“Portrait of Self”, 8 1/2" W x 11" H, colored pencil on paper © 2017 by Chas Wyatt
Those weathered eyes, that stoic expression; what do they reveal about me? I looked stoic up in the dictionary and it said n. a person who suffers hardship without showing his or her feelings. It seems to fit that portrait and oft times it does fit me, although I also have a lighter side. Life hasn’t been a bed of roses for me, but, there are many that have fared worse in what life shelled out, toiling endlessly, as day became night.
…
As I enter the trailer park, I pass a Scion hatchback with “ Black Lives Matter “ taped to the back window with duct tape. I think of how precious and fragile life itself is. How in a split-second it can be extinguished like the wick on a candle. Laying in bed, the mariachi band plays a few trailers down. This is my neighborhood.
On my bio I say that I am an artist and writer, but I have a day job to pay the bills. True, I have an art degree, but, the school I obtained it from closed…
“Raindrops”, an illustration that I am using for my publication’s logo, 10" h x 12" w, colored pencil on paper, © 2020 by Chas Wyatt
You have stumbled across this publication somehow and are wondering what it is about. Mainly, it will be stories about my life experiences, although I will also throw in fictional stories from time to time and maybe poetry and prose, as the inclination and creative muse strikes.
To have a better understanding of the publication, therefore, I feel it is important to know something about the author of the publication. I am both, an artist…
This is a Thank You Note to the people of the United States of America ~
Thank you for choosing love over hate; thank you for embracing the light over the darkness. Thank you for choosing Truth over deceit and lies. Thank you for realizing that life is a precious gift and that all lives matter. Thank you for using science to come to logical conclusions, rather than relying on rumours and unproven conjecture. Thank you for calling attention to injustices and once again embracing the concept of “Justice For All” . Thank you for letting your voices be heard…
“I would hurl words into the darkness and wait for an echo, and if no echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” ~ Richard Wright, “American Hunger”, 1977.
The infinite period continues on through the void, the sentence has no ending and cannot be defined, or encapsulated in a world of conjecture, or logic. The verbs and adverbs rebel against grammarly perfectionism and cast asunder preconceived ideas and notions. The nouns and pronouns march against the vicissitudes…
Every time I turn around, there is another new publication dawning on Medium. I have wandered into a few and have had my stories, essays, or poems accepted at times. Sometimes not.
I do not recall the exact words in the invitation I received from Vaishali Paliwal when she asked me to join Soul & Sea. I was delighted that I had been asked, however, and submitted my short prose, “Two Moons” (which was originally published on Bebee, based in Madrid, Spain)~
‘Soul & Sea’ may be a small publication, but, I have grown fond of it. Although authors mainly…
Labor Day, 2020; high, dry winds blew into the state of Oregon. Most did not know what foreboding message they were sending. Perhaps we weren’t listening; or, perhaps we just didn’t hear. That night my power went out, or maybe it was shut-off by PGE; I’ve heard different stories. The powerful winds helped to ignite and spread wildfires all across the state. The next day there was a bank of black and red clouds hovering above the Cascades, not far away. They appeared like thunderheads, but, they contained no rain. It was just smoke.
In two days I would receive…
