Future Love

Tags

awareness, dreams, feelings, Flash Fiction, future, heritage, humanity's future, learning, love, poetry, robots, secret

My take on the Prompt-Love from last week’s Flash Fiction competition at Scribblers.

 

Young Girl Seated

Amedeo Modigliani

Date: 1918; Paris, France

 

Aurora stepped into the library and began to peruse the aisle market Classics. In 2118, paper books were only found in libraries. She liked to feel them, and turn the pages, instead of swiping the arrows on her digital appliance. The old worldly smell of the books fascinated her, and as she flipped through the yellowed pages, she wondered how many pairs of eyes must have read the words printed on these ancient tomes.

The title of the book said Sonnets, rhyming words that sounded like a lullaby. One word kept re-appearing, love, something she had to find out about.

The robot librarian approached her and scanned the tablet in his hand. “Aurora Ellis, your preferences show you’re into sports and inter-galactic thrillers. You must be in the wrong section. I’ll guide you to your favourites, away from these dusty antiques.”

Aurora fluttered her eyelids. “I’m doing a research on this ancient concept called poetry.” She pulled out her tablet from her backpack and showed the robot her assignment, signed by her instructor, Mr Shelby.

The robot studied the validation and replied in his monotone electronic voice. “I see. If you need any more help, I’ll be around.”

Aurora took a deep breath and silently thanked Basil, her classmate, for hacking into the school system to create a false assignment.

Love was a word from her recurring dreams that had begun to haunt her. It wasn’t a concept learned at home or taught at school. Mr Shelby talked about the poets from ancient times and how they composed an arrangement of words in a certain rhythm. Musical, with a set measure, that somehow stayed in her memory, like the lyrics of songs she heard on old recordings.

Why was love so important then, and not so, now? What was the difference between like and love? Aurora liked her friends, her parents, the books she read, and the games she played with or without her classmates. Did she like them all the same? She decided some were stronger. She liked her parents more than those of her friends’, and her friend, Alma, more than the other girls. Basil was her favourite among the boys.

She scanned the shelves and found a book titled Famous Quotations, inside which there was a section called Quotations on Love. She took the book to a table and began to read.

“Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Bound”
“We love the things we love for what they are. —Robert Frost, Hyla Brook ”

Aurora read for a couple of hours, trying to memorize the quotes and copying the longer ones onto her tablet. When she left the library, her head was full of love. Yet, she had to experience the warmth, the spark and the feelings the ancients talked about. Someone had said, “Love is the most profound human feeling.”

She ran to Basil’s house, and once inside his room, she quoted: “You are my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest.” ¹

“What, are you mad?” Basil said, rolling his eyes.

“I’m quoting from W.H. Auden.”

“You’ve been reading too much poetry. Get real!”

“I am real. I love you, Basil,” she said and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Basil pulled back and blushed. She could see the spark in his eyes and feel the warmth that spread throughout the room. Aurora giggled and rushed home.

Her mother met her at the door. “Where have you been, Aurora? You’re late.”

“I was at the Library, Mum. Reading.” Aurora wrapped her arms around her and whispered in her ear. “I love you, Mummy.” Her mother patted her back, lifted her chin, and looked into her eyes. Teardrops landed on Aurora’s face.

“I knew you’d find it, ” she said. “It’s our secret.”

Aurora experimented the power of love on her best friend, her pets, and on her father the following day. The results were the same. Sparks in their eyes, warmth and comfort. They shared her secret. She remembered a quote from The Little Prince. The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart. ²

No wonder the Leaders were trying to turn humans into robots. They were afraid of the power of love, but they didn’t know humans carried it in their hearts since the beginning of time, regardless of restrictions, and shared it only with the ones they loved. Shakespeare was right.

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark… ³

Aurora dreamt of love at night and the quotes that would guide her throughout her life. The secret she would pass on to the next generations for the most profound feeling humans are capable of experiencing.

 

References:
¹ The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
² W.H. Auden, “Stop All the Clocks”
³ Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare

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Happy Winter Solstice, Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year! The Pomegranate Tree

Tags

awareness, Flash Poesy, new year, oneness, poetry, pomegranate tree, prosperity, Season's Greetings

Something from the past!

sebnemsanders

The Pomegranate Tree

The crimson blossoms of

the pomegranate tree in springtime,

turn into magical red globes during summer,

giving us ample fruit with sparkling ruby seeds inside.

A treasure within a treasure,

a chest within a chest,

one that contains many,

each seed from the heavens,

a sacred gift of Mother Nature,

heralding prosperity, nourishment, and health.

Let’s tie many coloured ribbons on the tree of plenty

and make wishes for happiness, peace and oneness.

Although Saint Nicholas has his home in these lands,

he’s busy carrying gifts to other children around the world,

but will be here on the 31st to celebrate

New Year’s Eve.

Let’s hope our tree will attract

 the birds and creatures upon Gaia and

when the gathering is complete,

with a full audience,

we’ll crack the pomegranates on the ground,

spreading prosperity around the globe,

to all the children and people of the world.

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Subzero Temps Bring A Harsh Reality to Homeless Plight at Sleep in the Park Event

Tags

awareness, charity, cold, fund-raising, homeful, homeless, omp, One Million Project, sharing, sponsor, supporting, winter

A noble act of charity supported by OMP, One Million Project. Many thanks to Sheena Macleod, an author and One Million Project Administrator, for this blog post. 🙂

theonemillionproject

Emma Short and Emma Park joined 9,000 other participants on December 9^th for Sleep in the Park, the world’s largest ever sleep-out event.   Organized by Edinburgh Homelessness Charity, Social Bite, they slept in the sub-zero temperatures under the stars in Edinburgh’s city centre with the aim of raising £4m to eradicate homelessness in Scotland.

Emma Short and Emma Park were excited to take part by sleeping out in the cold overnight along with the other participants to gain some insight into what type of conditions homeless people experience every day. They planned on taking two sleeping bags and two camping chairs.  Emma Short thought she and Emma Park would drink hundreds of cups of tea between them in the effort to keep warm.

Sheena Macleod, an author and One Million Project Administrator, interviewed Emma Short about the event and their experiences.  Emma’s story about the night follows:

“The event was…

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Ripples on the Pond

Tags

anthology, awareness, bite-size stories, collection, debut, experience, Flash Fiction, human stories, life, lunchtime stories, ripples of existence, Ripples on the Pond, short stories

 

Ah, finally the Paperback and the Kindle editions of my debut book, Ripples on the Pond, are combined and the ‘Look Inside’ feature is working for both.

Amazon link:

Amazon Link

Amazon UK link:

Amazon UK Link

 

Here is the blurb for my collection of short and flash fiction stories:

 

A man infatuated with ivy. A woman pining for lost love. In a Turkish square, ancient buildings lament a devastating explosion. An unlikely friendship struck up with a homeless person. A journey to a magical place that once visited can never be found again. The camaraderie between the patients in a cancer ward. A writer who has lost his muse. A tragedy that leads to dementia.

These are just a few of seventy individual tales set in locations straddling continents, which portray war, love, hate, hope, greed, revenge, despair, humour, mystical happenings, fantasy, and so much more. Like ripples expanding on the surface of a pond to reach its banks, they converge in this anthology of flash fiction and short stories by Sebnem E. Sanders in her debut release.

 

Edit: December 7th, 2017 19.07 GMT+3

A day to remember / Tarihi bir gün

 

Ripples arrives home

Yay, the most expensive copy of Ripples on the Pond has arrived in Marmaris. Thanks to UPS. I can’t describe the joy of holding my book in my hand. The cover and design look great, David J Meyers. I’m forever grateful to you. 😍

Kitabımın en pahalı baskısı Marmaris’e UPS sayesinde ulaştı. Onu elimde tutmanın heyecanını anlatamam. Tütsü, mütsü, eskarabe, melekler, şu buyla selamladım.

Hayırlısı …

 

Rainbow of Life

Tags

air, ambiguity, awareness, bliss, colourless, colours, dreams, earth, elements, feelings, fire, Gaia, heart, life, love, melancholia, moods, mystery, nature, passion, rainbow, shades, sorrow, water

Light and Dark, flash poesy for thought

Tags

amreading, amwriting, awareness, black, blind, collective consciousness, collective memory, confinement, dark, darkness, deaf, dystopia, enlightenment, eye contact, freedom of speech, grey, ignorance, light, mute, perception, prison, reality, transfer of thought, utopia, walls, white, writingcommunity

It was a time of ignorance

and a time of enlightenment

an era of awareness

and one of darkness

The enlightened sought

the light in the heavens and beyond

the ignorant worked in darkness

setting light to the treasures of the enlightened,

all buildings, books, works of art and heritage

were demolished under the axes of the demons of darkness

yet, everything remained in the collective memory of the Light-workers

The dark demons built high walls around the prisons

where the Light-workers were confined

Speaking was forbidden, even looking eye to eye

The prisoners who broke the law

had their tongues cut and eyes removed

The blinded and muted Light-workers

developed a communication skill

of transferring thoughts without speaking or eye-contact

Waves of thoughts travelled in the air

while the dark demons carried out their atrocities unaware

The frequencies of thoughts became so high and powerful,

deafening the dark demons who

failed to complete their mission of destruction,

as the wavelength of thoughts

damaged their sensory systems

Unable to move or act, they lay still on the ground

The Light-workers fed their minds with ideas and

knowledge  about the planet and the universe,

theories of law and justice for all,

science, art, history, philosophy, and

awareness of nature and the balance of creation

Dark-workers awoke with the beam of enlightenment

in their eyes.

They learned to communicate without speaking,

seeing beyond the perceived and feeling without using their senses.

Dark-workers became Light-workers

moving humanity into a new dimension

of enlightenment.

Still, some Dark-workers remained,

in the periphery of humanity,

scheming plans to carry out their dark intentions,

to make a revolution to change the world.

Light-workers ambushed them and built high walls around their towns

so that they would stay confined within their own surroundings

unable to infect their backward ideas into the enlightened zone.

The angels in the heavens watched the humans in dismay,

“When will they learn?” they asked their Leader, the wisest of All.

“Only when they discover grey, against the black and white.

It will take time, but I have hopes for my children.”

Soothing Waters

Tags

awareness, fireballs, learning, pain, seapeople, soothing, sorrow, the sea, water

 

The leaves of the tall eucalyptus trees lining the narrow lane sang an unfamiliar song in the warm breeze. Murmurs, mutterings of ghosts from another life, in a quaint language I had not heard before, yet understood.

“Come,” they said, “just follow the road.”

So I did, though it was twilight, but fear didn’t cross my mind. Where the eucalyptus trees ended, a horse carriage waited. The driver beckoned me with a smile. I rode the cab that took me down the path between the orange groves all the way to the edge of the sea.

I thanked him and stepped down. The full moon illuminated the beach and the waters of the bay. To the right, colourful beams of life from the slow town danced upon the water, to the left a haphazard array of dim lights twinkled like fireflies on the ancient sites.

There was music without music. I sat facing the full moon, my eyes drifting between the shores.

Then I saw Marvin, walking to the shore from the sea.

 

“How did you know I was here?” I asked.

“We have ways of understanding,” he said.

“Did you come to see me?”

“Yes, and to extinguish the fires.”

“What fires? There are no fires here.”

“Fires are everywhere, we help people deal with the pain.”

“You mean…”

“You know what I mean…”

“Where do they go?”

“There are many places, it depends on who they are.”

“I came back to find you and you were gone.”

“We cannot stay in the same place for longer than we have to.”

“So will you be gone again now?”

“I must, but this is so that you know I exist.”

“I know you do, but I couldn’t prove it.”

“Proof in the third dimensional existence is difficult. Awareness is unable to produce such physical evidence.”

“Will there be more fireballs? More sorrow?”

“I’m afraid so. Until they learn.”

Marvin stroked my hair and kissed me. Then he rose, and bowed his head, a farewell smile lingering on his face before he disappeared into the sea.

In the emptiness, I watched the moon’s reflection on the bay and pondered.

Still so much water to extinguish the pain of fire, despite the many more fireballs to come.