It gives me great delight to welcome poet, Samantha Terrell, back to Patricia’s Pen. This visit Samantha blogs about her writing journey. Without further ado, it’s over to Samantha.

My Writing Journey

Samantha Terrell

Thank you very much for your interest in my poetry. I’m honored and humbled by the gracious support of my readers and fellow writers.

To tell a bit about myself, writing has been the one hobby I’ve consistently enjoyed for as long as I can remember. I excelled at creative writing in school, but I also have a heart for social justice. So in university, I earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Sociology and began working in human services. However, I never stopped writing in my free time. Merging my passions was a natural fit, which is why I say my poetry emphasizes self-awareness as a means to social awareness. Eventually, with my…

Bio: : Jeffrey is a journalist, essayist, historian, pessimist, writer & poet. Loves to write sonnets and his favorite writers are John Keats and J.D. Salinger. He also writes short stories and gothic style fiction. He writes non-fiction from growing up outside of Boston in the late 1960’s. He can often be found at coffeehouses, auctions, any book events, Mike Plant’s awesome barbecues in the Summer. R.I.P. to my long time writing friend Roger Crane who taught me everything about Pink Floyd and one of my favorites Queensryche. Oh, and I’ve met actor Michael Easton from One Life to Live and was surprised how nice he was. I’m a huge soap opera fan and a big time fan of the character “Victor Newman” in which I have written about before oddly enough.

Julia’s Dream except it was Jeffrey’s Dream and he dreamt about Roger Waters after drinking too much and…

Train coming in

Bio: Aideen Henry has been published in the Irish Times, the Stinging Fly and broadcast on RTE Radio 1. She was shortlisted for the Hennessy XO Literarys Award, the Francis Mc Manus Award and received a Literature Bursary Award from the Irish Arts Council. Her two collections of poetry, Hands Moving at the Speed of Falling Snow, and Slow Bruise, were published with Salmon Poetry. She is working on her third collection, A Bloodless Field.

Plasticity

Movement carries you 
yet you can’t feel it; 

in your bed
the earth turning as you sleep,

as a babe 
in the clinch of your mother’s arms,

on an elevator, a train 
a plane, once it’s under way, 

in the slow deformation 
of spinal discs as you age,

in a declining marriage 
before anyone discerns.

Family Vault I tell the children I own half the house; their father will…

Introducing the Main Characters in The Oath

Who is Françoise Angélique Dubois?

Françoise is one of the main protagonists in The Oath.

She was born on 23^rd March 1895 at Vue de Jardin in Penketh, a fictional village in France.

She’s a stunning looker with gorgeous emerald eyes and shining long chestnut brown hair that runs loose and wild when blowing in the wind.

When Françoise’s not running carefree through cowslip, she likes to spend time with her best friend, Geneviève, sharing secrets while embroidering cushions.

Françoise’s family are close-knit, with her parents still very much in love. Françoise hopes to find this same kind of happiness when her time comes to take a husband.

Her dreams are shattered on her seventeenth birthday when Papa announces Playtime is over. Seventeen is old enough to wed and bear a child.

Françoise is bound by a one-hundred-year…

Bio: Kushal Poddar, the author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ has eight books to his credit. He is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Rot

All day I have been hearing my voice
ricocheting in the silent solstitial house.
It is like a mewling cat caught in a trough. 
We hear from every apartment until we do not.
And then we understand death. 

I used to keep a bowl of cat food
at the chut's mouth. The bowl had 'Hope'
inscribed on it. An overflow of ants 
startled me. The bowl was shattered. 
I washed my hands again and again,
opened the medicine cabinet, rattled
the orange vial of the pills all expired long ago. 

Rain Violence The shrapnel of rain struck against the tarpaulin of a makeshift shop pierce my state of being. All day, a day that…

The fleeting
winsomeness
of good advice
not taken,
but considered,
leaving a taste on the
back of the tongue
like stately wine
too arid for
untutored palates
suffused with
sweeter vintages.

Kathryn Lasseter is a retired college professor who, after many years, has recently returned to writing poetry.  Her poems have appeared in Heimat Review and are forthcoming in BarBar and Stone Poetry Quarterly.