Drops of Inspira

  Hello! I know this graphic hasn't been aired in a bit. Maybe a year or so. And that is because this graphic is from a time before I almost went under. Almost gave up on writing, life and all things altogether. It's been hard work trying to take care of myself and get back on my feet, but I'm slowly starting to resurface and part of that resurfacing is my poetry. It's rough, but it's here and so am I. It's a good thing to be alive. I can't promise that Poetry 15th will happen every month, but if it the 15th of the month lands on a Monday, I will try and post a poem that I wrote the week before. Here is my poem for this Poetry 15th: Until next time... Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello! I'm going to take a brief hiatus for the holidays starting next week, so this will be the last post of the year. I'll be back in 2024 with new content, but for now, here is a poem to wrap up the year: That's all for now. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you all in 2024. Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

 Hello! Here at the end of the month of November 2023, I wanted to write a poem. Those that have followed this blog over the last couple of years know that I used to write poetry and post a poem a month, usually on the 15th of every month. Since my unplanned hiatus last year, I haven't really written any poetry except when my cousin and grandpa passed away, but I wanted to try and stretch those muscles again today. The results aren't exactly what I hoped for, but I'm thankful for the words all the same. I'm learning to be thankful for the struggles as well as the blessings. These little things that don't seem the best. I know I could do better, but right now, my poetry muscles are tired and out of practice. And that is okay. So, here is my little poem born out of the darkness of sadness and healing. My reminder to myself that the simple act of giving thanks is like sunlight. It makes me warmer and happier and should be scattered liberally. And that's a wrap! I...

  Hello! This is going to be my last Poetry 15th for a while. Except for a few scheduled posts, this blog is going to be silent for a while as I contemplate the direction I want it to take. One of the posts I plan to get out soon is last month's audiobook post that I never published. The reasons being is that the last few weeks were busy. I got sick for two weeks right during the time I needed to work on it, and there were family events. The yearly audiobook posts take quite some time to get out. There are a lot of graphics involved, and I have to hunt down pictures for the graphics and then I have to remember what I thought about the audiobooks. Luckily, Goodreads has been helpful with that as I review most everything I read. Here is this month's poetry prompt: Certain complications this month forced me to create these graphics on the Canva app. It was difficult to figure out where all my familiar tools went and took me far longer to create these graphics than I wanted.  Here...

           Hello!  As I was considering ideas for this month's prompt, the word "flourish" kept coming to mind. There are so many different ways that you can use this word so it should be interesting seeing what you come up with! Here is the prompt: Hope this prompt is able to generate some of your own creativity, whatever that may look like.  Here is my response: If you are viewing this on a mobile device, I apologize as the print may come out a little too small. You should be able to view it by clicking the graphic. I will be back this weekend to show you the Summer Reading graphic I made. I'm excited to get back into something resembling the challenges I used to partake in when I was a kid. Until next time... Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello there! This month has been a little different as I get ready to spend a few weeks with family and friends at the end of this month. It will be my first real vacation since 2019, and I am so ready for it. I've been feeling burnt out for a good month and a half. Creatively, it's been a struggle to do anything much but breathe, so I've scaled everything back a lot.  One topic I've been thinking about privately and talking a lot about with friends, is this idea of vulnerability. There is vulnerability and then there's vulnerability .  What do I mean by this? Well, for a long time I've thought that being vulnerable meant just sharing what is on your heart. And yes, that is definitely a form of vulnerability, but there is one that goes deeper. A vulnerability that lays the deepest, darkest parts of yourself bare and allows others to poke and prod, to examine your thoughts and hold them up to the light of truth. To examine the lies you may have believed since c...

  Hello and welcome back to Poetry 15th ! This is going to look a bit different than the normal 15th. Part of the reason is that my answer to the prompt is going to be shared in a different post because it needs more explanation, and I want to keep this post light. So, with all that being said, here is the prompt for this month: Use it however you like. The idea is for the prompt to generate some creativity. Again, the prompt says to write a poem, but draw a picture, create a song, do whatever you want with it. Just be creative! I will be back tomorrow with my response. Fair warning: it's a bit heavy. No, I didn't intend for it to be that way. Poetry has always been the closest thing for me to hearing my heart speak. Until tomorrow... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello! Full confession here: I actually forgot about Poetry 15th until the Sunday before it happened. So, suddenly, I am sitting at my computer and looking at the dates and it is March 13th, and I realize, "Oh, hey! Isn't it Poetry 15th  in a few days?" Yeah... My brain has been in survival mode lately. I am slowly getting back into a normal writing schedule again after the chaos that has been a fluctuating work schedule. I think it's stabilized now? I hope.  Here is the prompt for this month. Again, you can use the prompt for anything, not just a poem. The point is to generate creativity. This prompt is brought to you courtesy of my walk this morning, in which I espied a a tree full of beautiful, pink blossoms. Here is my response: Just a reminder, that you can vote for my next blog post topic in the Google Form in this post:  Vote here I will collect all answers on the 27th of this month, at the which time, the voting will be closed.  Thanks again for readin...

  Hello! So, I actually created the prompt for this month last month. (Amazing, I know. Look at me being proactive and not waiting until the last minute.) But then, life got busy, and I didn't work on my own poetic entry until a few days before.  Here's the thing though. Because of my new job, I've pushed my writing time to the weekends. Mostly just Saturdays and Sundays. I desperately need to find a better writing rhythm, but this will have to do for right now. I have something in the works that might make it better and allow me to write more days.  Anyway, here is the prompt for this month: One of the things I love about February is that all the green growing things seem to start to awaken. I was looking at my window today and noticed some new grass growing where everything was dry or torn up in our yard.  Please feel free to use the above prompt and prompt graphic to generate your own creativity. Here is my response:    This is all for this month, but I'...

  Hello! So, I realize that 2022 began nineteen days ago, but I was waiting for results from a sort of poll I was running on social media. Now that I have the results, I can proceed with this post! Before I reveal any "words of the year" or goals for 2022, let's see how I did for 2021. Read 90 books in 2021? I actually read 100, surpassing my Goodreads Goal by ten books! This has been a number I've been trying to read for at least three years, but I've finally read 100 books in a year! Did I learn to draw a hand? Sadly no. A few months into 2021, I had a whole host of medical tests and drawing went out the window. I would love to start learning to draw again, but I just started a new job so we'll see if and when it will make its appearance in my life again. So, this didn't happen by March of last year, but it did happen. Sirens of Fate , the first book in my Harbinger Trilogy, did go to a developmental editor last year! It needs another rewrite, but hopefu...

  Hello! No. I didn't forget my blog. I've just had a slew of changes that came with the new year, some of them bad and some of them good, but they've kept me busy. But I am back with today's poetry prompt and my response. My life has been all about change these past few weeks, and I know yours has been too. It kind of comes with a new year. Hopefully, your change has been the good kind. Please feel free to use the above prompt to generate any creativity. Here is my response: (Apologies to anyone who looks at this poem on a phone. It's coming out blurry for me, so I assume it will for you. Double-click on it to view it.) I am hoping in the next week or two to be back with another post, but like I said, things have been changing drastically over here, so the post will come when it comes. Until then... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello! Welcome to the last Poetry 15th of 2021! I've been thinking about the prompt for this month, and the word that came to mind was glitter. Why did I choose this prompt? I'm not exactly sure, but I love glitter. Yes, it gets everywhere and sticks to everything, but it is shiny. So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make something creative, be it poem or picture or something else, based off of this prompt.  Happy creating! Here is my response: Next week I will be back with the last bit of the Know Your Novel link-up. Until then.... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello! Today's prompt comes from a poem that I've been working on for about a year now. Most of the time my poems come to me in snatches of inspiration, starting out with an image or a line, and then I just follow the idea until the end. Here is this month's prompt: For some reason, the word, "herald" always comes to mind when I think of this season. A picture that comes to mind is an autumn herald with a crown of colored leaves, riding through a carpet of stained-glass leaves on a horse. Anyway, musings aside, here is my response to the prompt. The poem itself was so long that I couldn't fit it on a quote graphic. Autumn Soul by Julia Garcia I am an Autumn Soul, A bright, eternal fire, A will-o'-the-wisp, in the lantern light. I'm a crown of red and green, A fairy amidst the evergreens, I'm a spire of smoke, Twisting to heavenly heights, A pumpkin patch, in a carpet of gold. I'm a sheet of diamond rain, A blanket of fog. I am a ghost on the ...

  Hello! It's been a month since I last posted, but there has been a reason for that. (Actually, a lot of reasons, but let's not get too off topic.) The main reason why I didn't post at the beginning of this month was because I was facing some scary health issues which have mostly resolved at this point. With that being said, a hiatus is probably way overdue, but I'll save that for another month. Today's poetry prompt is: I've been thinking a lot about exploration. It's always been a sort of regret of mine that I was born in an age where most of the world has already been explored. I love reading books about explorers, real or fictional. The unknown both terrifies and fascinates me.  As always, feel free to use the above prompt to generate your own creativity. Here is my response to the prompt: I'll be back later this month with an end-of-summer post sharing my top five summer reads. I'm doing it a bit early even if summer officially ends in Septembe...