🥳Celebrating Two Years of Creativity and Connection! 🥳

It’s been an incredible journey on Substack filled with creativity, connection, and the joy of expression.

Hey everyone!

I can hardly believe I’m almost halfway through my quest to write 30 poems in 30 days for NaPoWriMo! I hope you've been enjoying the daily poems inspired by the prompts. Today’s poem is below!

I’m also celebrating my second anniversary on Substack, and I’m thrilled to share some highlights! I've put together a list of the Top 10 posts that showcase the variety of themes and styles we've explored together.

Additionally, I’ve highlighted my Top 5 Fiction posts that have taken us on some adventures, as well as the Top 5 Poetry pieces that have touched our hearts and sparked some deep thoughts.

Some of these Top posts include a mix of fiction, poetry, and even an essay. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out yet, I’d absolutely love for you to give them a read! And if you're new here, please share your thoughts after diving in—I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Thanks so much for being part of this journey with me. Here’s to many more adventures ahead!

✨Top 10✨

✨Top 5 in Fiction✨

✨Top 5 in Poetry✨

This poem is part of the NaPoWriMo 2025 challenge to write a poem a day in April. This is the prompt for April 12.

Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem, “Peter Quince at the Clavier.” It’s a complex poem that not only heavily features the idea of music, but is structured like a symphony. Its four sections, like symphonic movements, play with and expand on an overall theme, using the story of Susannah and the Elders as a backdrop.

Try writing a poem that makes reference to one or more myths, legends, or other well-known stories, that features wordplay (including rhyme), mixes formal and informal language, and contains multiple sections that play with a theme. Try also to incorporate at least one abstract concept – for example, desire or sorrow or pride or whimsy.

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I. Prelude to Curiosity

In cosmos’ cradle, Pandora stands,  
a girl with tender and curious heart,  
a gilded box of secrets, risky fate,  
temptation drips like honey on a plate.  
Desire calls, enticing siren's song,  
"Open the lid, dear one; what could go wrong?"  
Each breath a question, each heartbeat a dare,
as ghostly shadows press their advantage.

II. Unraveling of Secrets

With a breath that trembles, she lifts the lid,  
and the air thickens, charged with potential,  
sorrow spills forth like rain from a dark cloud,  
a tempest of despair, echoing loud.  
But wait! Amid tumult, a gleam of light,
hope, a firefly dancing in still night—  
a fragile reminder: in despair’s  depths,  
even in darkness, the spirit rebounds.

III. Dance of Shadows and Light

In the ruins of dreams that once shone bright,
the elders gather, their wisdom tested,  
with grief-laden eyes, they recount the past,  
the laughter, the sorrow, the shadows cast.  
Yet Pandora, in her sadness, stands tall,  
hope swells within, it rises after all.  
Each note of her heart beats a rhythm true,  
a song of resilience, music of hope.

IV. Coda of Whimsy and Hope

And so we gather, a chorus of souls,  
beneath the vast sky where the starlight spills; 
our voices raised, celebrating the night,  
to Pandora, the box, sparks of our light.  
Weaving our stories, in joy and in strife,  
we locate sweet essence, pulse of our life—  
our laughter’s banquet, a feast for the mind,  
the symphony of existence we find.  
As the last chord lingers, slowly floating,  
we carry the hope, the love we all share.

Thanks very much for reading, subscribing, and sharing the stories, poetry, and essays in this space. If you like a story, poem, or essay, please click on the heart. Also if you are so moved, please leave a comment.