Beauty beyond words
Silent, serene
Renews itself daily
With every sunrise
If your senses are immersed fully
And you think
It has been waiting to welcome you
Then
You
Are
Exactly
Where
You
Need
To
Be
Thank you stars
And
Bow with
Gratitude
Gratitude – What Do You See # 332
SenHai Saturday #43
The sun awakens
The silent, slumbering mountains;
The peaks turn crimson.
Light focuses on
Top layers usually
Bottom neglected
Being Fleeced – Reena’s Xploration Challenge #421
PROMPT #421
Yesterday, I met a neighbor who spoke about being fleeced by a vet, and how our love for our beloved pets is commercially exploited.
It set me thinking about how we are being fleeced every moment – of our beliefs, our trust, our wealth of all kinds. We are not sure how are we going to cover the bare spots again.
Here are a few fictional scenarios.
“In a forgotten myth, mortals are born with coats of starlight, shimmering with trust and innocence. Trickster gods descend, eager to harvest this fleece for their celestial looms. Write about the moment of being fleeced as a cosmic rite: is it theft by divine hands, or a ritual of renewal where mortals must surrender their radiance to weave the universe anew?”
“Imagine yourself as a lamb draped in a coat of stories, each strand of wool spun from your trust, your dreams, your quiet hopes. One day, hands arrive—gentle yet insistent—shearing away what you thought was yours to keep. You are left bare, shivering not from cold but from the realization that your warmth has been woven into someone else’s tapestry. Write about the moment of being fleeced—not as theft, but as transformation. Is it exploitation, or is it the inevitable shedding that reveals your truest skin?”
“Imagine your fleece as the illusions you’ve carried—comforting myths, borrowed identities, the soft fabric of belonging. When life’s shears arrive, they cut away what no longer serves you. Write about being fleeced as the painful but necessary shedding that reveals the raw, unadorned self beneath, trembling yet luminous in its honesty.”
Was my comforting fleece—
myths,
My identities, borrowed
The tender fabric of belonging—
Merely illusions?
Then why was I given all this?
Then what was the hurry to cut it all?
If it was necessary for my progress, then
when,
the shears of life
Severed the connections
Under the pretext
That they no longer serve you, why
I felt like a shorn sheep—
With skin as raw as that of a newborn?
Was it necessary to do this so abruptly—
Without my consent,
Without my preparation—
Especially when it has been proven that
Though the cutting of the umbilical cord
allows the baby to breathe and eat independently.
But
Delaying it for some period
gives the child a healthier start.
In most cases, I have found,
It is untimely
But
Who am I to doubt
Rules of life?
They coax the shorn sheep
bereft of its only armour
to fight the harsh winter
“Your sacrifice will not be in vain;
You will help others find shelter from the cold.
God will grant you a place in Heaven.”
“But what of me?”
The sheep asks, her voice trembling.
“You will simply get your wool back again.
What is there to worry about?
You will take it away again.”
The sheep replies.
They smile with compassion:
“This is your destiny.
This is your salvation.
You should be grateful
’cause you are the chosen one
God’s favourite child
Aroma – W3 Prompt #202: Wea’ve Written Weekly
https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/03/11/w3-prompt-202-weave-written-weekly
Nancy’s prompt: Shadorma
This week, let’s write shadorma poems.
The shadorma is a compact Spanish syllabic form built from a six-line stanza with a strict syllable pattern: 3 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 7 / 5 (26 syllables total). It is typically unrhymed, and a poem may consist of a single stanza or a series of stanzas.
For this challenge, the theme is Sensory Details.
Write a close-up study of a single inanimate object or a very specific moment. Think small and focused rather than narrative or expansive. The power of the poem should come from sensory observation—what can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or felt.
Possible subjects might include:
- a teacup on a table
- a dusty path
- a statue
- a piece of jewelry
- the stillness around a birth
- the quiet after a death
The key is to capture one concentrated moment through vivid sensory detail.
Aroma
of roasted corncob
Rubbed with
salt, butter
Tickles taste buds and stomach
A dish to die for
Some accept
Doing it favour
Thankless ones
Some eat it
With gratitude and fervour
Relishing each grain
A Jumper To Conclusions/ Nonsense Verse – What Do You See #331
What brings you to the forest? No friends, no relatives, no bridesmaids? To solemnise your wedding with trees as witnesses? Did no one support your decision? Why umbrellas? Did you expect thunder and a storm? Aren't you afraid of wild animals? Or is the mob chasing you scarier and fiercer? Are you facing an unsolvable problem? Is the end of the story on the card, well before it starts? Or am I 'a jumper to conclusions'?
Friends, I was reminded of a friend of mine who used to shower us with questions without even waiting for the answers. We were all thoroughly fed up with her.
Hope – Reena’s Exploration Challenge #420
PROMPT #420
“Hope is the sunrise that refuses to stay asleep.”
“Resilience is the green shoot breaking through stone.”
“Change is the river’s way of teaching us to dance.”
Your task this week is to use any of the above quotes as a theme or backdrop for your piece. Let us see how Hope, Resilience, or Change look like and dress in your story.
Hope
Hope is a ray of sunshine in darkness,
helps not giving in to negativity.
Hope alone is not enough.
It motivates, and
when accompnied with
faith, action, will, perseverence and consistancy,
Helps you to understand and accept the neccesity to change, and
changes vulnerability into resilience.
Crimson’s Creative Challenge # 076
Water flows away
Never to come back to us
Unlike memories
Love- W3 Prompt #201: Wea’ve Written Weekly
O’Nika’s prompt: Echo verse
Our W3 challenge
- Write an echo poem about a first — first love, first heartbreak, first bike ride, first apartment, first snowfall, first pet, first anything that mattered.
- Show us how you felt — excited, embarrassed, afraid, proud, uncertain.
- Include at least one variation of one of these words:
- Early (earlier, earliest)
- Begin (beginning, began, begun, begins)
- Primary (primarily, primaries)
- Start (start, started, starting, starts)
(Please forgive me for my errors in form and format.)
Love
A look at those wet eyes
eyes,
insecure, searching for love
love
that demands no conditions apply
apply
no selfishness and accept fully
fully
I fell for that cute little pup
pup
was just fifteen days old
old
not enough to judge whether your love is true or not
not
that he cared after you held him to bosom
Bosom that understood what pup was searching for
for
it was also searching for selfless love
love we gave each other was pure and delightful
Delightful was our companionship till he left for ever.
First bike ride.
(Try telling a story to your friend
A friend who is hard of hearing)
I’ll tell you about my first bike ride.
“Hide?
Where and why should I hide?”
I was then just six years old.
“Gold?
Now, what would I do with gold?”
My lesson began with the help of two friends.
“Ends?
But shouldn’t it start first before it ends?”
Balancing a bike was not so easy.
“Greasy?
No, my hands are not greasy.”
Don’t you want to hear what I have to say?
“Pray?
Definitely every day I do pray.”
Oh God, why didn’t you tell me you are hard of hearing?
“Swearing?
Now, I never do that, get it?”
Forget it, I have nothing more to say.
“Hey!
I want to tell you about my first bike ride.”
‘Aappo Deepo Bhava’ – What Do You See #330
A deserted, dimly lit bridge
A well-lit but desolate, slippery road
My fears prevent me from moving forward.
Fear of the dark, fear of loneliness
Fear of the unknown
Fear of this, fear of that
I procrastinate.
There are a hundred excuses
The path is slippery and dark.
I don't know what lies ahead.
Sometimes I sought light
Sometimes I sought companionship
Nothing is forever
Everything proved to be momentary.
Then a voice echoes in my ears:
'Aappo Deepo Bhava'
Be your own light.
In Between Eclipses, God’s Message, Or…Reena’s Xploration Challenge #
PROMPT #419 – In Between Eclipses
You saw it. The theme for this week is “In Between Eclipses.”
I am giving three haiga images here to further push your creativity.
It is your choice to use or not use the lines embedded in the images.
Living in between eclipses
What symbolic message God has always tried to convey to His innocent children
The difference between the journey from birth to death?
In this transient phase,
sometimes the darkness can feel very dense.
Energy low or intense.
Each eclipse,
shows a path, that this too shall pass.
Don’t overreact.
Stay calm and steady.
Introspect.
Let the soul awaken.
Does it indicates,
Let everything happen on its pace,
don’t force things to change
simply surrender and
feel the experiences,
that only a steady,
focused, and meditative mind can understand.
Wake up.
Trusting that everything is happening for a greater purpose.
Otherwise, no matter how many eclipses come, we continue living the same old routine,
where,
morning comes, evening comes, and life ends just like that.
Sharing Thoughts 
