

Darkness descends
Crushing my soul
clouds hide the stars
hope in the past
youth was breezy
love abundant
happiness flowed
moonbeams magic
I take my path
make the journey
Darkness descends

 

 

 

 

 

#TANKATUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 282 #THEMEPROMPT #haibun #Ekphrastic #poetrycommunity

Hi! Here is Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 282. This week is a theme prompt selected by Harmony, “The Longest Day.”

I went with a haibun but also used this picture for inspiration or an ekphrastic.

.

Point of View

I started this journey so long ago. Every corner turned, I’d find another identical rocky path. It’s been day after day of the same. Each day is longer than the one before it. Although there is food, water, and a place to rest, there are also unpleasant reminders that others have made the same trek. Having no choice, I have only added to that. Occasionally, I’d see a golden light off in the distance shimmering through the open-top tunnel. Encouraged, I quickened my pace toward it. Finally, when I got there, the light would disappear, and I’d be back in the darkness. It’s been a cruel game that has gone on for too long. The promise of finding the meaning of life no longer held my interest. I didn’t care anymore. The problem was, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find my way out of this torture chamber. When I realized I had been looking at this from the wrong perspective. I climbed the wall.

a different view

exposes life’s labyrinth

journey continues

 

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 280 #SpecificForm: Lanturne or Lanterne #poems #poetrychallenge #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

Here’s Colleen Chesebro’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 280. This week Lisa, the VerseSmith selected the lanturne or lanterne format. Its pattern is 1/2/3/4/1 and has a shape like a Japanese lantern.

rock

heart-shaped

my journey

time’s collection

love

#TankaTuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 279: #Tastetherainbow-Color/Weather Poetry #poetrycommunity #poems #haibun #writingcommunity #poetsoftwitter #poetrychallenge

Here is Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 278. This is a Taste the Rainbow theme with color/weather as the subject.

This is a haibun which is a prose paragraph combined with haiku or senryu. I enjoy offering stories or even insights in this format.

moody purple sunset

Personal Paradise Lost

In a burst of color, the last of the day falls into night’s waiting hands. I sit on the rocky ledge bathed in the purple, orange, gold, and gray of the event. Although it happens every day above the vast azure water, it still offers me the hope that I’ll need as the moment fades away into darkness. Someday I will venture outside my guarded world, where the gentle waves and salty breeze are the only movements in this paradise. Here, a storm brings gentle rain, and the sunbeams provide growth around me, yet nothing changes. The sameness has become my personal prison in a place that some consider perfection. I long to captain my boat into those beautiful colors and see what is beyond my horizon.

nature’s artistry
awakens my stagnant soul
inspiration flows

Some updates and a poem! #writingcommunity #readersoftwitter #poetry #tanka #updates #bookrelease #rafflecopter #giveaways #blogtours

dirt path in forest
Tribute Trail in Nevada City CA

Hi!

It’s been busy around here releasing my new book! Tomorrow is the last blog stop for this tour. Thank you to everyone who followed along and a huge thanks go out to all the blog post hosts. I kept it small this time, so I didn’t put my usual call out for hosts.

Positive reviews have been coming in, so I can stop holding my breath now. I’m thrilled people are enjoying meeting Charlie, Jane, Ben, and, of course, Drea.

  • I’m trying something I haven’t done in a while thanks to Jan’s post on Story Empire I’m running a giveaway on Rafflecopter for the release. I’m giving away Amazon Gift Cards. It’s been a while, but I think I remembered how to do it 🙂 This runs from June 23rd to July 7th.

LINK:

https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/dacd5ce07/?

  • I am also going to try a paid blog tour on July 29th for a day blitz and see how that goes.  More on that later. This was another idea from one of Jan’s marketing posts on Story Empire. 
  • Yesterday I joined my daughter for our first book signing at a local art show in Sacramento.  I have been avoiding this for as long as I could—my daughter doesn’t take no for an answer 🙂 It was a wonderful time and I was blessed to meet a lot of amazing people. A little girl bought Tree Fairies, and when her mom explained to her I wrote it, her eyes grew so big! Those are moments you can’t get from behind a computer. All the good advice from fellow authors helped! That candy dish full of See’s lollipops was a hit. Thank you!

  • I was going through my books and found a stack of indie paperbacks I’d hadn’t read yet. So, I have been catching up with them. Some of them had been in the stack for a long time.

Now for the poem.

I entered a poerty contest over on Word Craft Poetry Blog. I wrote 12 poems with the “Dreams” theme in mind, and narrowed it down to one for my tanka prose entry. Here was one of the poems I wrote that day but didn’t use in the contest:

golden sun rises

nightmares darkness dissipates

the light shines on dreams

healing beams caress my soul

heavenly message of hope

 

Embrace your inner child by reading a good book! D. L. Finn

 

 

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry #Challenge No. 276, #ShareYourDay #tanka #poems #poetrycommunity

Here is this week’s Colleen Chesebro Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge #276. This week we are challenged to share our day.

I’ve been feeling life a little too intensely lately. When I start to feel overwhelmed, the best thing I can do is step outside and walk in the forest. Here, I can do some walking meditation, write poetry surrounded by trees, or simply be. I may not accomplish all I need to, but these moments provide the peace my mind, body, and soul needs.

exhaustion heavy

another yawn claims my breath

I enter the woods

wind’s breeze carries the trees song

nature’s healing bathes my soul

 

New Release: “Life & Soul” by Harmony Kent! @harmony_kent #poetry #newrelease #writingcommunity #whattoread

I’m thrilled to have fellow Story Empire Author, Harmony Kent, here today to talk about her upcoming release, Life & Soul. I loved her first collection of poetry and I’m eager to read this book. I definitely have my copy preordered.

Hi, Denise. Thanks so much for hosting me today. It’s always wonderful to visit with you. Here’s a little bit I’d love to share about my latest book of poetry …

From Loving Soul:

 

Love Sick

Who knew love

could be such

a visceral thing?

 

Until you

I always thought

love sick a mere phrase

 

Off my food

butterflies in my belly

smitten with you

 

This malady

I pray

never to recover from

This poem comes from when I first met and fell in love with the man who would, eventually, become my husband.

Love Sick is about that first flush of love, and the nervousness that often comes with it. All those days and nights spent holding in your vulnerable emotions and feeling them physically, until you finally take a leap, put it into words, and get it out there. I hope you enjoyed this poem and would love to know what you think.

Life & Soul blurb

Life & Soul is the second book in the Soul Poetry Series by acclaimed author Harmony Kent.

This beautiful collection of over fifty poems will take the reader through the highs and lows of everyday life via contemporary poetry in a range of styles and themes. Within these pages, you will find reflections on the Lonely Soul, the Seeking Soul, Brief Soul, Friendly Soul, and the Loving Soul—states of mind and living and longing we each experience over the course of a life.

Life & Soul offers something for lovers of poetry from all walks of life.

Praise for Slices of Soul, Book 1 in the Soul Poetry Series: 

“I found my answer in this wonderful treasure-trove and have already read it three times.” Robert Fear

“I found in Slices of Soul something approaching aesthetic bliss, a sense of being connected in some way to other states – like tenderness, kindness, ecstasy – where art is the norm.” Colm Herron

“A stunning collection of poems that I read in one sitting! Unable to simply put this down until I had read the last. I love the clarity of the short poems, such clear images created in so few words or phrases. Many of them touched my heart and I will be giving them a 2nd and 3rd read!” Audrina Lane

Universal Link: mybook.to/LifeAndSoul

AUTHOR BIO: 

Harmony Kent spent 13 years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, where she faced her demons and overcame devastating low self-esteem and found freedom. After a life-changing injury, Harmony returned to the world at the tender age of 40, and her life as a writer began.

Harmony is an award winning multi-genre author, and her publications include:

The Battle for Brisingamen (Fantasy Fiction) AIA approved

The Glade (Mystery/Thriller) AIA Approved/BRAG Medallion Honouree/New Apple Literary Awards Official Selection Honours 2015

Polish Your Prose: Essential Editing Tips for Authors (Writing/Editing) New Apple Literary Awards Top Medallist Honours 2015 

Finding Katie (Women’s Fiction)

Slices of Soul (Soul Poetry Series: Book 1)

Life and Soul (Soul Poetry Series: Book 2)

Interludes (Erotic Short Stories)

Interludes 2 (Erotic Short Stories)

Moments (Short Stories and Poetry)

Jewel in the Mud (Zen Musings)

Polish Your Prose (How to Self-Edit)

Creative Solutions (Creative Writing Inspiration)

Backstage (Erotic Romance and Thriller)

FALLOUT (Post-Apocalyptic Dystopia) BRAG Medallion Honouree 

The Vanished Boy (Psychological Thriller)

As well as being an avid reader and writer, Harmony also offers reviews and supports her fellow authors. Harmony is always on the lookout for talent and excellence, and will freely promote any authors or books who she feels have these attributes.

Harmony’s Website

twitter: @harmony_kent

Goodreads: Harmony Kent

BookBub: Harmony Kent

Story Empire (co-authored blog): Harmony Kent

 

#TANKATUESDAY Weekly #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 275, 5/24/22, #THEMEPROMPT #tanka #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetrychallenge

Here is Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #275 Theme Prompt. The theme “useful” was choosen by Kerfe.

I’ve been quiet lately, barely time to visit blogs or get one posted. Releasing a new book is always so time consuming, plus putting out new covers and tidying the books up. Not sure why I did both at once. But I made sure to make that little extra time to write some poetry today.

I put the word useful into Canva’s search and came up with this picture.

wrinkled, gray or bald

slower gait, feeble and frail

family’s burden

society’s arrogance

essential wisdom dismissed