Something Wicked...

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2025/10/friday-writings-201-on-halloween.html

Something Wicked This Way Comes

I smile, I made it past the witching hours

Without my powders and my potions

Perhaps I am mixing up a spell of peace inside 

Magical dreams and savoured time

Not that I want to forget where I have been 

Who I have met - who helped, who hindered

Stopped me from enjoying the magic of distraction

I don’t say, but I remember every minute of it

It made me smile, feel at home

As if I had found the magic inside after years of questing

The broken glass

The bare feet 

The magic in my soul 

Perhaps I do have the power to believe in myself 

I took a chance on a stranger so maybe there is no difference in believing in you 

I smile - happy as a carved pumpkin

With a candle in her belly. 

Eternal And Unchanging

https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/2025_10_29_archive.html

Eternal and Unchanging

The power of words and stories are eternal and unchanging 

They give meaning to a meaningless life

Form and structure to nothingness

Order to chaos

Names to time and space

Your hand in mine is certain and sure

Soothing -  like well worn glass

Stroked along a rigid scar

Like your eyes, clear and focused on the truth

That we all leave in the end is certain 

Even you, dear Alice, will one day be forgotten 

Or at least misremembered and moulded to fit 

Wherever your Rabbit Hole lands 

One day you will know the peace of that Rabbit Hole

Turning into a beautifully tended grave

A place where you can rest - and grow

Like apples in the summer

Perhaps there is no such thing as permanence

Even wanting and longing fades after time

A dream becomes a memory

A memory becomes a dream

Perhaps that is why I turned pain into a physical remembrance 

A mark and line

A malformed limb and body part

But even that meaning changed

Was taken from me 

Just like childhood - a time I am very glad did not last forever

Though in many ways it has

An eternity of anything would become a curse in the end

So we must skip through seconds

Meander through minutes

And say hello to our hours.

Halloween Haibun

In whatever way we relate to it, let’s celebrate this Halloween with our own haibun of horror! Let’s write our haibun alluding to Halloween!

https://dversepoets.com/2025/10/27/haibun-monday-10-27-25-halloween/

Halloween 

In the autumn I come alive. The brown leaves whipping around my sturdy boots. A warm coat tucked up to my chin. A sense of purpose in my stride. I always seemed to land on the other side around Halloween. Tried to carve pumpkins as if I was normal. Cat O’Lantern I remember. But I was far from normal. Perhaps. A different kind of trick and treat rumbled in my past. 

My face scarier than any costume 

Now I am old I love the oranges and browns. The crisp leaves crackling like electricity. The wind waking me up. Sleeping with the windows open. Snuggled up and warm. Perhaps it is a season to celebrate. An awakening. Of course, says Alice. Squeezing my hand. 

Bright night candle shines 

I will ignite you and smile 

All will be well now. 

Ten Line Poem

 

For Poets and Storytellers United

Our optional prompt will invite you to write something about, or including, the number 10. And/or write a 10-line poem.

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2025/10/friday-writings-200-to-power-of-ten.html

Ten Line Poem

Ten can be colourful chalk marks, etched into the ground

Tracing out a hopscotch board

A little game we can jump and move in free as birds

Ten can be your birthday

It can be a day to remember -or one you choose to forget

Who cares about ten candles

When the gift at the end of the day flies from the fist of somebody’s anger 

Not celebrating your being at all

That is why now we bake ten beautifully risen cakes for ourselves 

Full of love and celebration for all we were - and who we continue to be.  

Adventures With Alice - Paperback edition published

Just to add another link (maybe I am finally getting my mojo on with technology!) 

The paperback version of 'Adventures With Alice' A journey from addiction to recovery. Is now available both in the UK and overseas. 

The Amazon link is - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXGPZ1P3?ref_=ast_author_dp&th=1&psc=1

Or through my author page -  

 https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jae-Rose/author/B0FX27W8RP?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=e321cdc3-8467-423a-9cbb-3591a6f43ba0

Thank you 

Jae

Pandemic

For What's Going On 

https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-days-we-stayed-apart.html

When the world closed down

I was silently happy 

Not about the disease -

But how people became more careful

Respected personal distance 

Washed their hands 

Covered their mouths

It correlated with my logic somehow

It is never comfortable being too near people, no matter the landscape  

For me, walking on empty streets became quiet and absorbing 

A meditation of sorts which put a distance from my personal demons

Gave me a full stop and an opportunity to change 

I saw people tucked behind doors and windows

Looking out on their temporarily changed world

I had my books, stories, words

They made me feel safe and at home

Like I had a world to lose too

Of course, my head was not clear back then 

So who was I to feel safe and more free than others

It was a dystopia not of my making (for once)

That thought gave way to having and becoming more 

There will be many more pandemics of that I am sure

But they will resolve as every crisis inevitably does 

Perhaps next time lessons will be learnt and knowledge shared

Dis-ease is a sad fact of life but we do manage - personally and globally 

Through every mutation we must always face the challenge 

And try to keep one step ahead of the game.

 

Cherry Blossom Time

For Dverse - Your challenge is to make up your own name for a micro season, such as ‘it’s raining again’ or ‘it’s still too cold to plant potatoes’, and write a poem about it, with the micro season’s name as the title. The form is up to you, from free verse to sonnet, but I would like plenty of detail.

https://dversepoets.com/2025/10/21/poetics-creating-our-own-micro-seasons/

Cherry Blossom Time

In cherry blossom time

Soft petals fall from the sky 

And settle on your face

Like freckles, or a sprinkling of icing sugar

Left on your lips after eating the sweetest vanilla sponge 

The white-pink petals of cherry blossom time feel magical 

In cherry blossom time the world feels safe 

As if we are now watching Wonderland 

Not falling back into its puzzles and riddles -

That makes us smile

 

In cherry blossom time 

There is a gentle pink light 

Soft and yielding 

Like blushing cheeks

It feels as pleasurable as shaking hands with a falling cloud

In cherry blossom time 

It is not too hot, not too cold

That takes away the pain -

Inside and out

The falling petals, the soft blanket on the earth 

Are a reminder that life is forever moving 

Turning over and over again

But if we care to join it, we can.

Sparkle

For Dverse 20/10/25 

The prompt for today is sparklers. Let it be the spark to ignite your imagination. Give us a sparkling verse of 44 words only. You could wax eloquence about your car’s  sparkplug or a sparkly dress you own (or covet). Use any form of the given word and write us a poem of exact 44 words (not including the title).

https://dversepoets.com/2025/10/20/quadrille-234-a-sparkler-of-a-day/

Sparkles

Do you remember the sparkles and glows

When we walked in the city tunnels 

They were tucked in the heels of the little girl’s shoes

We followed them so we didn’t get lost

She giggles - of course silly, I followed the sparkly shoes too.

Good News!

Hello to all my blog friends, especially those who have stuck with me through the years

My chapbook is now available at Amazon 

- Adventures with Alice - A Journey from Addiction to Recovery - Jae Rose

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FX1YV41P/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14AU62C35OLJB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UK_LgAGVtyXRfRqCddD8jA1RQAt8FDSMq-ky9teE6m8.Zwh0JMHThDyI2G-_IN3LyE1quK_LZmheuPQSMc06xNc&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventures+with+alice+jae+rose&qid=1760931617&sprefix=adventures+with+alice+jae+rose+%2Caps%2C84&sr=8-1

- I had to add a minimal price in order to do it but hopefully it's not too expensive should you want to read

Thank you 

Jae

Gut Punch

For Poets & Story-Tellers United - we invite you to write poetry or prose inspired by the phrase “gut punch”, figuratively or literally.

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2025/10/friday-writings-199-gut-punch.html

You know when you lose things -

It feels like a gut punch

As if breath is stolen from your chest 

And what was once something that you could survive

Becomes heavy - a creeping black spider

Crawling over your struggling body

I think now is the time to rub that bruise

With aloe vera and tender fingers

Say to myself  - I am worth gentleness

Compassion towards my body and mind 

There are so many trips and falls 

So easy to disappear in Wonderland again

But with thought and time

What felt like an adventure becomes a vortex of emptiness

Sad and dangerous days which were given false meanings 

Perhaps that is not the most important part of my story 

What if now, each day, each keyboard letter typed out

And pencil mark made on paper is what counts

The words will change, evolve, develop

If only I practise enough 

To get out of the muddy ditch, look up and out

And stride towards making my words clearer

Sober, understandable - not just mumblings of mis-spent evenings 

Tumbling, confused and distanced

Now is the time to unclench my guts and lay the punches to rest.