Category / writing

by J.L. Smith

It’s Getting Real, Folks

You know you are a writer when you are afraid of the words you have written. I am looking at you, fellow writers. I think many of us have had a work that has hit us hard. You know it. You slayed that first draft. In my case, 98,000 plus words, and as difficult as that task was, I know I am not anywhere close to being done. So, I roll up sleeves and dive in.

Say, good words of encouragement for me, folks.

So, the work will no longer remain nameless.

The Fleeting Lights’ origins started in 2004. Oh yes, it has been chopped, reformed, restructured like that mystery meat in a MRE. But, alas, its first draft was finished the first of this year–and darn it–the second draft will be completed by the end of this year.

I put myself on the spot.

Second draft read starts now. Pray for me, LOL. 0 pages in.

Progress to be posted soon.

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: Title Poem

Excerpt:

But, the tree grew anyway,

healing from the switches

taken to its base,

growing during the rainy seasons

when we nourished it.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: Severing Roots

Excerpt:

I dug deeper into the earth,

severing roots that were never fully connected,

ones that I thought that were a part of me.

 

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: Weeds

Excerpt:

my side of the garden endured,

as I scraped back bare soil:

the earth I once remembered,

the remnants of what I started with.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: The Breakdown

Excerpt:

Matter weathered

by the elements,

crumbling like us,

to the ground,

where we both originated.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

 

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: What Remains

Excerpt:

Alone,

a prisoner of my own making,

I allow you to keep me hostage…

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: The Edge

Excerpt:

I hold myself from the edge

not so you can be the one to save me,

but save myself from you.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: The Grave

Excerpt:

So, I left the table,

seeking another restaurant,

only to have them follow me,

said that I could never leave,

until I told them

I never asked them to stay.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

 

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: Iron Maiden

Excerpt:

I put myself

inside

to flee you,

only to entrap myself…

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323

by J.L. Smith

Cast Out of Eden: Doll

Excerpt:

Like she did to the doll now,

but the glass hands are cold now,

feel brittle to the touch,

fragile,

as if they could break

with just one careless move.

Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323