Challenge: Daily Inventory 2021

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January 2021

1/5/21

Warm Up #21-001

He murmured sweet nothings against her temple. She just huffed and burrowed against him.

"I'm cold." She was wearing a coat, but frankly, this hometown of his was coated in deep drifts of snow and much colder than winter at their own house.

His arms came around her and held her close. For a few moments, neither of them said anything at all.

Finally, "You're different here."

He drew back, looking at her with a glint in his eye.

Now that she thought about it, she remembered that glint. He'd been quieter than even now when she first met him, more liable to express his emotions with a fist or a harshly delivered but kind gesture.

"It's not bad, you know," she added on further consideration, "to change."

Noah blew out a sigh. "What makes you think I've changed?"

She slugged his shoulder gently with one mittened fist. "Take the compliment."

"Was it one?" But the amusement was back in his voice.

She leaned up on her tiptoes against him and kissed him.

1/6/21

the tenor (poem)

there is silence in the quality of your demeanor
and stillness in the tenor of your voice
and grace in every movement and expression
a calming peace to make the heart rejoice

I take comfort in this reassurance
I find relief within your warm embrace
when your arms will hold me or your gaze
shower on me that sweet and perfect grace

God of impossible (poem)

hope comes up out of nowhere
springing to life in my heart because
my God is the God of impossible things
no matter how dark before dawn

where my heart (poem)

don't tell me where my heart lies
or steal my voice for yours
I will not lie down nor die
but rise in prayer, stand forth

Warm Up #21-002

The night was unseasonably warm, stars twinkling overhead in the canvas of darkness, moon scudded behind a cloud, its dim light barely enough to see by.

Mayati picked her way across the encampment, caught with an undefinable restlessness.

Blue and Gold, or Interlude 21-001

Fandom: Tower of God

AO3 NB, 184 words


Golden moments strung together, sweet and glowing in the light of every good memory Khun had.

He didn't usually let himself think of himself as a kid, but he knew that's how others saw him then—a seventeen-year-old member of the Khun family, sheltered in his own way from life outside of the Ten Families, experiencing the Tower for the first time.

It was nothing. It was bloody and ruthless, weapons and sharp edges, strategies and broken rules. He'd lived that life from before he was ten, fought for survival and the right to call himself a Khun. He'd earned his name, and betraying his sister couldn't change that. Betrayal was in his blood.

No. That wasn't the new, the fresh, the shocking. That was the warmth of brown eyes, a gentle trusting voice, a determined naive boy who'd looked at Khun and called him friend.

Khun hugged Rachel, cold ice in his veins. She was blue and blood in his heart—the same ruthless life and death dance he was born to.

Because she was the reason Bam's golden warmth was only memory.

1/15/21

hard to be (poem)

I'm alive
sometimes that's a hard thing to be
sometimes—
I'm a hard thing to see
sometimes—
I feel I hardly breathe
the air in my lungs
it's been getting kinda weak
have you seen
inside my brain this week?
it's looking for the oxygen
before the day they all cried when
before the day the sun again
went behind the clouds

you figure it out.

pour out (poem)

this is the life I live
I've got something to give
I open my soul, pour out
will you catch me now?

sunlight (poem)

NB, 8 lines

catching sunlight
on my fingers
in my mind
the moment lingers
light displayed
and frayed and mingled
over the canvas
feel: it tingles

1/17/20

Focus on What is Possible (devotional)

SMP, 226 words


"But Jesus looked at them and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" — Matthew 19:26 NKJV

It's easy to see all the obstacles in our way when looking ahead to our day or week, instead of knowing what it is we feel God has moved us to do and accepting that it is Christ who provides the strength and resources to do it.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." — Philippians 4:13 NKJV

It is the Holy Spirit who provides the wisdom and guidance on how to do it.

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left." — Isaiah 30:21 NKJV

It's easy to get locked into our human ways of thinking that are not like God's ways of thinking [Isa. 55:8] and forget that He is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" [Eph. 3:20 NKJV].

So this week is a time to focus on remembering who our God is, that Christ is the power working within us, and that if He has given us aught to do, then it is God who will make the way. And knowing this:

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" — Romans 8:31b NKJV


The Right Eye of God (ficlet)

Canon: Lineage

NB, 155 words


Light burned the backs of her eyelids. She squeezed her eyes even tighter shut against the approaching armies marching toward her village. She clenched her fingers around the stone, and hissed sharp, painful breaths in and out between her teeth.

She could do this. She could do this!

She had to.

Naikuro was of the chosen lineage, touched by the god her clan served. She saw with the right eye of god.

She opened one eye and looked through brilliant blue brightness, felt the pain of visions intruding upon her brain beyond what humans were ever designed to handle— Devastation. A wilderness of her homeland. Her people staring back at her horrified and equally devastated, but... Alive! Their homes gone, charred trees scarring the sky, the earth broken beneath their feet, but alive!

Naikuro felt it bubbling within her flesh like smoke and opened her other eye, black and burning. The right eye of god.

1/19/21

keep on walking (poem)

SMP, 8 lines

I really am a lot of things—
but one thing I have learned:
never let go of your dreams
nor the miles you've earned!
Walk and walk and keep on walking
forward through the night,
because if you just fail to stop,
one day you'll reach the light!

1/20/21

(poem)

see notebook

Still We Trust (devotional)

SMP

see link

1/26/21

We Are Queens (fanfic)

  1. We Are Queens (Queen's Thief): AO3, 562 words

1/31/21

What May Be (poem)

A book of what may be
What ifs inside of me
Mirror hopes and dreams
Printed out in reams

too closely (poem)

best not to look at me too closely
to ask too pointed questions with your tongue
to breach the veil of memory of young
minds yet to have blossomed in the sun

February 2021

2/1/21

On a Dark and Stormy Night (MCU)

DW

It was a dark and stormy night. Maria Hill, Deputy Director of the world security organization which knew not sleep, entered her apartment with a tired sigh and saw what looked like a dark figure in the flash of lightning that suddenly brightened the living room.

She was too tired to be scared, too tired to care much at all. She picked up the baseball bat she left conveniently by the door for such a time as this and swung.

"Whoa! Maria!" Thankfully for their very young relationship, Steve Rogers was very good at dodging flying objects.

Much more awake now, Maria flicked on the light switch and shot him a baleful stare. "Are you trying to get yourself hurt?"

"I was trying to surprise you." He looked rather cute and innocent and puppy dog eyes in his...

"Are you wearing an elf hat?" Maria blinked. The whole outfit was rather Christmassy. She thought she had a few more days before the day itself to sort out the right kind of thing to give your boyfriend on your first Christmas together.

"I made dinner."

Now that he mentioned it, something smelled rather good. She leaned over the counter to glance toward a table set for two. Candles out. Candle lighter out.

"You should light the candles before you turn off the lights. Fire safety." But Maria couldn't help the little grin on her face as she let him help her out of her coat and offer a massage after if she was still awake. A questionable proposition at best.

And really, it was a pleasant surprise after all.

2/7/21

Chocolate Box Treating

  • How Does Your Garden Grow (Original): AO3, 1350 words
  • The Sharp End (My Next Life as a Villainess): AO3, 680 words

Commission

  • Interlude in a Library (Queen's Thief): AO3, 816 words

2/11/21

Chocolate Box

  1. Conversations Without Words (K): AO3, 932 words

2/13/21

Chocolate Box

  1. As All Can See (TOG): AO3, 836 words
  2. For Good, Logistical Reasons (Scholomance): AO3, 608 words

2/15/21

Chocolate Box

  1. They Fought or They Dated, or It's Complicated (BNHA/BSD): AO3, 2642 words

2/18/21

  1. Point and Shoot (MCU): AO3, 626 words

March 2021

3/3/21

  1. Underwater (No. 1 for You): AO3, 100 words
  2. Greater than the Sum (TOG): AO3, 640 words

3/7/21

Between Apocalypse (poem)

Perhaps we die
Perhaps we cry
Our voices lifted
To a sky
Painted with
A brassy sheen
The sunset color
In between
One apocalypse
And the next
Written in
An ancient text
Perhaps we live
Perhaps we give
Our hearts, our souls
Just to forgive

Undefended (poem)

Bridges built, so quickly mended
Things once thought but not defended
Hopes and dreams of sometime peace
But never letting go to cease

Ringing Me Back (poem)

I hear the chime of the bells
Ringing me back to my chains
Calling my duties out loud
I take breathing moments in vain
For just when I find me to breathe
It's time to go swimming again

tides (poem)

waves in, waves out
the tides of my mind
flow as they flow
until a new find

you find me (poem)

For K and B

broken
in pieces you find me
gather my heart and draw me
I can't walk away
do I want to?

save me
do you know that you saved me?
and then you were torn from my arms
and I need you to save me again

quietly
I'm lying in wait like a lion
biding my time for destruction
dreaming of you
and only your face

honey (poem)

the honey-colored sweetness

a taste of nuts and chicory:

the lightness on my tongue,

a hint of what could be—

the words that trip around

rich and dark beneath

the truth of what I mean

if you think (poem)

if you think that you can break me, guess again
I know we used to call each other friend
but I have walked this splintered road alone
and ne'er forgot the way to go back home
home is where my heart is and my soul
for these things always, ever are my own

over the bones of the world (poem)

draw me, sketch me out—
like the backbone of a poem
over the bones of the world
light me and shade me with color—
nerve endings bright with the knowledge
shared between all at my fingertips
and the soul of my brain—
I hold out a light, not in vain

adapt (poem)

truth is not flexible
but it adapts
I sink onto stone and I wait
anchored for whatever comes next

3/8/21

let there be light (poem)

I will not weaponize my soul, my pain
I will not hold you accountable for my name
I will not be taken without a fight
And through the darkest hour, let there be light

Gatekeeper (poem)

Soul whispers quietly: do I hear it?
Yes, but let me tell you I don't fear it,
For I am the keeper of keys and 'tis my tongue,
Decides what shall not pass, though it is young.

In the window (poem)

Light in the window burning,

yearning,
turning

toward me where I can see it,

touch it,
hold it

in my soul as though in my hand.
Do you understand—?
The light fills my eyes
and colors my night
and opens my life:
it is so bright
to cast out the pain
of another day
and another year
of lessons gained,
to hold to the good
and let go the bad.
Light in the window
was all we had.


Did I forget...? (poem)

Guess I didn't actually forget
how to write a poem: I
was wondering that.
It's been so long since ink on my hands
wandered by way of the poetic,
since thoughts in my head
felt something not eidetic
nor delightfully fictive.
Am I broken record?
I said to myself just the other day
and did not turn to go myself
out by another way—
this is the sort of thing that drives me
to open up windows and gates,
peek outside and look in the mirror,
to see if the feeling abates.
You remember the way we always
used to talk, my soul.
You always questioned; I always answered:
the truth was (not) always known.
And never forget the whole of equations:
For You, O Lord, I give the throne.

Morning Prayers #001 (poem)

Good morning, bright world! Good morning, my God,
The light of my life and the source of true love:
I feel it inside me, the beat of my heart
Tuning me gently and helping me start.
A new day is dawning; I need to love You
And my fellow man in all things that I do.
And Lord, I pray, help me to keep pushing through.

a wall (poem)

I hit a wall and here I stop
to lean
against the brick-strong hard defense
against me
I can live with this I think
if I can rest

...finally...

this is what it looks like when
I'm made to stop to breathe

words (poem)

so many words
I'm full of them really
perhaps you'll forget me
forget all the things
I said and regret me
I stand here in silence
and silently mouth
all the words still within me
they never run out

like an earthquake (poem)

it's been a drought and I've been quiet
pandemonium broke up my thoughts
like an earthquake shaking me
shaking my world
richter can't measure it
the earth was in tatters
tumbled and battered
my heart and its matters
a new mountain range
this feeling so strange
the magma within me
poured out over forests
poured out into oceans
boiled the earth and
I have been quiet
the drought lingering gently
like whispers on breezes
and now here I am
unshaken at last

heart beat (poem)

yes,
tell me all about it
the best
moments don't stop beating
your heart,
my heart, they're keeping time now
please
keep dancing here with me

3/9/21

To Do (poem)

NB, 12 lines

Things that I'm supposed to do:
I drink a cup of tea
Before I start the brand new day
(This thing I do for me),
I open up my eyes and heart
To do the things for you,
I put out fires one by one
As we all must do.
I hope your day is lovelier
Than mine promised to be,
Because, my dear, you are more dear
Than I am here to me.

Morning Prayers #002 (poem)

Good morning, world: I see the list
Unwinding before my eyes already
I feel a need to grasp God's hand,
Lest things get unsteady
And so I pray, good morning, God
Please grant me a little peace
And guide my steps within Your love
Through every coming thing

Okay (poem)

This is the thought that brightens my day:
I know in my heart that I will be okay
If God brought me through the rest of my past
Then He's got my future, from now 'til the last

Warm Up

Hope was one of those things that woke her up in the morning, got her out of bed, and made light the troublesome load of dreams she had to shake off. She sipped on her tea, warmth settling through her limbs, as she shifted weight from one foot to the other in the kitchen, back and forth, an eternal dance.

This was habit. She had a lot of those. Life could be run on habits.

3/12/21

100 words of AWOL

  1. Where, O Where Could He Be? (Riftspace): FFA NB

3/14/21

  1. Tell It Like It Is (We Best Love): AO3, 300 words

3/21/21

because I must (poem)

I'm awake and I don't want to be
I'm up because I have to be
the day that stretches over me
feels just too big to see

I open heart because I must
surrendering because I trust
left regrets within the dust
and walk this road I see

instead (poem)

good morning, world and family
and brand new day: I want to be
tucked away in comfy bed
but here I am, awake instead

between (poem)

hand me a map of the world
between the geographical center
of all the known lands where we must work
and the edge of it all where "here be dreams"
I find myself in between

Reaction Shots, 3/21/21

  1. Come to Me (We Best Love): AO3, 100 words

3/22/21

Lie Beside Me Still (poem)

For GSD & ZSY

Take a moment. Stay with me. Be with me. Just breathe.
Lie beside me still, while the song keeps playing.
Don't pay attention to the words I'm saying.
I dip my toes in the pool of you: the water isn't warm.
I never met a body of water I couldn't swim in, if you'd just swim it too.
You don't have to love me, for my heart will still survive,
if only you just look at me and let me look at you.

off my chest (poem)

sometimes I've gotta get this poetry off my chest, so I can breathe
only then can I capture another sense in relief
only then can my eyes believe and properly heart receive
a different taste and masquerade to bite between my teeth

the sound of (poem)

I hear the sound of a pot of tea
singing it is done
I hear the quiet rush next door
of a fan still left to run
I hear the click, the clack of keys
to words upon more words
the ambience of a new morning
in all the things I've heard

These Walls (poem)

Eventually, maybe you realize that I am a mess
That all this pushing away is not just a test
But walls I live behind to keep me safe
Is not a way to decide who goes or stays
You and I with laughter make like friends
I hope these days of laughter never end
But in between the hours, I hide my heart
A turtle in her shell: the way things are

Reaction Shots: 3/22/21

  1. Believe Me Now? (We Best Love): AO3, 100 words

reel with it (poem)

I'm awake and I'm not feeling it
don't really want to reel with it
my very body's feeling it
the weight of the new day

I'm up but I'm not dealing yet
the cards bound to my hands and then
a clock sounds off, no healing it
it's time to start this day

someone tell me (poem)

someone tell me there's a light at the end of this tunnel
I swear, I'll believe you
I just need to hear the words from another's mouth
I just need to know that I might have some worth
that maybe my existence is not a problem
a problem to me or a problem to you

Wrong (poem)

Maybe we started off wrong,
A discordant song—
Forgive me please,
I'm sure it won't take long
Before we part our ways again and then
You can forget I ever
Was back when

Devotionals, 3/22/21

  1. Every Morning: Maker, 310 words

3/28/21

Meant to Be (poem)

What if I could teach you how to say these things?
Give your feelings wings?
Maybe feel relief?
Promise you that there is nothing wrong with you
When the things you do
Are what you should do
Promise you that you were meant to be
The one I always see
Looking back at me

April 2021

4/4/21

Another Fine (poem)

Another fine morning! How do you do?
Hope you understand that I'm praying for you,
Rooting you on, hope you make it through
Another fine day, like you always do

Droplets in a Cup (poem)

Small things add up
Droplets in a cup
My cup may overflow
With these moments that I know

bring treasure (poem)

I'm up! to the bell, I sing
I hope the new day will bring
Goodness, even treasure
Like peace beyond all measure

4/8/21

brilliant with light (poem)

I am awake, alive, in the cold dark halls of myself
I am brilliant with light, burning high up on a shelf
I carry the candle back down into my heart, like or else
has finally ended the night where I slept until you were felt

in the quiet parts (poem)

wake me up in the quiet parts of the day
when words well up within me, with more than I say
when all is unfolding, in its own bright way
when the weight of the world is beginning to weigh

to find words (poem)

keeping silence is my way of not needing to find words
needle sharp in the dark, pinpricks of light that burn
upon my open palms, leaving prints against the night
cascading blooms of color, fading in my eyes

4/12/21

something in the daylight (poem)

I breathe
there's something in the daylight
waiting for me
singing bright
like the sweet song
of morning birds
like gently floating
cloud herds

4/18/21

choring (poem)

I am awake
I'd rather not be
it's time to get up
do what we must: we
are walking in circles
going 'round constantly
all that's been done
must be done again

the things I say (poem)

I like to say the things I say
sometimes, but mostly don't
my active tongue since I was young
is just a thing I won't
e'er be free of, if you know me
it's something I have honed

get up (poem)

time to get up! said the little bird
wings all a flutter and bright
time to get up! go away, I said
but could not escape the light

Fic, 4/18/21

  1. We Get What We Deserve (Original): AO3, 6196 words

4/20/21

Bright String of Pearls (poem)

Mornings are for waking up,
Pulling together—
Being strong

Endure the days that come along
(Bright and shining,
A pearly string)

Chained together... everything
My eyes could see,
My heart could be

a chance (poem)

you never spoke my name so sweetly
endless days in spiral dance
around my heart, its painful beating
waiting: please give me a chance

coin of the world (poem)

the coin of the world spent
on wasteful things
the hope another coin
arriving brings
take the sun in hand
don't mind the stings
day after day, just one
for anything

a nod (poem)

I am what I am
that is, odd

I like what I like
that's a nod

my bruises are all open
up to God

you are what you are
I applaud

4/21/21

Fic, 4/21/21

  1. Four Part Harmony (Original): AO3, 5072 words - 4/21/21

May 2021

5/27/21

Queen (poem)

Honey, do you understand I am a queen?
This is my world I made, just look between
Those lines, that ink, the words I do not say
Are where my heart and feelings love to play
Do not deny my kingdom nor my might
To rule when imagination takes its flight
On soaring wings— O let my heartache roar
Until what brought me here can speak no more

To Do (poem)

I have more writing to do
In the dark night
Don't come in here to wake me
Just stay out of my sight
Until the tip, tap, tapping
Brings in computer glow
The words my heart is fighting
To let the world know