Hi! Fine Lines is a journal dedicated to supporting creative writers. Read, enjoy and Write On! Celebrating our 20th Year!
It wasn’t a dream, but it repeated
Then
Blurred together like finger-paint memories
Cement gray floors of confinement, tears fall
Where chunks are missing, though time crawls forward
Hugging splotchy white cinderblock walls
Rays of anticipation peek through rotting windows
Their musty lover growing moldy black specs
Clinging, like little sisters to their solid love
There is a certain shape in me
That dreads the sea,
so I go down to the shore.
Once more I stride the grit
study the wind tossed foam
taste cold salt sea spray
And try
To drive the demon away.
He retreats a bit
But lurks beneath
The awe of boundless beauty
The thrill of perfect power
Purifying
Peace instilling
But never still.
Potential for disaster
Life unbridled, rampant, raging.
A wet blue heaven wrapped around earth
Nourishing teeming life
Gnawing at the granite edges
beginning and ending of all.
A violent hurricane of words
Shook the house.
They seeped through the cracks in the ceiling
And crawled under the doors.
They slithered up the staircase
And bled through the walls.
Thousands of fire-red ants
Seared pinholes into my flesh.
Words were thrown
Like crumpled tissues into a waste-bin.
I sat on my bedroom floor
With my knees crushed against my chest
As truth gobbled me up like a Sunday feast.
A violent hurricane of words
Shook the house.
They seeped through the cracks in the ceiling
And crawled under the doors.
They slithered up the staircase
And bled through the walls.
Thousands of fire-red ants
Seared pinholes into my flesh.
Words were thrown
Like crumpled tissues into a waste-bin.
I sat on my bedroom floor
With my knees crushed against my chest
As truth gobbled me up like a Sunday feast.
Write to make
sense of life experiences.
Write to learn
as much as you can
from all the challenges and the joys.
Write because words and ideas are fascinating.
Write because exploring concepts is play.
Write to synthesize these explorations
and make them practical.
Write to become the best version of yourself.
In the process of seeking empowerment . . .
empower others,
write to inspire,
motivate, comfort,
facilitate, discover,
communicate.
In this scratching,
this making marks,
encourage others
to make their own mark.
Fallen needles soften passage into the forest.
Precise footsteps beckon her to him,
Like a portrait of symmetry in motion.
A kaleidoscope discloses awe-inspiring beauty,
As sunlight freckles tease fluttery fronds,
And stillborn dew splashes spongy mounded moss.
The green velvet becomes denser
With miniature outdoor terrariums,
Everywhere you look.
A grand opening welcomes a multiplicity of fauna,
Bustling about in the spectacle of day,
Urgently amassing essential ingredients,
For survival and sanctuary.
Ode to Dave Hayek
( This poem was written shortly after the death of my husband in June 2006.)
Linda Hayek
You are still big in my life, warm in my heart
not only because you loved me – completely
quirks and rough edges included
and fathered my daughters into adulthood
not only because you opened wide the doors of your heart
to share your family with me
and invited me to gaze through the windows of your faith
thus strengthening my own
not only because you embraced the adventures I concocted
sometimes called vacations – riding a bicycle for thousands of miles
across and around and beyond Nebraska -
you could smell a malt a mile away (more…)
Cadaver
Elizabeth Baltaro
It was not as scary as we had imagined,
when we opened the metal crypt
that cradled our body, our cadaver.
The first thing I noticed were bright pink nails.
Without stories, clothing, hair, nor jewelry,
the meager remains of a lifetime
were painted on her fingers. (more…)
In 1991, Fine Lines began to provide a place where creative writers could share their written ideas with others. What started out as a classroom project at one school in the USA is now a fifty-state writing network of authors who love the written word, and they now have the support of a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. We have published writing from more than twenty different countries. This international, quarterly journal is dedicated to the writing development of all its members. Join now!
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