How do you choose the words that go into your poetry? What are the right words? As the poet, you must ultimately be the judge. But the “right words” shouldn’t just be the first ones you toss onto the paper when you feel the sudden rush to write. The critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously noted… Continue reading Poetry deserves precision: Hunting for the Right Words
Author: Mary
I write as both Mary Bray and under the pseudonym of Samantha Beardon.
Night Music
How night changeswith the saxophone’s weep,as notesuntangle themselves—floating in the airlike dandelion seeds.Then, chargedwith bellicose beauty,they meldwith chasing archipelagosfrom nimble fingers,like twirling ribbonsarching through the air.The atmosphere,charged with emotionas the saxophone weeps.
Unwanted Guest
An eight-legged shadow is parked in the place, A master transformer of corners and space. He’s clearing out flies, keeping things in good order, But he’s making me freak—I am no brave marauder! We lock eyes a moment, both freezing in place, A six-foot-tall giant, a speck in his space. My baser instincts tell me… Continue reading Unwanted Guest
Changing Diction: How Word Choice Shifts a Poem’s Soul.
Changing Diction, Changing the Theme: How Word Choice Shifts a Poem’s Soul. In poetry, you can use the exact same scene, the exact same characters, and the exact same sequence of events to tell two completely different stories. How? By changing your diction—your specific choice of words.By shifting your word choices, you change the emotional… Continue reading Changing Diction: How Word Choice Shifts a Poem’s Soul.
The Bloodstream of Romantic Poetry: A guide to controlling imagery.
Images and imagery are the bloodstream of love poetry. They’re how emotion becomes sensory—how longing becomes something the reader can taste, touch, or see. When you control your images rather than letting them drift in randomly, you shape the reader’s emotional experience with precision. Below is a craft-focused guide to how imagery works in love… Continue reading The Bloodstream of Romantic Poetry: A guide to controlling imagery.
The River Teaches
The Rivers TeachesSit comfortably or lay down and open the map with the rustle of intention, unfolding it in your hands like parchment, its edges soft and inviting. Follow the path to the River of Release, here tension dissipates with a deliberate act: listen to the sound of water gurgling over stones. Unclench your jaw,… Continue reading The River Teaches
The Mirror I Stepped Through
Some books begin with a question.This one began with a mirror.The Mirror I Stepped Through grew out of the moments when the self becomes unmistakably visible,the patterns we repeat without noticing, the masks we learned to wear long before we had language for them, the stories that once protected us but now keep us small.… Continue reading The Mirror I Stepped Through
Hope Series
Hope arrives quietly When I unclench my hands A small warmth In the space Where I finally Let something fall. It teaches me That lightness Is also a kind Of strength. This is part of a series of micro poems from my upcoming book Four Arcs of Belonging
TRIPTYCH of becoming
TRIPTYCH: Belief, Mind, Becoming I. Bloom of Beliefs (Earth — seeds, roots, growth) Beliefs bloom from scattered seeds sown in whatever soil we carry. Some lie dormant for years, waiting for a shift in weather. Some sprout clean and green. Others twist into strange shapes, half shadow, half truth. Flowers, herbs, weeds all of them… Continue reading TRIPTYCH of becoming
Poems from my pending book – Four Arcs of Belonging.
Four Arcs of Belonging Hope Series of Micro Poetry In the hush Before morning, I hear it— A small hum Threading the silence.Hope speaks In the language of almost, Of maybe, Of not‑yet.I rise Because it whispers. ****I thought hope Was a lantern— Something I carried.But it grew Like a pulse Beneath my ribs, A… Continue reading Poems from my pending book – Four Arcs of Belonging.
