The Human Experience: Written Tales Chapbook, #8

By Written Tales

Written Tales Chapbook VIII is a collection all about the human experience. It's filled with poems and stories that connect with your soul.  No matter your reading taste, you'll find a tale or poem to brighten your day. The writers in this volume encompass the globe and share their visions of life.

We hope you enjoy our "The Human Experience" collection as much as we did preparing it for your reading pleasure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Written Tales
• Release date: May 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223191063

Book preview

As One

By Dibyasree Nandy

Love, like a nation’s desolation

Thoughts keen on the entrance gates

We journey through mountains and strands

By treacherous woods and barren lands

To stand at the edge in wonder

Our home to take back

Midst fire and ruin asunder;

Traveller’s unstoppable, no heights insurmountable-

Should all end in flames,

Our scorched hands as one.

Love, a collapsing hill’s elevation

We choose to live yet pay no heed to our tumbling fates

Taking cover

Knowing all’s over

But a choice to turn and fight

Not cloying

Our blades still ring true and bright;

We don’t fall on our knees; we don’t hope for pleas-

Should all end in onslaughts,

We’ll lie under the mountains, breaths stilled as one.

Love, like a glacial death

The water beneath in dire straits

A crust of ice formed, yet the soul’s ablaze

We just have to make our way past a tight maze

Thawed, we can inhale again

Shy smiles as the timorous moon

Seen once more, an evergreen glen;

Winters will come, but so will a new plum-

Should all end in a blizzard, a storm,

Our numb limbs will still crawl close as one.

Love, a golden treasure hoard

Wealth uncurbed, creeping doubt generates

After an arduous quest

We wish to rest

To bask in the richness and abundance

Yet trust turns stale

Growing redundance;

We take a step away, judging so we won’t go astray-

Should all end in avarice,

We’ll force out of the devouring hell, kicking gold aside as one.

Love, like the sky’s cruelty

Each slow hour awaits

Two stars align, Vega and Altair

We shall always care

Sparsely can we touch

A separating universe

Yearning and despair much;

A leaf drifts down; seasons age to brittle and brown-

Should all end in futility,

Bodies rent, we’ll take a stand, to make our luck and unite as one. ¹

Baby Came Home 2/ Valentines

By Natalia Serrano-Chavez

do you like this song? 

his voice rung like a dulcet melody, reverberating ears and car;

sipping boba and youth, toying with time,

we sat in silence and fear:

yea

is all i could muster.

he nodded his head.

yeah? 

ricocheting off the car lock, his boba drink, and my chest, his eyes paused on my neck.

i cleared my throat and sought out the cupholder.

he leaned in, no, 

i leaned in, yea, 

i leaned in;

strawberry-coated lips, 

a sweet soft kiss, 

the song vibrated in my ears:

i was only 17 when we first tried things, where she first made me feel like a man

we headed home blasting profanity-filled radio stations;

my boba drink melted,

with my lips rubbed dry, my tongue coated in DNA, i said: 

do you like this song?  ¹

Courage is…

By JMD Summers

Courage is the mother who is sick. Who hurts on the inside out and tells you with all her heart that it will work out.

Courage is the one who stands tall when the world makes her feel small.

Courage is the person who will take the fall with you: catch you so you barely get hurt at all.

Courage is the person that, when you cry yourself to sleep at night due to pain or fear, would say, "Nothing to fear, my dear, because your mother is here; and, as long as I am around, no one will dare to hurt you. This is my solemn vow. From now until forever, this is my commitment to you. I will be there for you until my dying day, even when you can not see me anymore. I hope you keep my advice and love in your heart.  So I can be there with you; even when I am not.

Her courage is my legacy, always and forever; and I know her spirit will be in my heart. ¹

Each Kiss, a Grain of Sand

By J. Iner Souster

I went for a walk, and that's when I found the bottle, delivered from the ocean's depths. I retrieved it from the darkness. To a place where love once thrived. Now lies a void where adoration died. Within was someone else's tale of