Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts

Monday, February 9, 2026

Roald Dahl Quote!


"Roald Dahl signed books in the Kinderboekenwinkel in Amsterdam, inventory number 934-3367" by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo is marked with CC0 1.0.
 
I love this quote from Roald Dahl!

“And above all, watch the glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it."


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Rooms Update / Poem: The Candle Flame

Before reading the Poem, "The Candle Flame," you can learn more about what's happening with Rooms by reading below.

ROOMS
by Bob Stegner

(Trish Steele)

I have been doing the final edit on Rooms, and Greg Opalinskiwho will be doing the cover design and artwork for the novel, has been working hard on the cover. It's been fun working with him, and I'm more excited every day about seeing the finished cover.


Rooms will be published on Amazon in a few weeks. I'll let you know on this blog when it happens.


Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy published and for sale on Amazon.com
Paperback - $3.23
Kindle version - $0.99 




Poem




(Cain)


The Candle Flame


The calm
In a candle flame
Casting warmth on the walls
In a darkened room

The music plays
The mind wanders
The candle
Constantly confined
Yet serenely there
With me

Meditative, ancestral thoughts
Pervade and pause
In truth

Oh soft, luxurious flame
Oh round, aspiring flame
Oh small, pinpoint in the night
Take my soul
Take me
To the other side
Yet teach this side
Of existence

Reminiscent of wind
Of rain
Of dark
Of a moonlit night
In a forest
As your glow seeks out
My eyes
Reflecting back to someone

Who is speaking
Through the flame
Casting knowledge
Hope
Universal truths
While lying there
Just a fingertip away
Beyond my corporeal reach

Even closing my eyes
I see you there
With me
Surrounding me
Guiding me
Home

A candle flame
A hearth fire
Wood crackling
In a rock hewn wring
A tree with soft lights
At Christmas
The twinkling of windows
From a city
The soft glow in her eyes
As she smiles

The candle flame
 Is
That peaceful place
I will understand
Someday 

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2006

Image of Door:
Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Image of Candle Flame:
Cain, Ricky. Candle Flame. Digital image. Ricky Cain. Flickr, 9 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 May 2014. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/ricky1146/7975340370/>
Creative Commons License Page:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ 


Saturday, April 26, 2014

Rooms Cover Illustration & Design Artist Chosen & Poem: A Moment in Time


Before reading the Poem, "A Moment in Time," you can learn more about what's happening with Rooms by reading below.

ROOMS
by Bob Stegner

(Trish Steele)

Rooms should be published within a month or so, and I'm working with Greg Opalinski who will be doing the cover design and artwork for the novel. I'm very excited to work with him and looking forward to the design that he will create. Greg is from Ridgewood, New York and is an illustrator and artist. His work is very creative and unique, and he was one of the winners in the L. Ron Hubbard International Illustrator's of the Future contest in Los Angeles in April of 2012. In that contest he was recognized as being one of science fiction's illustrators of the future.

Watch for Rooms on Amazon. I'll let you know on this blog when it happens.


Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy published and for sale on Amazon.com
Paperback - $3.23
Kindle version - $0.99 




Poem

A Moment in Time


A moment in time
Spent
And consumed by
A remembrance

Time passes
And yet

I can’t see
As much
As sense you

I can’t know
As much
As feel your heart

Haunted by
A desire for

Consumed by
The need to

Memorize
Your laughter
Your words
Your soft, cascading hair

Forever frozen
Are your eyes
As they shine
As if we still were

You’re gone
I’m here
We’ve   evaporated

From a snapshot
An opportunity
A risk
Not taken

In that miniscule,
Miserly,
Mystifying,
Singularly significant
Moment in time


We’re gone

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2006


Image of Door:
Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons




Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Rooms' Update & A Poem: "Lunar Magic"


Before reading the Poem, "Lunar Magic," you can learn more about what's happening with Rooms by reading below.

ROOMS
by Bob Stegner

(Trish Steele)

Well, the decision is made. I will be self-publishing my first full novel, Rooms, within a month or so on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It will be published in paperback as well as a Kindle version and e-book.

During the last week or so, I have been editing it again. I looked carefully for everything that I could think of including the logic within scenes as well as across the story, character development, phrasing, grammar, punctuation, and conversation. I've worked especially hard on the first two chapters, as they were written a while ago, and I have learned a great deal about writing since then. I believe that they now both fit the writing style within the rest of the novel better, read more easily and are simply more fun. I am also working on hiring a professional illustrator to do the cover. I hope that works out.

I will let you know when it is published, but I would encourage you to read the teaser and the excerpt from chapters 1-2 below. Both of these have changed. Don't forget to check out Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy, too, if you haven't yet.


Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy published and for sale on Amazon.com
Paperback - $3.23
Kindle version - $0.99 


Poem



(Skogsoy)



Lunar Magic


A speck of luminescence
Spreading rays of calm
Across the dark earth
Across our eyes

A Soft radiance
Bouncing from leaf to leaf
Pushing shadows
Into the deep of night

A song of hope
A melody in the darkness
Causing eyes to gaze up
Causing lips to curl and smile

A grand dot
Punctuating a black canvas
Splashing quiet and white
From horizon to horizon

The sky’s pupil
Oscillating with the seasons
Grabbing earth’s oceans
Moving the tides

Lunar Magic
Playing tricks on our minds
Changing and creating
An enchanted, mythical night
Copyright © Bob Stegner 2008

Image of Door:
Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Image of Moonlight:
Skogsoy. Moonlight and the Sea. Digital image. Commons.wikimedia.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Aapr. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:Skogsoy_moonlight.JPG>.

Monday, December 9, 2013

POETRY

I wrote this poem as I was traveling north of Galway in an area called the Burren.  The guide that I traveled with was very unique.  His stories deep, mystical, funny, and heartfelt.  His speech rhythmic and lyrical often repeating phrases twice in succession.  It was a trip that I'll never forget!


(Dusseault)


Her Magical Irish Sweater


Irish green landscapes glide tangibly by
In whimsical, melancholy shades and tones
Casting deep knowledge
Of old magic
Throughout my heart and life

Winter wind and rain cleanse and expand the creative soul
With a Burren of bare, harsh, minutely diverse flawlessness
Sharing ages and eons
Of billions of
Possibilities unknown

And alongside this exquisite reverie
I seem to feel the eyes and soul
Of a heart and love
So fine and true
As to bond and create
A sensual being
Of mind and body
A transformation
Of us, we two

Extending tactilely, visually, lovingly
Surrounding and holding her close
Touching first the garment
The braided, luxuriant wool
That lay on her skin
Keeping us negligibly apart,
Yet not
Her Irish sweater

A magical sweater
A mother lamb's gift
Enfolding her heart and dreams
Around love
Wrapping passions and life and mind
Into a womanly luxuriant package
Of deeply entwined
Fibers of wool

Seamlessly, without pause
As the kilometers flow by
As the limestone pads
Become reality
And permeate the day,
Along with myst and legend,
She and I
Find ourselves without concern
Touching, exploring, intermingling
Amidst the soft, slick, sensual fibers
Of her magical sweater

From that small, brilliant segment of time
Birds, plants, rocks, wind, sky, and rain
No longer exist beyond us
Environment and our singular forms fuse
Enduring without separation,
Without time

Among those fibers of luscious animal fleece
Our nerves and synapse explode and fire
Cinematizing thoughts, memories, and perceptions
As actuality, solubility, and existence itself
Alter our perception and mutate us
To a new dimension

Rock hewn fields
Her hands
Drops of rain
Our lips
Castles dripping with dew
A deep embrace
Ancient caves of limestone
Pulsing sweat and pleasure
Birds ebbing and coursing in flight
Bodies moving singly in union, in rhythm
Cliffs dizzily cascading vertically to the ocean
Eyes piercing, glazing and locking passionately
The ocean's power explodes against rock with magnificent spray and foam
Bodies lock and join in creational joy and dynamic flame
And dynamic flame

Quiet
Quiet
Rest

Becalmed,
Tranquil,
Silent
Becalmed

It's evening on the Burren's edge
The sunset rests the sea
While winds and rain and light subside
A lighthouse sits with me

A curved-winged gull paints segments
And arcs from shore to sky
But nature's there and I am here again
A window shades my eyes

It's winter as it should be
The world seems properly in place
But something's missing
Something's gone
And I cannot find its face

And then without the knowing
Or comprehending why
The digits on my left hand
Seek out the reason why

I force my eyes to look there
Where hand now knows the why
The magic of my love is gone
And emptiness abides

Yet where so close
She was with me
A soft, cream sweater lay
A textured present
That I know
I chose for her this day

I gazed at it in wonder
Thoughts churned and filled my head
My life and hers
Felt real to me
But a sweater sits instead

Oh, could this Irish sweater
With magic powers perform
A miracle
Transporting her
Back from ethereal form

The burren knows the answer
The Cliffs of Moher can say
The winds along the coastline
Can guide me on my way
The gulls can trace it in the sky
The rocks can teach the art

But only this fine sweater
Has the power

To unlock her Irish heart

Copyright © Bob Stegner 2005


Image of Sweater:
Dusseault, Lisa. Aran Jumper. Digital image. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 19 Aug. 2003 Web. 09 Dec. 2013.