Silence
That’s what you called me…
then you slapped the curse across my mouth.
The bruises of your violations clung to my body, my mind –
they haunted me, made me fall into the void.
I became a thing of sickness, a vessel of loathing…
Putting a plaster on all the sepsis unhelpful like a backstreet driver.
I had to rip of the judged silence, and learn to scream, shout and
say with compassion: we will not be silenced now, or ever again.
Hanlie Robbertse is a South African born writer that uses her writing to give voice to topics such as mental health, depression, anxiety, grief, self-love, and other inspirational/spiritual themes. She is passionate about telling stories in creative form that can help bring change to the world and also to elevate those difficult things that are often not talked about openly or even shut down in our hurting world. You can find her at:https://www.facebook.com/IamHanlie
men are like matches
one scrape away from the next catastrophe
women
have been putting out their fires for as long
as anyone can remember
but enough is enough
and women finally said
let it burn
let them see the seeds
they’ve planted
come to fruition
so women stopped saving the world
and instead
they stood back and watched
as the fire danced around them
but unlike men
women were no strangers to the flame
and as the world burned
and the women chanted
the screams of men
fell upon deaf ears
I’m an artist, a writer, a vegetarian, an animal rights activist, and quite a few other things as well. I love books, cats, philosophy, good conversation, Chicago and the arts. So my blog is full of bits and pieces but it’s the bits and pieces that make life interesting to me. You can read more of my writing at Rethinking Life
In honor of its 5th anniversary, Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless are teaming up this November to sponsor a series of 30 daily creativity prompts, comprised of the titles of our 25 published books and four upcoming titles, along with a couple fun phrases to round it out. We think our book titles are pretty damn cool and we hope they spark your creativity. You are welcome to respond to as many that inspire you.
There is only one rule to the prompt challenge: the book title or phrase should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the title should be integrated into your piece somehow.
Note: Some of IB books have fabulous subtitles. Want an extra challenge? Try integrating the subtitle into your response
It is our honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless . We welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompts.
Writing can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDF
If you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of our favorite sites for royalty-free images.
Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless, a short biography, and any links you want shared.
As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad is an anthology of poetry, prose, essay, and art inspired by the unprecedented events of the year 2020. It embraces fierce and raw creative works relating to life during the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, and the economic uncertainty and horror of the last eight months. One hundred and fourteen writers and artists spanning ten countries and 30 states are represented in this powerful volume. It is both a story of survival and an act of resistance.
“As the World Burns is an outstanding collection of prose, poetry, and art that brilliantly illuminates the monumental events weighing upon our world, it’s communities and families, friends, and neighbors. The anthology gives a voice to myriad emotions that have settled into hearts and souls worldwide, yet stick in our collective throats, unable to be spoken, leaving a wake of communal helplessness. As The World Burns has accomplished the difficult task of translating our grief, fear, anger, disillusion, and uncertainty, into a glorious tapestry shining with strands of hope. The commonalities feed our sense of community, optimism, and promise (Allie Nelson – Redbird “there is not much constant in nature but effervescent change, I am the bones of winter, and it’s only in planting beauty that we can hope”).
Within each piece, I found a passion that echoed my perceptions, whether the subject matter was racial injustice (Robert Okaji – If We Burn “and which assemblage of words could reorder these deaths into comprehension”), pandemic (Aakriti Kuntal – Forward “because sometimes just breathing again is moving on”), climate change (Rachel Tijou – I Don’t Recognize This World “earth crumbles with the weight of our greed”), police brutality (Erin Van Vuren – Revolution “You were never meant to be a tragedy. You are, and always have been… a revolution.”), greed (A. Shea Holding On “if we only held on to life every day like we do when we are afraid of losing it.”), or political division (Dustin Pickering – The Price of Power “being is timeless and belongs to us all”).
This collection deeply reverberates my spirit of hope, that together, we can lift one another up and work towards regenerating a world that values life, nature, peace, equality, reason, and truth.”
–Laurie Wise, blogger, A Wise Woman Writes
To purchase As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone
Was it a kind of osmosis
cultural absorbing
leaning to color devils
bright red, crimson?
Now I see so many
red faced and
fiery eyed
spittle spraying
from screaming mouths
consumed, roasted
like those devils
in fire of hate
but there is a hell
behind the mask of hate
a torment of fear
and as in those old pictures
of the ruler of Hell
stoking the fires
leaders, so many
fanning the fears
making hells on Earth
Robert G. Wertzler, 2023
Bob Wertzler is retired from nearly twenty years in the mental health field both in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist,” seems to fit. In 2006 Bob retired (again) to move to western North Carolina to help and become the primary caregiver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was much work at various times as a soldier (US Army 196770), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, among other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip it’s been” But there is a life beyond work and keeping fed, clothed, and sheltered, and for him that has been much involved with reading, writing, and listening. He learned to read and love books from his father reading to him at bedtime and gradually transitioning to Bob doing the reading. It was not generally those things called “children’s books” that he remembers most, although there must have been some. Instead, his sharpest memories are of the works of Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson (what six-year- old boy wouldn’t want to meet a real pirate like Long John Silver?), Robert Heinlein, Louis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway (age seven, devouring The Old Man And The Sea), and many others. Nothing school presented could hold a candle to those storytellers. Bob credits whatever skill he has as a writer to those experiences and those examples absorbed as if by osmosis. One more favorite, this, from Bob Dylan: “he not busy being born is busy dying.” His recently published poetry collection, The Comment Poems is available at Lulu in paperback and eBook formats.
where fire sleeps
rounded belly, lidded eyes
a surprise, blitzing in post war stockings
loss sold by the bale
songs of loss sound beautiful
underwater where titan lulls
his shamrock iris reflective
children see ghost horses on waves
they say dandelion seeds
are less wish than fancy
still, one strong blow, scattering hope
a dress of blue and mauve
in the iris of the world
your gentling touch
a giant among men this creation
eating pomegranates without remorse
a woman without pause
rests against nothing
she only has her crimson skin
piqued in scorn, who knew
the silk of 6 thousand worms in dirt
held her up so tall? by moon
she spins her universe in taut
arabesque form, would you listen?
old truth from new throats
urging like crocus against
first layer of frost.
Born in Europe, Candice Louisa Daquin is of Sephardi French/ Egyptian descent. Daquin was the Publishing Director at the U.S. Embassy (London) before becoming a Psychotherapist. Daquin is Senior Editor at Indie Blu(e) Publishing, a feminist micro-press and Editorial Partner with Raw Earth Ink. She’s also Writer-in-Residence for Borderless Journal, Editor of Poetry & Art for The Pine Cone Review and Poetry Editor for Parcham Literary Magazine. Daquin’s own poetic work takes its form from the confessional women poets of the 20th century as well as queer authors writing from the 1950’s onward. Her career(s) teaching critical thinking and practicing as a psychotherapist have heavily influenced her writing. As a queer woman of mixed ethnicity and passionate feminist beliefs concerning equality, Daquin’s poetry is her body of evidence.
Indie Blu(e) Publishing 