glimpses from an ivory tower
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since: 05-27-07, id: 569098, Profile Updated: 06-04-10
country: USA
Author has written 64 stories for General, Life, Nature, Religion, Love, Friendship, Family, Politics, Haiku, and Fantasy.

For the month of June, I'm embarking a creative odyssey, a quest to woo my muse. 30 poems in 30 days. Uncharted waters await. All poems will be posted individually in their respective categories on Fictionpress, but you can find the entire collection on my blog.

http://intothestrenuousbriefness.wordpress.com/

I am a girl made of metaphor, whose existence is punctuated by brief periods of artistry. Fiction is what I breathe, words steadily filling up my lungs, and so poetry is wound in the strings of my heart. I am addicted to adjectives and I lie to tell the truth sometimes, but we all do. I don't believe in abab rhyme schemes or politicians. And what remains to be told is found within my poems, because words are the only way to me.

The Golden Rule of Fictionpress: review unto others as you would have them review unto you.


1. Realms of Incandescence reviews
Late April, we roam the forest of ourselves, floating like dandelions, drifting on the smoke of dreams. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Fantasy/Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 139 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 7-1-10 - Complete
2. colorblind
losing his vision, he watches his palette shrink and feels himself going blind by degrees. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Horror/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 89 - Published: 6-30-10 - Complete
3. the ache of youth reviews
yearning for the forbidden. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Haiku - Rated: T - English - Tragedy/Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 20 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-30-10 - Complete
4. brine and beauty reviews
in the whorl of a nautilus, the ocean murmurs like a lover, seeping into your eardrums, flooding into your veins. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 128 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-28-10 - Complete
5. the beast reviews
tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme: born under a cursed star, she discovers that even beauty has thorns. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Fantasy/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 112 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-27-10 - Complete
6. Emerald City reviews
She teeters down technicolor side streets, a tornado whirling in her chest. Is it strange, to feel homesick for a place that is not your home? Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 82 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-26-10 - Complete
7. A Piece of the Continent reviews
His body has slept for fifty years deep beneath the hollow mountain, no longer asking for whom the bell tolls. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Life - Rated: T - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 96 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-25-10 - Complete
8. the gloaming hour reviews
lips, drenched with want and wild roses, ask me to paint the dusk with words, and how can I refuse her? part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 126 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-24-10 - Complete
9. portrait of the artist, as a young girl
woman cannot remake herself without suffering, for she is both the marble and the sculptor. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 89 - Published: 6-22-10 - Complete
10. New York City reviews
Paradise consumed by fire; what remains, except urban decay? Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Angst/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 80 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-21-10 - Complete
11. Goodbye
You are afraid the undergrowth of your heart strangles every living thing. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 29 - Published: 6-20-10 - Complete
12. Aubade reviews
While I sleep, you slip away, leaving sighs scattered in the corners of my room. But these words are proof, I did not dream you. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Poetry/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 109 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-20-10 - Complete
13. Laws of Attraction reviews
Gravity is not responsible for people falling in love. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 165 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-19-10 - Complete
14. Sylvia reviews
In those days, we were two mad girls, infatuated with death, and arrogant enough to assume we were the only ones trapped beneath the bell jar. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Friendship/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 194 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-17-10 - Complete
15. College Roommates reviews
Strangers meeting in a cinderblock cell, we unpack our boxes and neuroses side-by-side. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Friendship - Rated: T - English - Friendship/Hurt/Comfort - Chapters: 1 - Words: 168 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-17-10 - Complete
16. the patron saint of wrath reviews
here I sit, smoldering beneath june's blood moon, ranting at the sky; it listens to me better than you ever could. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Family - Rated: T - English - Family/Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 78 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-15-10 - Complete
17. Cirque de Moi reviews
Tonight, the sideshow takes center-stage, here in this hall of mirrors, squeezing my soul through a kaleidoscope. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Fantasy/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 286 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-15-10 - Complete
18. Hook
In Neverland, all the whirring, gold clocks have stopped but one. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Fantasy/Drama - Chapters: 1 - Words: 123 - Published: 6-14-10 - Complete
19. an open book reviews
your words, like splinters, lodge under my skin. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Friendship/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 120 - Reviews: 3 - Published: 6-13-10 - Complete
20. according to the garden reviews
rooted to the spot, my memory of you. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Family/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 129 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-11-10 - Complete
21. Pinocchia reviews
Puppet girl, you're just waiting for your strings to be slashed. Tanka. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Drama/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 43 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-10-10 - Complete
22. translating the night reviews
the rain is tapping a love letter on my tin roof. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: K+ - English - Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 89 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-9-10 - Complete
23. ordinary symphonies reviews
the soprano on the corner of m street huddles beneath the flickering spotlight as she sings the city to sleep. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 125 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-8-10 - Complete
24. the summer of crows reviews
if a pacifist shoots himself alone in a forest, do the trees woodenly applaud? blackbirds mourn your brother better than you ever could. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Family - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 217 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-8-10 - Complete
25. On Leaving reviews
History sleeps here, where the sofa cracks form a map of fault lines, sunken patterns telling the stories of why people leave. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Family - Rated: T - English - Family/Drama - Chapters: 1 - Words: 301 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 6-6-10 - Complete
26. The Insomniac reviews
As the world sleeps, he learns to dream in another way. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Haiku - Rated: K - English - Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 21 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 6-5-10 - Complete
27. Requiem for a Muse
Feverish and consumed by perfectionism, her voice vanishes from lack of use. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Poetry/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 171 - Published: 6-4-10 - Complete
28. After
Her suburban life, cottage-cramped, seems Grimmer than what Disney imagined. Time to break character. Part of June's Creative Odyssey.
Poetry: Fantasy - Rated: T - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 133 - Published: 6-4-10 - Complete
29. the green lady reviews
she lingers in her underground garden, wondering if the government will prohibit color next. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Haiku - Rated: T - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 29 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 6-4-10 - Complete
30. rites of mourning, songs of spring
a mother mourning, and the earth no longer laughs in flowers. part of june's creative odyssey.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 111 - Published: 6-4-10 - Complete
31. Ashes to Ashes reviews
Her ashen face unmasks her peasant heart, crumbling to cinders as she realizes the courtiers' prattle resembles the chitter-chatter of mice, but crueler. Finally off-hiatus.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 169 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 3-30-10 - Complete
32. twelve » reviews
and with every frantic blink of the strobe light, my memory of you flickers and fades before me.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 12 - Words: 1,796 - Reviews: 43 - Updated: 9-7-09 - Published: 4-13-08 - Complete
33. galileo's daughter reviews
I'm spinning out of orbit. it's midnight, and gravity is only a lunar dream.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 116 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 10-14-08 - Complete
34. painted midnight reviews
almost a villanelle: in the twilight of your soul, your secrets, like stars, are blurred and stolen. how they blind me at midnight.
Poetry: Friendship - Rated: T - English - Angst/Hurt/Comfort - Chapters: 1 - Words: 197 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 5-20-08 - Complete
35. geography of a heart reviews
unfamiliar terrain, this city I'm wandering in, where love is a drug peddled on every street corner, and the gates won't let me go.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 88 - Reviews: 3 - Published: 5-18-08 - Complete
36. wallflower reviews
she never quite caught the friday night fever.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 123 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 5-18-08 - Complete
37. prisms and prisons reviews
sometimes I slip inside a metaphor to escape the confines of who I cannot be.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 150 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 5-16-08 - Complete
38. the audacity of spring reviews
april 1st, the cruelest joke of all. how dare the earth be reborn while you are lying in a shell of dead wood! how can the seasons stomach it?
Poetry: Family - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 147 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 4-17-08 - Complete
39. Eden reviews
In the garden of Paradise, unknowing, you taunt me with forbidden fruit, the nectar of your skin shining sweet, like appleflesh.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 99 - Reviews: 8 - Published: 3-21-08 - Complete
40. how i live now reviews
no longer counting sheep, this self-induced insomnia has me wondering about the purpose of my ever-dwindling slumber and where my dreams have gone.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 92 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 2-22-08 - Complete
41. Don't Listen reviews
Prose poem. Within these lines, the words scream to fill my silence, shriek with all I am not saying, all I never will.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 1 - Words: 422 - Reviews: 8 - Published: 2-15-08 - Complete
42. These Orchards of Birth and Bone reviews
The fruits of their labor lie rotted at the base of each lightning struck tree. Peach sweet, never to blossom.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 71 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 1-5-08 - Complete
43. A Missive to the White House reviews
Your lifeless appeal to the American people is a red, white, and blue rhetoric. Washington is rolling in his grave.
Poetry: Politics - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 1 - Words: 233 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 1-1-08 - Complete
44. Pipe Dreams reviews
The letters assumed docile acceptance of the domestic symphony. But her dreams, grown from opium dens and in the Indian sun, are too big for chinaglazed Victorian ideals. She will not become another decoration in their beautifully empty homes.
Poetry: Life - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 145 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 1-1-08 - Complete
45. Congratulations, Columbus reviews
This is the New World holocaust we don't like to talk about, what conquerors, seeking gold and glory, carried across the Atlantic. The Nina brought disorganization. The Pinta, disease. And the Santa Maria, death to the native people. Our inheritance.
Poetry: Politics - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 175 - Reviews: 3 - Published: 12-31-07 - Complete
46. Star Show at the Cinema reviews
As you watch the meteors plummet across the screen, my gaze is locked on you like a star coming home.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 100 - Reviews: 6 - Published: 12-31-07 - Complete
47. seven ways to die » reviews
sylvia said, dying is an art, like everything else. inspired by the bell jar and lady lazarus.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 3 - Words: 394 - Reviews: 15 - Updated: 12-23-07 - Published: 11-23-07
48. holiday on skid row reviews
christmas no longer a holy day in your house, but a bitter reminder of all that you lack.
Poetry: Family - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 89 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 12-19-07 - Complete
49. ember reviews
and it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark. I'm on fire almost, I'm burning, but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Drama - Chapters: 1 - Words: 124 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 11-17-07 - Complete
50. Epistle to the Victorians reviews
Woman, without her man, is nothing. Woman: without her, man is nothing.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 167 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 10-9-07 - Complete
51. Vermilion reviews
Winter sunset in ancient Greece. On her underworld throne, Persephone waits for spring.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 148 - Reviews: 10 - Published: 9-2-07 - Complete
52. bitter lullaby reviews
even nursery rhymes are no longer sacred...rockaby baby was never so dark.
Poetry: Friendship - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 143 - Reviews: 6 - Published: 6-7-07 - Complete
53. Mellifluous reviews
I am envious of your flute.
Poetry: Love - Rated: M - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 101 - Reviews: 6 - Published: 6-2-07 - Complete
54. magnolias reviews
like the magnolias, you captivated me. though they've long since wilted, you still intrigue me.
Poetry: Love - Rated: T - English - Angst/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 83 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
55. watercolor days reviews
watercolor poets blur, but their words are etched like acrylic on my canvased mind.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 58 - Reviews: 9 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
56. trainwreck reviews
with the way man's been talking for centuries, you'd think the apocalypse was just around the corner. and who knows, maybe it is.
Poetry: Religion - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 260 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
57. the year reviews
oh caesar, I hate your spectred cage of divided time: these twelve months are too grand to fit in a pocket calendar.
Poetry: Life - Rated: T - English - Poetry - Chapters: 1 - Words: 512 - Reviews: 2 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
58. moon scream reviews
what have our footprints been, but scars?
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 102 - Reviews: 8 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
59. letters from walden reviews
even thoreau snuck back into boston for a glance at the new york times.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Parody - Chapters: 1 - Words: 117 - Reviews: 3 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
60. pandora's box » reviews
a series of sketches of classical figures, both myth and man: newest are icarus and socrates. don't ask me why.
Poetry: Religion - Rated: T - English - Fantasy - Chapters: 2 - Words: 116 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 5-30-07
61. epitaph reviews
bury me only if you promise not to look for these bones. and no, anna, this is not a suicide note, in case you were wondering.
Poetry: Nature - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 141 - Reviews: 5 - Published: 5-30-07
62. cocoon reviews
call me a suicidal butterfly if you will, but know that this prison is mine by choice.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 153 - Reviews: 8 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
63. cacophony reviews
chopin's exploitation of your ears never disturbed you before.
Poetry: Life - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 86 - Reviews: 4 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete
64. beautiful insomniac reviews
oh, to sleep, perchance to dream. But shakespeare seems to have forgotten we dreamers of the sleepless nights.
Poetry: General - Rated: T - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 141 - Reviews: 6 - Published: 5-30-07 - Complete