About Me

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Lake Arrowhead, California, United States
I live for my family, teaching, reading, and the joy of every new day, and I write to live! I've written both non-fiction, and adult and young adult fiction, and am currently working on a novel set in both California and London. This means I get to travel! Qualifications/Education: M.F.A., Creative Writing, 2009 Goddard College, Vermont. California Single Subject Teaching Credential Program, English, 1996 University of Redlands, Redlands, CA. B.A., English Literature, 1996 California State University, San Bernardino, CA.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

He/She Poems

More Writing Prompts…And they are Fiction!


He/She Ran; She/He Scrubbed; He/She Shopped; and The Nuns Strolled… UCR Inland Empire Writing Project weekend at The Mission Inn, 2012



Ran



He ran through the November rain, splashing geysers

Willing his feet to take him to the four wheeled drive, humming warm strength

Ready to leave--far away

From the gloomy and very dead bodies behind him



She ran through the November rain

Splashing geysers

Her freezing willing feet taking her to the humming warm Jeep

Her most expensive investment

Far from Ugliness





Scrubbed



She scrubbed with the determination of her father and every other unclean person who couldn’t bear the invisible trace of sin upon their too sensitive pink and freckled hands



He scrubbed up the blood and took out the trash

Wondering if he’d be able to find a glass shop open on Sunday so he could put in a new window Before

He lost the dog who always jumped

And the house filled up with flies and everything

Just went to hell





Shopped



She shopped as if the welfare of her family depended

On each member receiving just the right gift

Visualizing the moment that each was unwrapped,

Objects infused with warmth

Eyes lit up with joyous surprise

And she was sure that this year

Everyone would love her in the way she so deserved



He shopped as if he would never work again and each item was a deduction from

The retirement account he did not have

Angering over the excessive silliness of things no one needed and his vow to give love not gifts That he had been forced to leave behind

Just shy of his bank account he bent over and grabbed a jar of olives





And the Nuns Strolled



The nuns strolled

Tucked inside their habits

Apparently without feet that touched the ground

So

I should have been surprised to see

One of them

A bit out of step

With her hand held up to her head dress

A black rectangle cupped in prayer

As she spoke in quiet tones

To the sister she left behind









Posted by Rachel Lorene "Lori" Johnstone Pohlman at 2:26 PM
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Bodies of Smoke

From Bodies of Smoke

"The day was suddenly quieter, or maybe it just seemed to hush as Jan witnessed the spectacle of ashes falling all around him, slowly turmbling out of the sky, carried on the soft breeze from some unknown fire. He looked toward the forest, thinking of a wildfire, but the sky in that direction was serenely blue. The wind was blowing from the other direction, anyway. It was coming from town. Oswiecim. There was a railroad station there, and a camp.

Jan continued to stand, face upturned, wondering what was happening. What new calamity might this foretell? Maybe the whole world was going to light itself on fire. Maybe it already had.

Ashes continued to float down on his face, his head, his shoulders, cradling themselves in his outstretched hands. Finally, ashes covered all of the roses."


Bodies of Smoke

copyright protected, R L Johnstone-Pohlman, March 14, 2010

What Are You Reading? The Two-Minute Book Review Series

  • Wallace, David Foster. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.
  • Foer, Jonathan Safran. Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
  • Irving, John. A Widow for One Year
  • Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking.
  • Dunn, Mark. Ella Minnow Pea.
  • Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light.
  • Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer. This is one of my favorite novels; it's lush and filled with nature imagery, humorous and thought provoking. Entirely wonderful.
  • Knapp, Caroline. Drinking: A Love Story. For anyone wondering about the alcoholic experience, here's your book. Exceedingly readable and feels absolutely honest.
  • Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
  • Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere
  • Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. As my writer friend says, "This is the book I wish I wrote." A book narrated by Death about a little girl living in Germany during WWII. This book will always live in my library!
  • Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. YA Graphic Novel. Some of my teen readers loved it, others found it too simple.
  • Colfer, Eoin Colfer. Airman. This book was voted favorite of the year with my middle school age book club.
  • du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca
  • Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game
  • Proulx, Annie. Brokeback Mountain
  • Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed
  • King, Stephen. On Writing
  • Hamilton, Edith. Mythology
  • Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. My favorite book on writing!
  • Gilbert, Elizabeth. Committed.
  • Skibell, Joseph. A Blessing on the Moon. An amazing Holocaust tale..this book stays with me. I want to read it again for the first time!
  • Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
  • Harris, JoAnne. The Girl With No Shadow

Poetry Corner

"August in Waterton, Alberta" by Bill Holm


Above me, wind does its best

to blow leaves off

the aspen tree a month too soon.

No use wind. All you succeed

in doing is making music, the noise

of failure growing beautiful.



"Lincoln by Vachel Lindsey"


Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,

That which is gendered in the wilderness

From lonely prairies and God's Tenderness.

Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream,

Born where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,

Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave,

Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire--

Fire that freed the slave.



Read!

Read!