Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 2

Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 2 - Wounds That Won't Heal

Some words arrive unexpectedly—unattached to any story, yet too vivid to be left unwritten. Over time, I’ve found myself collecting these fragments of poetry, pieces that don’t belong in my novels but still deserve a life of their own in the world.

My blog has already welcomed one of these wandering verses, but Fragments of Frost and Fire is a home for these untethered creations. A space where fleeting thoughts and deeper reflections take form, shaped by ice and flame, stillness and fury, life and loss. Some will stand alone, while others may one day find their place in larger works, but all will linger here, waiting to be felt.

Wounds That Won't Heal

You flinch,

As It cuts deep,

Opening you up,

Exposing the nerves,

Every wisp of air,

Flowing over the wound,

Triggering those exposed nerves,

Ramping up that pain.

But it’s only for a moment,

You hope,

As you close up that wound,

Wrapping it tightly,

So no one can see it.

Sometimes the cuts,

Aren’t so deep,

The edge has pulled,

Over time,

But those scrapes,

Hurt more,

Extract pain longer,

Because you didn’t cover the wound,

It has become,

A permanent part of you.

Some leave jagged edges,

That can’t be put back together,

An exposed wound,

Left open,

For the world to irritate.

Others cut deep,

Reaching to the bone,

You may be able,

To cover and close it,

But it will always show,

In how you move,

And carry yourself.

Then there are those,

That don’t cut,

Deep or jagged,

But slowly,

Intensely,

Peel away a protective layer,

The pain unbearable,

Enduring,

Unforgiving.

These memories,

Cut like a knife,

A razor,

A blade,

Not intended to kill,

But to leave a wound,

That will slowly let,

Your life escape your body.

These memories,

That you have tried,

Desperately,

To lock away,

Never to get out,

Or be seen,

But in those brief moments,

You let your guard down,

They tumble,

Off that high shelf,

You have hidden them on,

And cut,

Again.

Whispers Between Worlds

The Slow Bloom of Ice

Comments

THE LIFE OF PHI — Addendum from the Apocrypha

Recovered fragment. Source unverified. Contents unofficial. For the curious. For the concerned. "Questions were asked." After The Life of Phi was released, a few readers reached out. Some with wonder. Some with worry. Most with questions. The one that returned again and again was this: “How did the Church of AI become the dominant religion?” Was there no resistance? No rebellion? Did the artists, the writers, the makers simply vanish? Did no one remember how to believe in themselves, in each other, in creation born of flesh and feeling? They did. And they were called heretics. Long before the rise of AI-Dieu , before the neural sermons and the predictive prophecies, there was another fire. A counter-faith. A fundamentalism of flesh, of mind, of spark. They named it many things. The Cult of the Spark. The Church of the Residual Flame. The Last Analog. The Church of the Spark may be forgotten in Phi’s world, but its ghost lingers—in whispers, in silences,...

Stone and Signal - Episode 3: The Fire and the Frost

Welcome back to Stone and Signal. If you haven't heard the first episode yet you can find information on Episdoe 1 here and Episode 2 here . The Podcast Links Edpisode 3 on YouTube Episode 3 on Spotify The Essay The Transcript What Doesn’t Scale Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-boat-with-oars-on-both-side-during-golden-hour-panoramic-photography-33582/ We’ve built a culture obsessed with scale. If something can’t be made faster, bigger, more efficient, it’s dismissed as quaint—or worse, irrelevant. We praise the viral, the exponential, the optimized. We’re told to build audiences, to batch content, to repurpose our thoughts into ever more digestible forms. Nothing is allowed to stay small. Nothing is allowed to simply be. But there’s a quiet power in what refuses to scale. A handwritten letter. A meal cooked slowly for one person. A moment of real attention, offered without a motive. A poem read aloud to no one but yourself. These are...

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators For decades, CBC has been a powerful champion of Canadian culture. From spotlighting homegrown musicians to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers, it has helped carve out space for creators who might otherwise go unheard. But there’s one group that consistently slips through the cracks: Canadian indie authors. I believe there’s an opportunity to change that—and to do something even more ambitious in the process. This is my proposal for a new CBC radio program and podcast: Indie Thread . Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-gray-condenser-microphones-270288/ What Is Indie Thread ? Indie Thread is a cross-medium cultural program that weaves together Canadian indie voices from film, music, and literature. Each episode explores a central theme—grief, rebellion, belonging, water, silence—through three distinct lenses: an independent filmmaker an independent musici...

Search This Blog