Slivers of Red

I found another shard of it. That sliver of red stuck out in a story of plague--a sharp, bright bit that might have cut me again. But I already knew the trick of picking it up without too much pain. I'd gathered plenty of others like it already. Those were in stories too, though some of them were cocooned in songs and needed to be unwrapped first. I know that it won't look the same even if I find every last piece. I've stopped worrying about that now. The point is I'm looking for them, rediscovering the contours and angles of each of these bits of me, and glorying in the way they feel at home in my chest.

My tree grows new leaves
after winter claims old ones.
New fruits will grow too.

Photo by Riho Kitagawa on Unsplash

Song choice: Kintsugi by Lindsey Stirling

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem is linked to Poets and Storytellers United

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Meeting April 2026

 April is like everything else; it meets you like you meet it. I have known toothy Aprils. Ones that roared their victory over winter's leftover crumbs and devoured them to get even stronger. I've had Aprils that curl up next to me, tucking irrepressible wildflowers into my pocket while my head was pressed to a wall. Those Aprils put their arms around me and whispered into my ear while cherry blossoms rained around us. This one is a curious April, perhaps a little stubborn. Those flowers will bloom, though the wind will blow. And then we will see what colors they take on, what fruits will feed us in October.

the bud doesn't need
to know it's final color
in order to bloom

Photo by Rui Xu on Unsplash

Song Choice for this Groove: What's Up? by Four Non Blondes

Liner Notes for this Groove: This is linked to Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings post. The prompt asked us to find inspiration in a group of quotes about April. I think I took a little bit from both T.S. Eliot and Marty Rubin to come up with something that felt like me.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Small Magics

I am a collector of small magics--

the silkiness of sidewalk moss,

the scrap of blue in a patchwork of clouds,

the bud on the end of a twisted branch,

an unexpected kindness.

I could press them dry

separately on their own page.

But I like letting them simmer,

stirred together in my pocket

until together

they take on a hopeful luster

and wholesome texture

that will keep me fed for days.

Photo by Almos Bechtold on Unsplash

Song Choice: A Kind of Magic by Queen

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem is linked to Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings, where Rosemary asked us to write about something we feel strongly about. I feel quite strongly about holding on to the little things that keep my hope alive, especially in the middle of all the world's chaos. 

Sometimes my walks with my corgi Jelly Bean turn up some delightful things to notice. Sometimes its as simple as a stranger pulling over to help my Darling Youngest when their car had an electrical glitch, and then following him home to make sure he got here safely. I never got the woman's name but I am very glad for her kindness and calming presence when D.Y. needed it. 

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Heavy Hearted

I have to kiss the world 

twice as hard now. 

I have to feel the weight 

of each leg of every butterfly 

that chooses to alight on my skin. 

 

I have to drench myself 

in the feel of moss 

and twilight colors 

over and over again 

 

to make my heart full and heavy 

with all the world’s subtle delights 

to outweigh the grief it carries. 

Photo by Karina Vorozheeva on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Nature Boy covered by Aurora

Liner Notes for This Groove: This poem was created for the Friday Writing's Prompt at Poets and Storytellers United. It asked us to use a cliché in an unusual way.

Thoughts on Your Birthday

I wanted to tell you
how I fell in love again
with the sun on solstice morning.
Her warmth pulled me back
to myself and all the living
I have yet to do.

I miss you most in these moments,
when I’d share
another ridiculous whimsy of mine
and you’d take it as seriously
as a selkie takes the ocean.

Maybe this is why you called me Joy.

That never made sense to me.

It wasn't as much joy as survival.

I know the limits of my moth-eaten memory
and no matter what well-meaning people say
it isn’t the same as you still being alive at all,
not even a little.

I am left making up stories instead
about the sun and the stars 

caring enough to watch me

scavenge strands of joy
from the little moments of living,
in the hopes of weaving something beautiful
enough to honor who you were.

Image from Anne with an E

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Welcome to the Black Parade covered by Halocene, Violet Orlandi, and Lauren Babic

Liner Notes for this Groove: Today is the birthday of a friend of mine who passed away. These were just thoughts I had about it. 

Blue Sky Dreams

All my blue sky dreams
surviving despite the rain
startle me. To think
I almost let them wither
fearing an endless winter.

Photo by Ritam Baishya on Unsplash

Song Choice: Can You Feel a Brand New Day from the Wiz

Liner Notes for This Groove: This song is linked to Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings prompt. LOL, I did not in fact follow my own prompt (this song is one of my favorites), but I did feel like celebrating hitting a milestone for a work in progress I had to be goaded into starting. Thank you Magaly, for kicking my butt to the 40,000 word mark. 😜

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Spring Insists on Coming

Spring insists on coming.
Even though winter still gnaws
at the edges of my world,

spring will not stop coming, coaxing
life from the seeds
I thoughtlessly planted,

not understanding how fragile
the sprouts’ little green necks
can be, stretching out skyward.

Some will never make it that far,
asleep forever
where even late frost can’t hurt them.

But spring is here
and for whatever it’s worth
so am I.

Photo by imso gabriel on Unsplash

Song Choice: Carry On My Wayward Son covered by First to Eleven

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem in linked to the Friday Writings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Love Letter to a Wildflower

beautiful things grow
in unexpected places.
you taught me that

there is no wall
no cement pavement
thick enough
to keep what is meant to grow
from unabashedly blooming.

at the end of every winter
i search through last year’s dead leaves
and the cracks of suburban civilization
until i find you again.

Photo by Lee 琴 on Unsplash

Song Choice: Wildflowers covered by The Wailin' Jennys

Line Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the Friday Writings Prompt at Poets and Storytellers United

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Ordinary Is

Ordinary is
feeling like an animated five-year-old
when the rising sun makes patterns through my curtains
that feel like a secret message for me to decipher.

Ordinary is
tasting the alchemy between the elements
that created my morning tea.

Ordinary is
picking up a wriggling earthworm from a puddle
and wondering if it thinks of me as a mad eldritch horror
that had a sudden moment of benevolence.

Ordinary is
tucking in the bones of the flowers that I planted on a whim
under a bed of decomposing leaves
much to the dismay of my HOA.

Ordinary is
staring up at the stars to chat about my day
and the way we always decide

this still isn’t a bad life at all
by the end of our conversation.

Photo by Carl Campbell on Unsplash

Song Choice: Ordinary World by Aurora

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the Friday Writings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Ordinary.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Hope

I hope the way I love.
There is nothing passive or bloodless
in how I express both.

Maybe it comes
from living too deeply, too long,
in stories where someone said,

“This could— 

  should— 

  be better.”

When my throat is choked,
from sobbing or screaming,
hope is the thing
that makes me gulp

just one more clean breath
and gives me strength to crawl
towards better
“what if’s”.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Dare You to Move by Switchfoot

Liner Notes for This Groove: This poem is linked to Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings.

Just Remembered (50)

I’ve always looked forward
to the pink petalled canopy
that lines my street every birthday.

This year it’s hard not to feel
the ache in the break of the blooming,
marking the space left behind

by a marvelously messy cherry blossom tree.
I used to make wishes
under the shower of dancing petals.

Today, I make promises
to continue the dancing,

and hold back none of my blooming,

even knowing
that some spaces can never really be filled,
just remembered.

The view from one end of my street at this time of year.

It really looks perfect right around my birthday.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

Liner Notes for This Groove: This poem was created for the Friday Writings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Your Landscape.

Small Delights

Feed
my heart
on small delights
to starve the unfathomable
despair.

Photo by Alaric Duan on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Little Wonders by Rob Thomas

Liners Notes for this Groove: This elfchen was created for the Friday Writings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Write Your Medicine 

Lift Off

I thought I had to wait
for an invitation from the wind
to test how far I could fly.

Song Choice: You Learn by Alanis Morissette

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the Friday Writings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Upcycled Words. I did go through a bunch of my old poems, intending to reuse a couple of lines here and there. As I tried to see how they might fit together, this bit came to mind and I thought it was pretty decent as is. 

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Spring Hymn

What could not survive
winter lies cracked and broken.
Don’t be gentle, wind,
bear away what will not bloom
so that hope can plant its seeds.

Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash

Song Choice: Spring 1 composed by Max Richter

Liner Notes for This Groove: This tanka is linked to Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings Prompt. I did mean to write about cake, but the wind was so wild and lovely today, I just had to get my thoughts down about it.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Final Girl and the Big Bang

Everything I love was born in an explosion-
in the unmaking of worlds
down to their atoms.

I’ve been the final girl
at the end of all my personal apocalypses,

when all that’s left is the waiting
for the shattering of light
to remind me of the breath and heat
still inside me.

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: I'm Still Standing covered by Leo Moracchioli

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the prompt given at Poets and Storytellers United, Always Learning. I also was partially inspired by the idea of the Final Girl trope, which is all over the place in Halloween movies.

Why is That Crazy Woman Out Walking in the Rain?

1. Because though her boots and umbrella don’t match, they’re both cute in their own way and should be seen and used for splashing.
2. Because even though yesterday was a wash day, she’s got an interesting hat (that also doesn’t match) to protect her hair.
3. Because spreadsheets will still be there when she gets back, but rainstorms are now.
4. Because there’s nothing like a good shower to get over a block. It works for writing, why not this? 
5. Because she can imagine she’s attending a cherry blossom funeral, watching yesterday’s petals get swept along the roadways, and out to the drains that lead to something bigger somewhere else.
6. Because no one stops to make small talk in the rain.
7. Because the rain doesn’t care if you leak water too.
8. Because there has to be a rainbow at the end of all this, dammit. I haven’t been out here all this time just to go inside without seeing a rainbow.
9. Because angry-splashing so hard that rainwater makes it up and inside my boot makes me laugh.
10. Because I feel there’s something mad and lovely about laughing in the rain too.
11. Because I see a neighbor giving me an odd look out the window, and that makes me laugh harder until the rain slows down.
12. Because petrichor.
13. Because it might be little, but, finally, there’s that rainbow I needed.

Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: I Like to Walk in the Rain by Shirley Temple

Liner Notes For This Groove: This poem was created for Poets and Storyteller United's Weekly Scribblings prompt, Listmania.

April Can (2021)

April can be kind.
April can be cruel.
April is
April after all.

April must be
at home in Alice’s Wonderland—
October’s petal frocked twin,
hiding her teeth behind a teacup.

April leaps
up in yellows, pinks, and greens,
determined to grow out of spite

of the winter before she arrived.

April is especially hard
this year, demanding a new start
from an earth whipped sore

while trying its best to live

after the dying winter. 

But April can cry
right alongside you,

keeping company in quiet mists

or keening with you

in inconsolable storms.

bantersnaps on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: You Know Where to Find Me by Imogen Heap

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the Weekly Scribblings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, April.

Everyday

Everyday 

there’s a new blue sky
waiting for me
to disturb all the earth
thrown upon me
the day before,
and see if I’ll come dancing.

Everyday 

there's a new spark,

either hiding in the curl of a leaf

or out in plain sight

in the curve of my love's smile

strong enough 

to remind my heart what it's there for.

And all is made new again.

Taylor Van Riper on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Brand New Day by Sting

Liner Notes for This Groove: This poem was created for the Weekly Scribblings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Starting A New Relationship. You can start a new relationship with a day, right?

Unmistakable

It’s hard to believe
in the promise of springtime
while walking on the dried remains
of snow crushed grass, 
until
you see that first bit of green, 
thrusting forth an unmistakable digit
at the retreating frost.

Photo by iMattSmart on Unsplash

Song Choice: Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created by for the Weekly Scribblings prompt at Poets and Storytellers United, Beautiful Words. I chose the word shitamoe , which means 'plants sprouting under last year’s dried grass or under the snow' as my inspiration. 

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

April 2020

On my birthday,

I will take my tea

under the branches

of a dying cherry tree.

It has its scars, like I do,

raw and still exposed.

Ants have worried their way into the crevasses

and I know those wounds will not close.

But I see the buds

of the promised pink

that swirls around me

at the end of every April,

even though many of the branches

will never bear a bloom again.

It is enough that some of its branches will still flower.

It is enough that I still take up my pen.

Close up of a cluster of cherry blossom buds
thinking about blooming. They're stubborn.

Song Choice: Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance (I couldn't resist using an AMV version with clips from My Hero Academia)

Liner Notes for This Groove: I pulled a double off today, utilizing both the prompt at Poet's and Storytellers United (Weekly Scribblings #14 Let's Use Pathetic Fallacy, Shall We?) and Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads, Play it Again prompt, A L'Arora.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks