books – Morrighan's Muse

Boarding Pass

Published on August 25, 2020August 25, 2020 by MorrighansMuseLeave a comment

Today I found your boarding pass tucked in an old book
Along with a receipt that told me how much you paid
And as you smile at me and give me that look
I remember it rained that morning, I remember the love we made

I remember how I wished you wouldn’t leave
I still remember every promise that you said
You told me not to cry and instead to believe
That tomorrow you’d be back again, warm in my bed

Fifteen years ago now since you made that promise
It’s been fifteen years since you returned
Every day since then you’ve been my solace
Every moment with you was a moment earned

For sometimes we have to fight for what we want
We have to take a stand no matter how afraid we feel
Fifteen years ago today, the memories still taunt
Fifteen years ago, we found the strength to heal

So I found your boarding pass tucked in a book today
It’s a reminder of a time so long ago
When we almost let our hurt take full sway
Before we hung on, held on by our finger nails, then let go.

book case

Published on May 8, 2017May 6, 2017 by Liz4 Comments

for my birthday, i want a bookcase
where i can live a different life
page after page
each treasured book a sweet escape
never one to lose my place

for my birthday i want a home
where i can live and not be afraid
like i always am
each day the same unflinching reality
another unfulfilled life on the lam

for my birthday i want to be happy
for life will be short
from here on
i’ve fallen far from where i started
but from this moment on, I’ll be reborn

To Kathryn

Published on January 13, 2016 by MorrighansMuseLeave a comment

books

“When a writer falls in love with you, you can never die.”
–Mik Everett

I guess when someone you love dies naturally
everything just slows down –
today her heart rate slowed, her breathing stopped
and just like that, she was gone

but in my heart she’ll live on forever
even immortalized on the page
I just can’t help it for she was always there for me
the sweetest woman, a gentle sage

and in all my books, I always see her
sometimes unintentionally
but she lived such a life, and without fear
that writing her in just comes naturally

and as imperfect as my stories are
typos still left unnoticed on the page
it doesn’t matter now, not anymore
she’ll live forever; she’ll never age

Riley’s Red Wagon Book Swap

Published on December 10, 2015 by MorrighansMuse2 Comments

Every time I walk past this little red wagon, I can’t help but look through the selection of books to see if there’s something I’d like to read. Then I remind myself to drop off a book or two in exchange for the ones I picked out.

Yesterday while my walking buddy found The 36-Hour Day, a guide for caregivers to those with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other related conditions, I picked Lincoln, the screenplay version in a book and I can’t wait to read it!

“…Reading A Good Book Is the Most Nourishing Thing You Can Do”

Published on January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 by MorrighansMuse4 Comments

Sitting at my doctor’s office – because this year is the year I’m finally taking care of myself – I spied this quote from one of the magazines in the waiting room.

Benedict…gotta love him!

I’d Pick Elizabeth Gaskell

Published on October 17, 2014 by MorrighansMuse7 Comments

Today, Audible.com asked the question, “If you could read only one author’s work for the rest of your life, who would it be?” They also said that it could “easily be the toughest question of the day.”

Probably, if one had many authors to choose from – Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens all the way to the contemporaries like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabaldon, and so many more. However, it didn’t take me long to pick one author I wouldn’t mind reading for the rest of my life.

Elizabeth Gaskell.

In November 1865, when reporting her death, The Athenaeum rated Gaskell as “if not the most popular, with small question, the most powerful and finished female novelist of an epoch singularly rich in female novelists.” Today Gaskell is generally considered a lesser figure in English letters remembered chiefly for her minor classics “Cranford” and “Wives and Daughters: An Every-day Story.”

Gaskell’s early fame as a social novelist began with the 1848 publication of “Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life,” in which she pricked the conscience of industrial England through her depiction and analysis of the working classes. Many critics were hostile to the novel because of its open sympathy for the workers in their relations with the masters, but the high quality of writing and characterization were undeniable, and critics have compared “Mary Barton” to the work of Friedrich Engels and other contemporaries in terms of its accuracy in social observation.

The later publication of “North and South,” also dealing with the relationship of workers and masters, strengthened Gaskell’s status as a leader in social fiction.

via Elizabeth Gaskell: Biography.

I bought the complete works of Gaskell for my e-reader and I’m taking my time reading her stories, beginning with the obscure ones. I’ve already read North and South, but I can’t wait to read Mary Barton, as well as Cranford. I loved how astute she was about the social changes around her, the plight of the poor workers, even if it put her at odds with the general thinking of the time.

So, yes, for the rest of my life, Elizabeth Gaskell would be perfect.

Who would you pick?

Character, I Think, Is The Single Most Important Thing In Fiction

Published on October 12, 2014October 15, 2014 by MorrighansMuse11 Comments

JamieandClaireOutlander

“Character, I think, is the single most important thing in fiction. You might read a book once for its interesting plot—but not twice.”

– Diana Gabaldon

Lessons Forgotten

Published on October 8, 2014October 13, 2014 by MorrighansMuse5 Comments

Even the most laid back and egalitarian among us can be insufferable snobs when it comes to coffee, music, cars, beer, or any other pet obsession where things have to be just so. What are you snobbish about?

He was a judge, a councilman,
my grandfather.
He taught me how much
the written word
mattered,
that good books read
helped one’s spirit grow,
excellent books devoured
only strengthened what
the soul already knows.
But when he tore that
Harlequin romance paperback
in two,
he told me that among great books,
there would be trash, too,
that none of them would enhance
a brain that continued
to always grow,
so read only the best, he said,
that’s all you need to know.

But if grandfather
were still alive today
would he like what he’d see?
What would he say
of the Kindles and the iPads
with their trashy books within?
Would he gnash his teeth
knowing I’ve gone past
Harlequin –
when he’d find out that among
the hundreds of books in my e-readers –
even the best,
there’s a trashy tale hidden here
and there, tucked in
with all the rest,
of whips and chains
and sex and gore
He’s probably rolling in his grave
right now –
for there’s even more.

Daily Prompt

Dust

Published on September 3, 2014 by MorrighansMuse7 Comments

500 years from now, an archaeologist accidentally stumbles on the ruins of your home, long buried underground. What will she learn about early-21st-century humans by going through (what remains of) your stuff?

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I have way too much stuff,
more than can fit in this little cottage.
Too many books, more than I can ever read –
of stories, there is no shortage

and if someone might one day dig in
should they really be that interested
they’d find nothing but dust where paper had once been
belonging to one so terribly afflicted

for the love of words, and of wondrous tales
if only they’d been passed on and on
for paper, it crumbles into dust and nothing more
just dust, and then it’s gone.

Daily Prompt