Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings

No place like…

PHOTO PROMPT © Fatima Fakier Deria


I grew up on an island. My family’s business was fish.

All us kids had jobs. Mine was collecting fish guts, tails, heads in a bucket; bait for the next day’s catch.

I hated it; the salty air, the fishy smells and slimy ooze.

When I graduated from college I landed my dream job and settled in the city, as far away as possible from the coast.

My company recently transferred me to its new office. “You’ll love the view,” they said.

Funny! Ended up where I started but with a bird-eye view. Have to admit, I do love it.

kat – 30 March 2017

For Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers challenge based on this photo by Fatima Fakier Deria.


Doors – A Haiku

auras could mingle,
presence, just a breath away
before there were doors

-kat – 29 March 2017

For Haiku Horizons Challenge based on the prompt word, “door”. 


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 26 March 2017


Another week, another Sunday. It was an emotionally exhausting week. I realized late on Friday that I have been holding my breath since November. Well, not literally of course. That’s not something I would recommend. But I have been holding my breath, figuratively, watching the world crumble with each executive order, congressional bill and lie that has gone unquestioned and unchallenged.

Some of us dodged a bullet this week. We, as in 24 million people still have healthcare; we, as in senior citizens, immigrants, the mentally ill, refugees, women, mothers, and those who hope to be. It was a tiny victory, but the battle rages on. While I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, the world lost innocent souls to terror from radicals as well as from coalition forces. “Bombing the hell out of them…” as our fake president likes to boast, is not a sustainable nor advisable foreign policy, especially when innocent victims are part of the collateral damage of such actions. It only makes things worse.

I breathed on Friday. For the first time in months I didn’t feel helpless or hopeless. Resistance to this speeding runaway train is not futile. Still, those wielding power in the name of privilege, greed, hate and yes, even religion, will not let go of the reigns willingly. But they mustn’t win. It’s personal. It’s important that those who are suffering know that they matter. It’s important that they feel loved and that they know there is a seat at the table for them, for all of us. Because we’re in this together; because…Love is all. ❤

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 26 March 2017

what are your intentions?
it is the sweet things
heaven’s awaitin’
selling love over death
death disguised herself in fleeting sweetness
sometimes what you search most for
(is) first to root in frosted earth
breeze by, nose upturned,
they whisper in soft kisses
sleeping with me, then leaving,
what was it with these people
proving they are fools
especially one whose gentle nature informed her conscience early in life
Love is all

~kat

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A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week. 😊


Esoterica – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

esoterica.png

Happy Friday. Today’s Dictionary.com word of the day is Esoterica. But I couldn’t resist the word of the day for yesterday…Throttlebottom (Definition: a harmless incompetent in public office.)! What an awesome word. Oh how I wish we used these types of words today. How enjoyable the nightly news would be if our journalists embraced some of the other obscure, descriptive words featured as words of the day. I wish I had time to research each one. Here’s a sampling of the last week or so…

Breaking news from kat’s imagination: “Today was a most cimmerian day for the nation. The halls of congress were a-twitter with crocodilian calls for justice in response to the latest canard from our vaunting, throttlebottom of a president. Meanwhile the lotus-eaters were oscitant to this developing malfeasance.”

Even if the news is bad, at least it would be entertaining.

But back to our official word of the day, Esoterica. It is a noun that evolved from the Greek adjective esōterikós which means “belonging to the initiate, inner, esoteric” with a “distinguished history in ancient Greek philosophical systems (Pythagorian, Aristotelian, Stoic).” The English noun form is attributed to poet Ogden Nash who used the term in a 1930’s poem published in The New Yorker, referring to the obscenity trials over James Joyce’s Ulysses. It is defined as things understood  by or meant for a select few; recondite  matters or items.  Or curiosa (books,  pamphlets,  etc.,  dealing with unusual subjects, including books, pamphlets, etc., containing pornographic  literature or art; erotica).

I like this quote from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, “Life is a conundrum of esoterica”.  It literally means that life is a confusing and difficult problem, question or riddle, understood by or meant to be understood by a select few. I think it captures the meaning of esoterica perfectly!

Unless of course it is a skin cream. Esoterica the moisturizer promises to lighten dark (brownish) areas on the skin, such as freckles, age and liver spots and other skin conditions that result in localized high concentrations of melanin.

Or a Black/Heavy Metal music band called Esoterica from Pennsylvania…or the now disbanded UK Christian rap/West Coast hip-hop, Dance/Electric band called ESO for esOterica…or the name of a secret cult of humanoid characters, with access to alien technology, able to span dimensions, called the The Flame Keepers’ Circle in the gaming world’s story of Diagon. But I digress. 🙂

My job today is to come up with a haiku using today’s word of the day…Esoterica. Skin creams, Metal/Alertnative/Rock bands and video cult circles aside, I am mulling around the idea of applying estoterica to the current secretive nature of our government. With the added bonus of yesterday’s word, throttlebottom, you get a two-fer this week. Have a great weekend!

daft throttlebottoms
bellow esoterica
proving they are fools

kat ~ 24 March 2017


Twittering Tales #22 – 21 March 2017

About the challenge:  Each Tuesday I will provide a prompt, and your mission, if you choose to play along, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less.

If you accept the challenge, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale. A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing us a new prompt.

Have Fun! 🙂

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Twittering Tales #21 – The Round Up

Photo by Pixabay.com

Last week’s tales are fabulous! We even had a few new folks join us. Who knew that antique typewriter had so many stories to tell? Apparently you all did! Thank you to everyone who added their voice to the conversation.

From Michael at Morpethroad

If only, if only,
that one elusive word.
willing it to leap out
I know it’s on the tip of my tongue.
I wonder, could it be?
Darling, I need you!

(139 Characters)

From Nicola at Sometimes Stellar Storyteller

Horror-scope
The typing started at 11:58pm. It stopped at sunrise. Some found my luck unnerving, some mind-boggling. My morning preface never let me down

(140 Characters)

From Irena at Books and Hot Tea

She typed, sighed, and crumpled another paper. The typewriter wanted to sigh, too. It could tell her what to write, if only it could speak.
(140 characters)

From Lady Lee at Lady Lee Manila

One simple word that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Once that is lost, it will never be the same again. The ground for respect – TRUST!
(136 Characters)

From Peter at Peter’s Ponderings

It starts with one word
which nobody heard.
’twas typed by a ghost
and sent in the post.
The ghost, a poor sinner
was hailed as the winner!

(135 Characters)

From Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes

Hemingway, in the heavenly Writers’ Corner, sullenly one-finger types, shooting murderous glances at the newbies with their Mac Books.
(134 Characters)

From Martin at Martin Cororan Blog

Every morning the same missive: “Is that you Jimmy? I know you poisoned me! Goddammit! Why couldn’t I have possessed something with Wi-Fi?”
(139 characters)

From Kirst at Kirst Writes

each letter a clatter
word follows word
aching fingers growing stronger
stories gradually getting longer
word after word after word

(130 characters)

From Di at Pensitivity101

Writer’s block.
Everyone gets it.
Inspiration would come through sleep.
When she awoke, the prompt was there.

(106 characters)

From Kathryn at Another Foodie Blogger

As punishment for texting in class I was told to sit down and finish the sentence. I couldn’t find the return key.
(114 Characters)

From Mick from Mick E Talbot Poems

GUILTY
it caught him out
forensic evidence
it was the type
the crime plagiarism
his words not my typing
case now closed
he got done for swiping
not typing

(140 characters)

From Sangbad at Thoughts of Words

A missile impacted somewhere nearby. The flame of the candle quiver. She needs to complete the next episode to earn bread for few more days.
(139 Characters)

From Patty on Twitter @pjstemple

She warned she’d speak. He laughed as if to challenge her. She relished the feel of the keys as she typed the first word: Abuse
(127 Characters)

From Reena at Reinventions

It starts with one word – dreams. It grows into ambition, success, greed, obsession or crime. The end depends on how the world reacts to it.
(140 characters)

From Bikergurl

If only you’d write the words to set me free. Instead, you allow me to languish without you in obscurity – longing only for your touch.
(135 characters)

From Carol at Writing and Works

It started with one word. What it was exactly, I can’t remember. The world perhaps. The universe? This? Us? All of it from one, little word.
[140 characters]

From Lorraine at 25 Words More or Less, two very different tales.

It starts with one word, whispered. More words, voices create hateful sentences, paragraphs of lies. Fiction becomes fact; untruths become real. (142) [21]

Ancient artifact captures the imagination of an inquisitive child. Taloned green fingers tap rhythmically on rusted keys. (120) [17]

From Deek The Cool Bookworm at Jot the Thought

He found the old typewriter in an attic. He began writing. As his name features on the bestseller’s list, his grandfather beams from above.
(139 characters)

From The Grateful Dead

It starts with one word…it ends with one too. LOVE – a complete story in itself.
(82 characters)

From Francine at Woman Walking Max

“Horror-scope”
Madame Clair Voyant ” for you I see woes, money troubles, your home gone. Georgina ” George the bailiffs are outside! ”
(96 characters)

From Julia at Trailing Something

I write what people tell me, whether that comes from their hearts, souls, minds, or a God above. I don’t know why or what point I’m making.
(139 Characters)

And from me

The former owner of the old house was a writer. Ten years after his death he finished his novel. The author’s name? Ghostwriter, of course!
(139 Characters)
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Twittering Tale #22 – 21 March 2017

I can spend hours looking at photos for the prompt each week. Eventually I know I’ve found “the one” when I keep going back to it. That’s how it was with this week’s photo from pexels.com. I love the bright, mismatched clothing that this old woman is wearing. She is very spring-like. Or maybe she’s a witch or an angel or just a crazy old bird lady. Who is she? What’s in that satchel she’s carrying? Where is she going or coming from? Help me solve the mystery with your twittering tale this week. I have to warn you though. You may find that you have more to say about her than a tweet allows. I know I did. But remember you only have 140 characters to bring her story to life. Most of all, have fun. I can’t wait to read your stories. 😊

Photo from pexels.com

My Take…

Eternity’s Midwife (Dedicated to some compassionate Hospice volunteers I have known.<3)

Miss Nellie had a way with birthin’. “Laboring takes long as it takes,” she’d say. When time came she’d sigh, “go on now, heaven’s awaitin.”

(140 Characters)

~kat