It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

If the whole world is ending

Then at least I have this moment

With the cormorants chuckling

On the next dock over

While the water bumps gently

Against the shore

And the rippling shadow of the dark cloud

Impresses itself upon the blinding

Sunlight blazing on the water’s surface

On this silver blue day

Following the ice storm

My fingers go numb but my heart is warm

In the suspended stillness

Of a moment just for me.

I feel the gentle caress of the

morning sun on my cheek

as the birds play and fight overhead.

They flit between their thorny perches on

cactuses, carrying animated conversations.

The wind pulls the seductive smell of

my steaming coffee toward me

on the cool air of sunrise.

And I seek to smooth this

ruffled feeling inside me with

the call of the mourning dove.

The house stands, staring with shattered eyes

A perpetual breeze ruffles the white gossamer drapes

patterned with purple butterflies and rosebuds

Whispering softly, urgently

A story about stolen innocence

Or the way women sometimes

vacate their own body

Allow men to spray paint sexually aggressive

messages on the walls then bash their way

through them with a sledgehammer

Something about the cool evening air

lifting the soft and delicate unprotected fabric,

as though that’s the way it’s always been

Shouts and loud bangs rain down from the floors above

A frozen smile

Shattered glass

Paint fumes

Leave before dark

Give it to me, daddy

Swollen, purple clouds cushion the sky

Impressing a waiting silence

A stillness heavy with anticipation

The calm before the storm