(“Tapestry”, 2025, original encaustic)
Have you ever been taken in by the story
Delivered some place foreign and strange
Yet familiar and true?
Of course you have, as all humans do.
Vocalized, visualized, subliminally dreamed
That is our lot.
From bedtime stories to books and movies
Our lives leap gladly into the novel.
And oh what awaits us there!
Portals and corridors
Into what transcends the individual
And so transcends even our humanity.
I dreamt once of being a bridge
Literally not figuratively
And I’m sure I’ve also dreamt of being
More animate nonhuman things
The dream after all
In all its animate and inanimate forms
Is simply a creation of our mind
Our mind made illusively flesh and fiber
Fueled with all the tinder of waking experience
But brought to a frothing boil
By something more
Something that only comes alive
Taking form and shape
In the telling.
(11/15/25)
mysteries are all over the internet
these stories have been popular for decades
I rarely watch a mystery show twice
I never read a mystery novel a second time
after knowing who did it and how they did it, what would be the point?
most seek happily ever after
rich prince on the white horse
or princess who can spin straw into gold
these tales are invaluable
to our health
hey is that Cinderella?
Dear Terry Goodkind,
You gave so many heroes to me,
But I know that in my mind
You will be always a hero for me!
Your wise novels have opened my eyes
And shown me how much I can realize;
I’ve never read such things before,
You are my hero therefore!
You are the hero who showed me
How pure and devoted love could be,
How hard it is to find the truth from time to time
And keep our mind open all the time!
Wizard’s rules that you were able to create
Are full of wisdom; they are so great!
Now I live by those rules all the time
And try not to break them anytime!
I didn’t like reading until you;
Now I love it and say, “Thank you!”
Your stories are so interesting and clever,
So I can read them again and again ever!
I definitely know
This hero will never die at all
While his novels live
In somebody’s mind and soul!
In memory of Terry Goodkind
November 19, 2020
Romance novel Sally could never find a real cowboy
Who was secretly a wealthy billionaire.
Manga Margie searched in vain for the waiter who
Was posing to be poor, hiding his riches in offshore accounts.
Anime Alba never fell in love, because she spent her life
Looking for the prince, who never appeared to give her a red rose.
Worse yet, she never met her hilarious sidekick either.
Lives that were wasted, waiting for non-reality that made
Reality seem like a waste of their time.
Real men gave up, after realizing they would never measure up.
But at least Romance Novel Sally, Manga Margie, and Anime Alba
Had their comics, their Netflix and their cats, right?
Some of the sexiest women are Vargas’s 1940 pinup girls,
They are drawn with long hair, sensuous legs, and the right kind of curls.
Enhanced in all the right places, there is nothing that exudes sex faster
Graphic drawings of cattish women are not the kind you put out to pasture.
Do you remember Cat-Woman drawn fearlessly by our old friend Stan Lee?
Hallee Berry brought her to life, but the one who graphically created her was he.
Betty Boop, a cartoon femme fatale’ had style, and sex that could make a sailor blush,
Disney’s artists’ did not draw a Tinker Bell without perky boobs and a little tush.
I believe graphic novels and cartoon classics are here today to stay,
Because the sexy superheroes – both men and women make the reader’s day.
Captain America and Batman have those enormous abs, and a teeny waist.
Jessica Rabbit’s ‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way,” was not penned with any haste.
Written 11-18-2018 Contest: Sexy Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Lewis Raynes
self-inspired scriptures
of godless religion
written by heretics
Reading the heavens.
The sky is God's open book,
every star His Word.
````````````````````````````
Ps. 19:1 & 4 "The heavens declare the glory of God...
(4) Their voice goes out into all he earth, their words
to the ends of the world."
.
They huddle on shelves like sardines
crammed in cans
even hungry paper lice are prevented
entry into their literary leaves.
Novels are an aggregate of grey matter
whose ingenuities maw muted
narratives for willing eyes;
Taking us vicariously through fictional
Plots unfolded by actions, speech and thoughts
of fictional characters at our leisure.
An immortal genre whose fame is enduring
as long as there exist authors that write them
and well-read people who read them.
red hat on shelf
read mysteries under
Ready to guess again
In my youth I'd often read
The novels of other men
That told the glorious deeds
Of heroes, and their friends.
But it wasn't long it seemed
I'd read all the best ones
Or, at least those so deemed
by others that's been done.
Then, I came upon that writer
I consider to be the best
Who writes of love, and fighters
Of adventures, and of tests.
Countless stories not etched
On parchment or on scroll
Nor drawn on hides stretched
Or, even in legends told.
These novels cause inspiration
Or can steal it like no other
They can inspire determination
Or, cause brother to hate brother!
They walk on your city streets
Written on the fabric of time
Etched in days, not on sheets
And unfold in countless minds.
They're in the library of life
In the here and now they trod
And written through great strife
By that greatest author, God.
Timothy I. Brumley
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