Tag: Creative Writing

Austin Street Revisited (poem)

~ joanne the geek ~ 2 Comments 

Austin Street Revisited


everything's still here
                                          though
on a smaller scale -

the driveway
                         not so steep
the park
                 not so large
the creek
                  not so wide

once this suburb
was the centre 
of the universe

the land dreamt
and created me
I walked away
                            blinking
into a wider world

but I am still here -

playing in the park
                                     with my siblings
avoiding the creek
                                    where the pirates lurk
escaping the boys
                                   from across the road

running up the driveway
                                                to home


Joanne Fisher

This is another older poem that I’ve reworked. It’s more sentimental than the other ones which is probably why I don’t like it as much. Our house at Austin Street was the first house I remember living in (though it wasn’t actually the first). My brother and I visited the place around twenty years later to find it was exactly the same as we remembered it, though everything seemed smaller. Funny that. In these pictures my house was the white one with the pale green roof.

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©️2021 Joanne Fisher

Wolf Hunt (poem)

~ joanne the geek ~ 2 Comments 

Wolf Hunt


you who encourages
the wolf that bites
and injures, that 
mutilates and weakens

you pretend to be trying 
to stop it, but
instead you
scratch it behind the ears

your homes are wolf-proof
just hearing it howl outside
your door, but sometimes
you find fur across your path
and what was staring through
your windows last night?

in other places the wolf
can get through the holes
in the roof, the thin cracks
in the door, or can be heard
scuttling across the rotting
boards

and while you're sitting secure
unworried about all the death
and decay in the street, your
silence will end

you will open your door
to find white sharp teeth
and blood on your doorstep


Joanne Fisher

This was a poem I wrote when I was younger…

I’m thinking about putting The Oracle story on hiatus. There has a been a sharp decline in interest in the story. I know the main character is not an easy person to like, but that was sort of the point of it… When I bring it back I’ll probably truncate the story so it ends sooner than I was planning. There was going to a be a build up of tension on the ship. but I can always allude to it later in the story. The latest installment of Contraband has also not done so well, but as there is only one more episode to come, I’m not as concerned about that.

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©️2021 Joanne Fisher

The Door (flash fiction)

~ joanne the geek ~ 3 Comments

The Door

I went to visit my friend Madeline. When I arrived she was cutting up meat in the kitchen. I looked around the room and noticed there was a door in the middle of a wall that I swear I had never seen there before.

“Is that new?” I asked her.

“Hmm what?” she asked without turning round.

“That door. I don’t remember it being there before.”

“Oh that door! Yes it appeared there a few days ago.” she stated.

“Appeared?” I asked.

“Yes. One day it wasn’t there, and then another day it was.”

“And you don’t think that’s odd?” She turned to look at me.

“Yes it’s very odd. Open it and have a look inside.” she suggested. I cautiously walked up to the door and opened the door slowly. All I could see inside was total darkness.

“Is there a light?”

“No it’s totally dark. If you walk in there with a light, the darkness will eat it up.” she told me.

“Excuse me? Eat it up?”

“Walk in there and you’ll see what I mean.” she urged. She stopped cutting up the meat and walked to my side. “Go on!” I gingerly put my foot forward to find there was a floor there. I took a few cautious steps in. I turned my phone’s torchlight on and found it failed to illuminate the blackness around me. I turned to face Madeline.

“That’s totally weird!” I remarked. She smiled at me. It was then I saw her eyes suddenly turn red.

“Goodbye.” she said as she closed the door and I was engulfed in darkness.

“Hey open the door!” I screamed. I walked forwards to where the wall and door should be, but found nothing but empty air. I flailed around lost in the pitch black. “Please open up the door!”

Joanne Fisher

This was inspired by the prompt March Writing Challenge Day 30 – a character encounters a door in their home that wasn’t there before provided by Emine Beasley. Though it wasn’t the main characters actual home…

In other news: I finally got around to submitting some poems to this years issue of Catalyst. I probably won’t hear back until October.

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©️2021 Joanne Fisher

She Said (poem)

~ joanne the geek ~ 4 Comments 
She Said...


She said I don't care about most people
         but I like you

she said I want to be with you
         forever

she said I love you


*


she said I don't want to come around 
         anymore

she said I thought I loved you once
         but now I'm not so sure

she said I'm sick of you


and I was pushed under
    the dark waves


Joanne Fisher

This was previously published on my blog in June 2018.

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©️2021 Joanne Fisher

Crossing That Bridge (flash fiction)

~ joanne the geek ~ 2 Comments

Crossing That Bridge

Now it was getting dark, Anastasia could try to cross the bridge. She had remained hidden for most of the day by the riverbank hoping her captors wouldn’t find her. No doubt they had agents nearby searching for her frantically. If she had crossed during daylight, they probably would have seen her and taken her back to that room.

The last few days she had been tied to a chair, but found her captor’s knots weren’t as tight as they should have been. She eventually untied one and slipped through the ropes, then quietly opened a window and quickly limped away. When she got to the river she hid among some bushes.

If she could make it to the other side, there would be a good chance she could escape them. “Well here goes nothing”, she said to herself as she stood up. Then she heard a car behind her…

Joanne Fisher

Word count: 150

This was written with the photo prompt provided by Crimson’s Creative Challenge #116.

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©️2021 Joanne Fisher

At Graeme’s (poem/repost)

~ joanne the geek ~ 8 Comments

At Graeme’s

the sun is here

but the cold wind blows

through the living room

windows

I stare out onto

a landscape

forever falling away

tiers of corrugated rooftops

& granite buildings

to a sawdust harbour

Dunedin sprawls

like a crumpled jersey

looking down or up

there’s always something

to see…

soft jazz on the stereo

& you sit tapping away

on your laptop

about climbing rocks

I am living on muesli bars

& honey nut logs

we are filling our time

with lines on pages

waiting

Joanne Fisher

This poem was originally published in the anthology Climbing the Flame Tree and first appeared on this blog in December 2017.

I bet when I publish this WordPress will condense this poem into one stanza as it is doing with all my poetry posts these days. If it does (and probably will) the second stanza starts at the line “soft jazz on the stereo”.

Dunedin is the second largest city in the South Island (Christchurch being the largest). It’s built on hills and has some of the steepest urban streets in the world. Occasionally I would visit friends there.

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©️2020 Joanne Fisher

Her Place (flash fiction)

~ joanne the geek ~ 14 Comments

Her Place

Gina unlocked the door and walked in to her place. After a lifetime of renting, she never believed she would finally have her own house. Already her furniture was here, along with all her other belongings lying in boxes everywhere.

No longer would she have to worry about landlord’s demands, or being suddenly evicted for accidentally missing rent or some other reason. This was her house. She looked out the window and saw the garden and imagined herself pottering away in it to her heart’s content. She deeply breathed in the air of her home. This would be awesome.

Joanne Fisher

This was written with the prompt of something a character never dreamed would happen provided by the Carrot Ranch December 10 Flash Fiction Challenge.

I’ve never actually owned a house. As someone who has been homeless a few times, this is a dream of mine…

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©️2020 Joanne Fisher

First Letter (poem)

~ joanne the geek ~ 4 Comments

First Letter

It is only now

we have the

Tasman Sea

between us

I can safely say

I love you,

you write saying

you’re making burgers

for redneck hippies

& washing dishes

feeling like Siddhartha

becoming a merchant,

there are compensations –

bats & wallabies, strange

insects, gliding pygmy

possums & two metre

carpet pythons

the ocean is now

a part of your life

like a lover breathing

softly beside you,

here in Christchurch

I don’t hear the sea

boiling in my ears

anymore though

beaches are nearby,

our creativity saves us –

we do what we have to

& not let the bullshit

swallow us whole

I was never sure of

the way I stood on the earth

my shadow spirals

around me

gripping me

at the throat,

you write to say

you don’t love me

in that way

but your incandescence

breaks my darkness

you allow me

to breathe again

& I write you love poems

because you deserve it

Joanne Fisher

This was originally published in the journal JAAM and was first published in this blog in August 2018. It’s gone through a severe edit since then…

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©️2020 Joanne Fisher