Tag: creative writing

  • Poem: Nap Time – 10/01/20

    Poem: Nap Time – 10/01/20

     Thank you to someone special who permitted his
     fictionalising and through heavy edits, turned out 
     to be a different character entirely.
     ~ ~ ~
     I dance and prance before you, 
     playful hands edging your way, 
     eclectically jabbing to ruffle you, closer and closer,   
     my painted smile beams as hips swivel and sway.
     
     You present a stern scowl, 
     you have to nudge me aside, 
     you encourage my return to my original tasks,
     you’ve important things to do and write.
     
     But, I see the light in your eyes shine,
     your body moving to a rhythm as I continue this 
     interrupting frolic of mine,
     your computer screen's terminal is Darth Vadar black,
     flickering with a white-hat coder's dream.
     
     Riled though you appeared,
     I am highly amused, 
     so greatly so 
     I could mischievously perform all day.
    
     The tickle that grows in my throat from suspecting
     you are at the very least mildly moved makes me want to 
     squeal and giggle,
     I suppress them though, 
     I don't want to cause any unwanted upheaval.
      
     I know I’m likely interrupting something significant 
     but at this moment, it is time for you and I,
     together we can cherish my merriment and enjoyment,
     and perhaps even some special moments.
      
     But, you need to study, or at least want to concentrate 
     on something else entirely,
     you have certain things to attend to,
     well, darling, so do I, I’m taking a break
     isn’t it time you took one with me, too?
      
     All I want is to lie down, 
     to stretch this aching body of mine,
     using my mind for hours on end causes me 
     tightened muscles and lethargy,
     I just need to rest my eyes. 
      
     I wish for your companionship,
     we don’t have much personal time together,
     while I don’t wish for anything serious,
     I would love to have your comfort. 
    
     Where even the friction of your body lying next to mine 
     makes me feel contented and whole and 
     less alone, 
     the firmness of your form casts aside the 
     feeling of solitude begot from 
     working in your second study, 
     my temporary isolated room.
      
     Because I have purposefully excised myself from 
     the previous co-working area, 
     in this new study is where I find my privacy, 
     but after a few hours and a spell, 
     I’d like to have you next to me, sweet and loving,
     to let me feel your heart which, for me, beats so well.
      
     You finally acquiesce, I lie across your bed,
     obnoxiously taking up both places,
     with a smile, you roll me to one side,
     I lie down, curl into a ball 
     and with a giggle, proceed to snore. 
      
     You wrap your arms around me, 
     with a warmth I wish I had always known, 
     forms melding together, as though our curves were made 
     to fit the other's. 
    
     Your hands begin to explore but I push them away,
     push, push, push as you might have desired to do 
     during my amusing dance,
     It is time for sleep, I explain,
     this is the pressing matter of the hour,
     I feel your mood drop,
     your body disappointedly relax, 
     but soon we are asleep, 
     how I love our nap time.   
     
     © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved.
     
    Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash 

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  • Poem: Medication – 10/01/20

    Poem: Medication – 10/01/20

     The medication swims in my forehead,
     for some reason it’s affecting me there most,
     tonight I am hazier, staying up far too late,
     allowing the dosages to overly affect my consciousness.
      
     I want to make the most of my evening,
     but with these tablets I cannot,
     they drown my lobe; I feel the tightness in the frontal,
     a pressure of sorts, 
     I want to remain awake but I am fighting 
     a losing battle.
      
     The chemistry, the man-made cures for 
     bouts of temporary madness, which tames 
     the imbalances within my brain,
     I succumb to their placating of future ferocity, 
     I am now a sedated meerkat. 
    
      © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved. 
    
     Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

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  • Poem: Bebsis – 09/01/20

    Poem: Bebsis – 09/01/20

     my bebsis —
     what can I say about her?
      
     nothing more than the enormity of 
     everything which I would readily articulate,
     with such gratitude I would spout clouds of 
     perfumed sentiment that would bury us both 
     and playfully we would cast aside the damp 
     to find the merriment,
     the celebration behind our conjoining, 
     as sisters we are one,
     as sisters, we are the same.  
      
     our state of being,
     adoptive as we made ourselves from 
     a faraway source,
     we have been through so much,
     on our own and together,
     
     we are here and there for each other.
      
     a differing reflection but an interior which
     mirrors mine 
     even when I flash a different shade, 
     she carries me in careful moments,
     she smooths away the yearning and 
     indecisiveness of my day.
      
     we are more than adequate when separate but 
     whole when woven, and weaving our words,
     we can exist on our own, 
     though I’d rather be knitted together,
     a little amigurumi penguin and a pensive raven 
     in this make-believe land of ours. 
      
     she is the rationale, 
     I am the fiery child, 
     she is my guarder, at times,
     oft does she carry the light,
     she attends and brightens my shadow.
      
     walking similar paths before even having met,
     our trails melded with the firm blows we felt from 
     hearing similar tales.
     each punch was a sign in our eyes, our mouths,
     a truthful force felt, with immediacy I knew:
     this girl was meant to be in my life.
      
     © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved. 

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  • Poem: Perturbed – 08/01/20

    Poem: Perturbed – 08/01/20

     The door perturbs me,
     it is my return into your life,
     you do not wish for any longer than a 
     few moments with me,
     but it’s a dead-end maze and the only way forward 
     is to you.
      
     My stomach drops with the dread which comes only 
     with my despair,
     I know the notion of being tied down to me is 
     unworthy of your review.
      
     I exist in a narrow corridor, 
     behind me was the path to this mess,
     like a surgeon attending to a clogged artery, 
     that beholder rushed me forth,
     choked muck oozing me into an open area which, 
     though mildly comforting than the last,
     is nothing which I want to re-explore,
     why must I resurrect the past?
      
     I know you wait, with cunning charm and 
     self-serving bravado, 
     there to smile upon me from behind that door,
     your smugness is disgusting, I cannot bear it, 
     the take-take-take action with my needs wholly ignored. 
      
     The emotional heaving I felt as I once 
     ached for your love,
     is now as dead to me as the nail hammered into an 
     obituary of your feigned feelings,
     your absent ability to treat me with respect,
     plain to see upon this door.
      
     Though, never was I truly yours,
     I received naught of truthful respect, 
     you were a farce, with our means of untidy connection,
     a bartering system in which I was the fool –
     the deck of cards always favoured you. 
    
     I'm sure your fork-tongued lies were always well meant. 
      
     My heart was too desperate, lonesome and open 
     to tease out the deception in your promises,
     your assurances,
     so, every once in a while, I’d come crawling back 
     and stupidly repeat the same choreography, 
     hoping for a different ending for this pining process.
    
     © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved. 
    
     Photo by Octopus soul on Pexels.com 

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  • Poem: The Wildflower Gatherer – 08/01/20

    Poem: The Wildflower Gatherer – 08/01/20

     she hunts for the perfect blossoms
     and odds and ends, she has uses for them
     those with strangely mottled leaves or browned petals, 
     a quick clip, rip, 
     now wondrous.
      
     lilies are her favourite, but roses?
     just magnificent, 
     in her front garden which she lovingly tends,
     she has built up a fortress of scents and shades
     that stuns the senses.
      
     I watch her from the front doorway, as she bends and plucks
     and snips and adds,
     immersed in a task she adores,
     suddenly, a subtraction: 
     one bloom falls. 
      
     discarded by the wayside, 
     that one shall perish. 
     I giggle to myself at his misfortune. 
     I can’t help it.  
     
     © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved.
    
    Photo credit: Myself  

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  • Poem: Pins and Pulp – 06/01/20

    Poem: Pins and Pulp – 06/01/20

     I have not been outside in days,
     huddled down in my cocoon I have encased myself 
     with stinging words and florid phrases,
     distinctive patterns to my ears,
     though perhaps not to others.
      
     Alone, I sing of times of freedom, absolution, and success,
     upon reflection, these moments were 
     anything but what I felt,
     I operated without thought
     compelled by blind impulse.
      
     I travel through my memories,
     each milestone like multiple pins spearing my 
     fragile, pulpy skin,
     these lumpy layers wrapped around my form 
     trying to keep the embarrassment in.
      
     It is easy enough to pluck the obliging weapons
     to watch the paper fall clean away
     and I am bone and sinew and muscle,
     each vein carries a pulse and a motto 
     where one must squint in order to readily discern.
     
     go forth go forth
     one repeats, red and richly
      
     never look back
     you’ll meet your match
     forget the past 
     other veins bleed.
      
     Hastily I grab the loose sheets to wrap myself anew,
     a mummy living before your very eyes,
     while bloodied, I heal enough 
     to reveal subtle poignant truths.
    
     But there is a filter which needs to be retained,
     a breathing apparatus which saves while one's submerged -
     for some revelations can only go one way.
     
     I decide I'm fixed enough,
     at least for now, I will rest,
     there's nothing left which I would like to say. 
      
     © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved. 
    
     Image credit: Eva Sandoval
     mixkit.co/@evasandoval 

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  • secrecy: a complex history – 03/01/20

    secrecy: a complex history – 03/01/20

     
     my life has been more complex than most,
     i need not list the paths and crevasses and cliffs,
     but there were terrifying pictures,
     so too were there visions of exhilaration and madness,
     some of fierce independence,
     and others of sheer bliss.
     
     rarely chosen by others, 
     the paths selected were mainly mine,
     i wound my way around complexities which I made that way,
     rarely searching for an interior perspective,
     instead presenting an outrageously picturesque view:
     assess what’s on offer,
     revelations, revelations
     under a freshly plucked non de plume.
    
    © 2020 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.
     All images signed “LMH” 
     are copyrighted 2019-2020 by Lauren M. Hancock 
     and all rights reserved. 

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  • Poem Trilogy: As Close as Could Be – 29/12/19

    Poem Trilogy: As Close as Could Be – 29/12/19

    Part I: The Ebb and Flow of Healing

     Press forth,
     her gesture whispered,
     you can do it,
     reach that realm.
      
     Her hand gently pressing the 
     small of my back,
     encouragement to reach that certain angel.
      
     An angel who would heal me,
     remove from me all 
     the pain and 
     suffering
     that I was feeling,
      
     brought upon me by a being 
     so nasty and calculated,
     I don’t know why or how I loved him. 
      
     With him I felt the drag,
     with her I was allowed to
     be myself,
      
     I could stay awake until three,
     write, draw pictures, sing, dance,
     do anything.
      
     Feverishly I wrote and wrote,
     wrote and posted, 
     in my crumbling state of 
     heightened illness,
     I made sure I was heard by my world.
      
     These people, I did not know
     who I had reached,
     whether I was well received
     or even understood.
      
     But the numbers didn’t matter,
     it was the act of self-expression,
     to be prolific in my work 
     was very important.
      
     It was most important 
     that the ideas were expelled from me
     like endless buzzes from a 
     curious yet insidious bee
     turned rogue wasp,
     I wanted to be belligerent in my exposes,
     to a certain degree.
      
     Because some needed to be spoken of,
     others needed to be hidden and taken care of,
     but I most needed healing –
     purging was my means of achieving this.
      
     Meditation also called to me,
     I practiced it religiously,
     sometimes thrice daily. 
      
     And once I removed the 
     sin from my system,
     forced upon me via devilish means,
     I felt a sense of tearing,
     a breakage within,
     I wept and wept as though 
     a staining upon my soul
     had been removed. 
      
     I healed in her presence
     but I still longed for the perpetrator,
     in both my mind and reality 
     he was the culprit
     but of my heart, 
     somehow he would be my saviour.

    Part II: The Cost

     He came into my life, 
     she came into yours,
     jealousy seemed to rear its ugly head.
    
     We had always had each other,
     but now we had lovers to occupy our 
     hearts and time,
     less and less did we see each other, 
     and when we did, 
     mostly talk did we of our others in our lives.
      
     Becoming tamer and more domesticated
     we calmed in times of love and lust,
     another’s hand to hold and to accept us
     for who we really were in life.
      
     They seemed to be more
     than our friendship could provide,
     but these unions came at a certain cost.

    Part III: Who I Once Thought You Were

     Who I once thought she was,
     is not who she is now,
     her new identity is now sharper, 
     harsher,
     well defined,
     strikingly and painfully real.
      
     Her care, love, and concern,
     dispersed to other sources,
     grown apart, it does seem,
     new friends in her current life courses.
      
     We were like slippery fish playing together,
     rolling in the deep, 
     enjoying each other’s company,
     slapping our tails playfully, 
     even taking on a curious eel 
     who simply wanted to grin.
      
     Then, prolonged silence, 
     we would no longer speak,
     for an age it would be that we would 
     not bother to take our fill of 
     each other’s words or efforts at counselling.
      
     Disapproval from both ends of the spectrum,
     who knew what was unfolding, if even anything?
     The silences initially made me angered,
     but I would not call, I would not give in.
      
     And so, I observe the changes, 
     not the physical, but the mental and emotional,
     it appears there is a great disconnect 
     and unsurprisingly 
     I can feel the presence of it. 
      
     My fellow slippery finned friend who was 
     once well featured in my life,
     where day by day we shared each other’s moments,
     then side-by-side we fell from one another’s 
     stories, both public and private. 
      
     And now it seems as though we are
     on the way to becoming strangers,
     it’s amazing how these things can unravel,
     this notion of being “best friends”
     it sometimes ends in upheaval. 
    
     © 2019 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved.  

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  • Poem: Together in the Next Life – 27/12/19

    Poem: Together in the Next Life – 27/12/19

     Helpless waves of injustice wash over me
     as though I am present in the front line
     of the battlefield
      
     where I am made to press forth,
     my life on the line,
     my squad leader thinks nothing of my sacrifice.
      
     As I hurl my body forward 
     into the hail of bullets,
     shrapnel pins my left leg down,
     I am in agony.
      
     My sister in solidarity knees beside me,
     cradles my head tenderly,
     whispering that I’ll be just fine,
     if I continue speaking.
      
     As the mayhem washes all around me,
     brothers and sisters they fall 
     with frightening regularity
     and it is with sadness and a deep pang
     that I feel the life flowing out of me.
      
     In the danger of the moment
     my sister cannot stay but she chooses
     to lay her life on the line
     for me,
     for our friendship,
      
     Bullets continue to hail down,
     like acid rain
     they corrosively reign upon her and I. 
      
     And her, my dearest, 
     who will never let me go,
     together forever,
     our lives will end as we know. 
      
     But while the battle rages around us,
     wave by wave the lines of soldiers
     are forced onto their paths,
      
     my sister and I,
     our love will eternally last. 
      
     © 2019 Lauren M. Hancock 
    also known as Alice Well. All rights reserved.  

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  • Poem: Cinnamon Milk – 26/12/19

    Poem: Cinnamon Milk – 26/12/19

     Cinnamon and sugar dusted over my
     warmed cup of milk,
     it comforts me, it makes my stomach smile,
     my grin shine, 
     have a taste of it yourself!
      
     I will prepare yours with the greatest of ease,
     dust and sprinkle it as I please,
     to present this to you with a glowing smile, 
     ahead of a stomach set to be full of liquid
     deliciously worthwhile. 
      
     And how about a shortbread biscuit?
     Santa left a couple on his plate,
     perhaps he’s on a bit of food restriction,
     heaven knows he’d been eating at every house last night!
      
     Paired with some cinnamon sugar and paired with some milk,
     enjoy your time together,
     this time of year is for family and friends,
     such loving proof, the mood overwhelms.
      
     Sip and nibble upon your milk and cookies,
     tell stories, recollect old memories,
     and remember past loved ones,
     who once sat in your spaces with bright eyes 
     and open hearts and expressions so warm.
      
     © 2019 Lauren M. Hancock 
    also known as Alice Well. All rights reserved. 

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