secure this beckoning sunshine

You are just a piece of clockwork
for someone else's purpose.
Everything you feel is you
seems pastede on yey.

What you do is
not who you are.

Except when it is.

Underneath
the pasted-on
job or career or unemployed
we are all just
a solid glass jar
or sturdy wood box.

We cover ourselves
in knitting or writing
or mechanics or decoupage
to be ourselves.

And some of the pasted-on
is there to cover cracks
or fill holes
put there by a world
that doesn't understand.

We are all decoupage people,
building papier-mâché selves
on solid object bases
out of bits of life we're given.

And yes, we're often bits of clockwork,
and mostly we get by,
but form as well as function
and think how drab a world it'd be
if all we were was clockwork
without who we are
glued on piece by piece.



Decoupage People by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

The mountain kills its poets, and the mountain maddens bards:
the chair of the giant who slumbers here—it furiously guards
whatever secrets gifted once to those with fae regards.
Turn away, O would-be poet! Turn away, O hopeful bard!
You’re worth more living than inspired, more than Annwn’s discards.

( Her name was Tesni, bright, warm, strong. Listener, take heed: )



The Mountain's Call by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

A leaf on the wind
blown here and there
unsettled.
Its roots are—where?
Across the seas and skies,
a journey long and far,
expensive too.
Is there a scar
where leaf was torn from tree?
Can it put down roots here
and tell them true
that this is home that will not disappear?


Ancestry by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

I am woman.
I am here.
I am that which
all men fear:
that what he knows
is just not so,
and what is so
he cannot know.

The words ring clear:
Believe. Revere.

I am trans and
I am queer.
I am that which
all men fear:
that he is not
what he was taught,
that we have thought
and quite a lot.

The words ring clear:
Believe. Revere.



High Priestess I by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

act
mindful
conscious of
consequences
the power is yours
to do with what you will
pick up the paintbrush
sit down and write
sing out loud
crochet
knit

knit
crochet
sing out loud
sit down and write
pick up the paintbrush
do with it what you will
the power is yours
consequences
be conscious
mindful
act



The Magician by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

For the crowdfunding Creative Jam.



Other young ladies Etain's age of ten years were helping the war effort. They cared for younger siblings to free up their mothers for tasks more important to keeping the queendom of Danaan running; they tended gardens to free up the fields for growing food for the soldiers fighting the Anglians; they knit socks to keep the soldiers' feet warm. Warm feet were very important, Cliodhna told Etain wisely. Nobody could think or do very well with cold feet.

( Etain wasn't very good at knitting )



a half-whispered prayer by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Results must be replicable to be reliable. That's how the scientific method works.

I have a second Patreon (to keep poetry and bloggery separate), and the blog post series discussed there will be kicking off on sunbowpublications.com tomorrow.

just take the leap without a look
it matters not if there's a net
they call it Faith, they call it Hope
Beginner's Luck, they say
and paint the landscape, write the book
no worried thoughts of work or debt
at journey's start! who needs a rope?
it's good that no one's on belay



The Fool by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

Sunbow Publications is my new author website. Much updating and customization still to be done, obviously!

if you're damned if you do
if you're damned if you don't
then just do
or just don't
as you will
or you won't
for you're damned either way
and it's not fair to say
that
you should or you shouldn't
you could or you couldn't
it's only for you
if you would or you wouldn't
and blame goes astray
if it's anywhere but
ignominious They.


audio link


anapestic by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.