Moonlight Musings '26

Our Winter issue Beginning After is our 8th and latest issue of The Oracle! 

This issue of the Zine includes prompts such as: Trying Too Hard, Inventory of Pocket Mind Heart, In Order To Be Reborn…, Imagine a Celebration, Origin, Blackout Poetry, Rearview Mirror, Resolution, Crows Know, The Oracle Said, State of Emergency, Personify Winter, Food as Community, and Shape of a Heart. 

If you're interested in reading these prompts further, supporting local writers, or just looking for something fun to pick up- come find us at your local bookstore! All our vendors are listed in the "Bookstore" tab of our website. Alternativley you can order for delivery online or come down to 12 Baskets Cafe Fridays from 1 - 2pm to pick up a Zine at writing group.  

Prompt: The Magic of Friendship

I’ve tried friendship but it never really took

The point is to be unapologetically positive

In a smile that is normal and not fake

The magic appears when you really need it

In good trust - 

In its early stages

Navigating strengths, sensitivities,

Then comes the test

We all get to evolve our love and humanity

In this earth school planet

Hold to the is-ness of this consciousness

Never reticent, never reserved

Returning this unconditional love as best I could

Was my pleasure -

It’s not a location, not a person, place or thing.

Riding on the spaceship called friendship

We can be everywhere at every time

This ship can survive the wreckage

Making it plurals, - the magics of friendship

Reciprocation of anything you both want

Things can work out better

Laughing fully, even when you have to squeeze both legs together

To keep from peeing -

Allowing the process to happen, willing to be

On the other side -

The universe will allow a goodness

It is taking you on a vacation the day the divorce is final,

Ballgames with endless innings, 

Praying for a person crumbling from the weight of the world

We are not hermits

Friendship begins at birth

Helps us avoid tunnel vision

An exchange glance

Written in code, only kinship

It’s the connection, no matter the duration

A three way chord is not easily broken

It’s a life-long endeavor

All relationships should be friendly

And that’s the magic

A shared meal

An unknown prayer

Pure love is now - look around

Friendship is the only ship

I wish to sail upon

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Coming Back to Life 

Slip inside this cozy coffin bed

To be dead is to be separated from life

Everyone will remember

A promise given, a life awaiting

A hand was stretched

Free your heart from the stagnant metal of doubt

Looking in,

I know it happens slowly

My love for you never ceases

To turn, turn turn and turn again

All at once quickly

Still to stay beginning

I’d forgotten eternity

I woke up and realized I’d been dead

Had a funeral, led her to the mossiest part of the yard,

This moment is monumental

I’d rather be no where else

My quick life story in a nutshell

Buried the pain, loved with everything she had

Just this morning she smelled the flowers

And remembered the little girls happiness

Well that was a lot of sorrow, so

Let’s now talk about that which grows

I hear a raven calling out thy name

A rebirth beginning, the soul is alive

Dream of me, dream of you -

Buy a dream at the supermarket that doesn’t exist

That’s where I shoplift

Love in a large cup, a small bowl

Show me the moon! The constellations were still there and so were the new ones

She saw Neptune, Uranus and the rings of Saturn

She stood effortlessly, before flying off before daybreak

We managed to survive the weather

Yes, they come back to life, 

They bend like the building,

After the fire everyone pulls down ceilings

Break down walls

In my life is a coming to be like . . .

Learning to be more heart-centered

And less mind controlled

He could not wake up, as a child. . .

When you’re ready it will come to you

Never something gentle

You don’t have to flatline to restart your heart

Permeate and incubate

Floodshed of imagination

Activate without remorse

The human condition, its irrefutable,

That’s for darn sure

Resurrection always comes as a surprise

Becoming the light my dreams have seen in a glimpse

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Fishing Stories 

The army officers were surprised(?) with their lunch

I prayed for the lobsters

I was just pretending to be a fish

In a pond by an old plant

Just enough water makes a pool

It’s actually a spiritual thing

That leads to going deeper

During my early adolescent years

Outshining my cousins who would scoop me up

In their hot rods and I blew them

Out of the water with my beginner’s mind

The paradox and disclaimer

Back and forth

Beneath the placid surface churning

Yearning, burning what is passed between

Casting sparks instead of line

God knows what block and tackle 

the monster’s body against the fisherman’s 

Delicate line

Chaos would tire itself out

It is the Lord

Keep you net on the other side

It was the fight of my life

The fish caught on to me

That sucker fought back like a ju jitsu super hero

It matters!

Swim, swim, swim, 1=0

We leave the planet gracefully

Let the fucking fish live!

Hook yourself!

Hopefully I don’t find myself in the tummy

Of corporate greed

Slippery and in reverse

Swimming in infinity of hallucination

The spot light at the bottom of the ocean

They will always watch the game and never play it

Reel you in with the hole punched

In the wall to make a point

Raised immediate red flags

The hook, almost lost in the memory

Of that closest of calls

Brought to the safe haven of the cattails and rushes

I love pirates, always have

They’re free, they escape being boring

Hella impressive

My friends were bone dry and laughing

Can’t deny how the fantasy is appealing

The vision of holding that treasure map in my hand

The wish that gets away is destined to live forever

To swim to the bottom of the pond to catch

Rocks that were thrown there

A symbol of a hot summer that began in innocence

It was like living in a fairy tale

I was born ready!

Wading knee deep in water

Something moving under my feet

The most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen

Maybe I should be a mermaid

Every word of this story is 100% true.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Shape of a Heart  

As our world falls apart

I’m sure the heart would help

As a man thinketh, in his heart, he is -

What do you think about yourself?

You need a deep relationship 

For all these thoughts and feelings

On the inside looking out

Oh no! It’s ok, either way

One way or the other

A collapsing feeling 

The antlers of my heart catch on everything:

People I love, the bones and all

The same loving ache

Unfurling in bloom

With its ducktape and glue

What do you think of me now?

Whatever it is, my hearts i weaponized

And I’ll give it away to anyone who refuses

To duck and cover

It’s not very cohesive

I was surprised to see it mapped out

On the sonogram screen

Turns out, I am a human

Locked inside your heartshaped box

For weeks, ever since I heard Nirvana

In utero

It can be easy to become trapped

like a dusty and long forgotten 

Chotchke locked away in a curio cabinet

Taking in out to play is out of the questions

I leave it in a shoebox on your doorstep

I’m just trying to get out of the way

And I love donating blood to the Red Cross

You’re not pregnant are you?

Cupid no longer needs to shoot me

You kissed me and I didn’t brush my teeth for days

Not my fault to want to scare you back to me

My heart is hand-delivered

Close the distance

The ears joined together make a heart

There is no time for fears

It’s a heart changing thing to do

Only then can you see hearts of euphonic dimension

The shape of my heart is full.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Food as Community, Memory, Connection 

I'm not sure what watermelon has to do with fried chicken but I'm sure it's good to have. She was always too kind to feed us whatever she had:

gravy made from bacon and whatever was last cooked in the pan. 

I wondered if it was dirty but at least it was made with love. 

Bacon fat tastes nice. 

The love of “pretty good” isn’t that bad. 

I’m at cookout at 2:00 am. 

Dinner in the middle of the night is more fulfilling than a thanksgiving feast- 

I love cheese, cheese and people are found almost anywhere, 

in the South, mixed with almost everything. 

The farm to table restaurant is a novel concept. 

Art imitates life. 

I have skills that go all the way from the farm to the table. 

My grandma used to serve waffles and ice cream 

for breakfast. 

What happens at grandma's house 

stays at grandma's house. 

Her special special recipe- she told me they were Eggo brand

Same bright yellow box . . .

To feel okay and how to be okay

If that is what you want in your life

At this moment

Farmlands - a rainbow of deliciousness

Colors all come from wild plants,

That’s really exactly what we need -

The bleeding color of a grape 

or a very edible rose flower

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Personify Winter

Frozen eyelashes, clawing through the white

Safety from freezing

A glacier momma bear, snow charging

Into the skies, we were out on a family walk

I was terribly afraid,

Sometimes that will change any story:

Just keep walking and smile -

Maybe winter’s more like a squirrel

The keeper of things from the year - 

All the little details

Like a little old house and old heaters, etc, etc

Cosmos and planet gaia, coccooned by their younger selves

You, me, me as that sly wolf who dwells

At the border in order to survive

Experiencing that shadow self, fractured, sheltered -

Just think, we are experiencing extreme cold

Remember the first responders

Unconquered, unsung

Final fighting fails to fall fallow

The sun sinks cold,

So little time to make amends

When no one else could see us

She grew to love the way the streetlights

Cast a shadow of us in the snow

Everything about us is used up dried up

Our breath carried us -

Not frail though, her muscles stood out

She was naked; she had no fear

Of the cold because she was the cold

Her favorite rock, a cliff on the edge of the world

Light bringer and herald of new dawn

The sheep scrambling for solid land

But I had her permission

Her expression, everything warm

The trees must have been chandeliers

She decided to sit with me for awhile

quiet surprises the senses

Campfire sounds against heated glare

Time to go in

I enjoy most feeding the birds and squirrels and 

I’m sure, one or two rats

I wonder why she comes and why she goes

Bring us to our waking hours -

Dancing circles in the snow

At least you leave the pines

Stay, you make the time go slow.

Got an eye on the bard owl

Nothing too hard to see, she made it 

That way, an inescapable clarity -

The bitch sets down her gun

And when the owl sighs, she smiles

Back to my burrow

A surly drunk from Boston, 

he travels far to bring her home

A romance for the ages

She was met by the wind.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: State of emergency

SOS, attention please, this is a PSA

From your friendly neighborhood meteorologist:

Please stand by for an emergency message

What is this state of emergency?

Is it mine or is it yours?

Time will tell.

If you ask mom, she’ll say, the weather, permitting

Wonder if I’d be ok all night in cold streets and 

So called shelter politics.

Thank God for 24 hour coffee shops -

Justice is neverending

emerge within the millennial state of emergency

No-knee jerk reacting

The new day, new age, segway void -

Manifest actualize realize

Button down the hatches

Find yourself a friend

This is the kind of storm babies come from

People raid the Ingles

Milk, juice, butter,eggs, cheese, etc

Shovels, broom and ice scrapers pulled out of corners

There is a run on flashlights and bulbs

Who isn’t anxious?

What keeps us going in this state?

Hope is something that makes you wait

So, I got serious about having an emergency kit ready.

I can only tell myself what I have learned over a lifetime.

I am proud of myself for being prepared

To protect all that you love, emergent in the urgency

You won’t hear the sirens

Something has to shatter for life to pour in -

Love a demon and watch it become an angel

On the occasion you catch a glimpse of hope in a stranger 

There’s something in the water

Why is it like this?

Location to be determined

Bite back frost bite

Now it’s time to only look after self

Hydrate your soul

Build a tent in your bed

Get matches, get candles

We will remember the perfect storm.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: the oracle says

Listen, 

The oracles position has not been filled

For millenia, but she still speaks:

Come one come all to the table

We must travel and clean and take pain pills

Ask and you shall receive

Ask until you ask the right one in the right place

Dream of washing clothes, then pay your bills

Then thank god - in a cryptic language

In riddles and puzzles that have never been solved

It’s so cold, my pen froze

If only I could predict the next moment

I don’t know

How some people could be so stupid

What it would be like to be myself -

We will dance and sing and come together

Everyone will have enough to eat

Passed on to all we meet

May we learn each other’s language

The weapons of war, turned into ploughs,

Justice the rule

Like a busy party 

I must just have one of those faces

Asked to hear every fear, every warning

Where is the one who offers me promises

Repeat the promise one more time

In silence, the promise no less true

The oracle is a liar

You can only tell the future so many times

Before it stops listening to you

This is nothing to worry about

The verdict is still out

None of it’s supposed to make any sense

The riddle is as obvious as the miracle 

Of your hand extended in the gesture of giving

A gift

One of 200 healthy habits

I would have quoted a bob dylan song

In honor of the unknown god

I’ll tell you this for free

Stop asking questions, I see through

All your bullshit - open your heart

And see what you see

You don’t have to purchase pain

You’re not the expensive illusion

I hope you got your money’s worth

Big portions = big consequences

Be mindful in all circumstances

Be there in all situations

Meet the intersection

We all leapt to our feet.

The oracle said yes.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: The crows know

They know where you live

They’ll help protect you

They’ll dance on the wire

Bring you little presents, smartest

Of the wild birds, they mate for life, 

raise young together

Despised by some, while others are intrigued

They are scavengers, they have mimicked humans, etc, etc

The quest to identify first - where?

From bird to bird, what bird has the bigger eyes?

To being the return of light -

Publishing

To keep things in the know

God forbid a jester is there -

The watchers between light and dark worlds

High above the volcanic ruins.

They know my compost in my back yard

Where Leslee gets her prompts

Know more than we wish to give them credit for

The only bird that will attack a bald eagle

They don’t pay rent in the sky, but they die.

Do crows love, any more of less than a dove

The crows know the straight line is a lie 

And the worth of taking the long way around to the truth

Worms, compost, trinkets 

Crows speak a different language, in the summer and the winter

I don’t speak crow, I just googled 21 nonfiction books about them.

Crows know 34 thousand ways to say stop.

They sing it in a high-pitched caw

Noir and ennui in the parable recounting

Electric pings absorbing fear

Snatches mixed with canopy branches

They know we think we think we know

We’re only human, they know

The origin of earth, meaning of life

The end of days

I don’t count crows all the time, there’s a lot of irony

In the way life changes

What if a crow lived forever?

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy! 

Prompt: Resolutions and New Beginning

If you really want to do the world a favor

Say yes to bad luck

External negation - the stars, the reality

Keep travel plans with fate

Be sure you’re on time when it really matters

What can we bring to resolution?

What can be new beginnings?

Sometimes things have to grow on people

Before they understand

A changing, but everyday the same world

As the light comes full tilt at me - the hardest part

As a soul trapped in a body, life comes at us

It shocked the world -

Spin and spin, paint me a picture with edges

See what really is - notations of reality

Unlimited possibilities with an invitation to adventure

As an only child who everyone loved and admired

Needed for a very important mission,

A practice to build spirit divine,

Hang my success on an inner bookshelf,

Read more books, an excuse I need to eliminate

Consider it a mental block, never stop expanding our minds

Overflowing with water, all that I know about you

Call in curiosity, the child’s first steps in a recurring dream,

An echo in the event of its happening,

On a tight rope, resolve has always been a loosening(?)

A constant shifting in the internal landscape

like trying to catch a spinning top with a fishing pole

Pressing for a pause, freedom steers my ship

Powered by steam and sweat and tears

Water, psychic sensation, tired of drowning myself

Feel it all, create for the sake of creation

A shiny sapling, sword exposed, air whistles, remember to breathe

A resolution is evolution

I’m trying to fix it!

My potential next step - I learned quickly I had to move slowly

Keep the faith, don’t waste time with unbelievers

Let it be for me, 

A fellow preacher I can wish luck

There is no good stopping point,

Get jiggy with it

Swing me around proper, pulled to the still point

Of your beautiful face, sharing a new years kiss

Always, we begin again

Do it again.

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  ✧ ₊˚

Composite poems are our way of putting all our writers work into one big peice of art. A line from each writers peice is taken during our weekly Friday writing group and put here for you all to reflect on, take inspiration from, or just enjoy!