Change

by PA Davis

Change is a threshold to another world that we cross. Sometimes it creeps up, bursting into your routine with the abandon of a child’s prank. For good or bad, it’s on your doorstep and you can’t avoid its playful allure. Sometimes planned, self motivated, even controlled, change is a choice which is upon you.

And then there is change that seems to never come, the hope of a chance to change what you are and what you might become, a dream. This change looms, its mast pokes above the horizon but the hull of the ship stays just beyond your sight.

It invites you to see more, and then it strangles you and turns your edges sharp with anticipation. You wait, it seems to never come and it rapes your patience with its lack of forbearance.

Make it happen, you say. You do what you can, but you lack control of the final outcome, you lack the raw components, waiting for change, waiting for grass to grow. You struggle with something unseen, like in a dream; you’re running, confused and out of breath, and you’re searching for something, something just beyond your fingertips. You can smell it. You can taste its fragrance, and yet, you cannot see or feel it, or find it within your grasp.

Waiting for change is painful. Not like a puncture or a scrape. Something deep inside wrenches and torments you into a misery. But like a ballerina, change is a siren of the dance, a temptress enticing, luring you to search within the shadows of the wings, to come closer. She lives beyond a door and she beckons with her exotic charms, calling you to enter. And yet, the doors opening only lets out a tantalizing glimmer of light, of hope anticipated.

Some prefer the day-to-day routine, the continuity of sameness. For those there is comfort in knowing, controlling what comes next. Change to them is a serpent, unexpected, slithering beneath the waves. They wake each morning assured of what they are to do. No guessing at which corner to turn or fork to take. No frantic searching for a sign that provides a suggestion of fulfilled desire, and then fading like a mirage when approached.

For others, change is the fuel that fires the engine.

She asks me what is going to happen. When?

I search for answers, I connect the dots, but the image is incomplete. There are no more dots until the next page.

The siren’s dance is not yet complete.

PA Davis

FB:           https://www.facebook.com/pages/P-A-Davis-Author/135896199846747

Twitter:   @padavis249

Blog:        http://padaarch.wordpress.com/

I also did a Glossi magazine on this short – here’s the link:

http://glossi.com/padavis/55994-change

"The change will do you good"

 

Whenever I picked up the Irish Times at my local news agent’s, the owner would smirk, handing me some pennies back. “Here’s your change…The change will do you good!”
How about you? Are you afraid of change or do you welcome it?
Change affects all parts of life: political change, climate change, job changes; fashion & lifestyle are all subject to change; women know this because they go “through the change.” Some changes we humans have no control over—only our attitude towards it.
Some people hate change because of the uncertainty involved. Some find it easier to deal with the devil they know. The opposite isn’t desirable to me: being stuck in a rut, a predictable outcome, no change for the better? No thanks!
However this is not meant to be a philosophical treatise.  You may have noticed some changes to this website. Due to a two-month sabbatical that is taking me on another home swapping trip to Europe to see my family and hopefully finish my book, Scott Bury will mind the shop. He is a very experienced editor, published author and return contributor who kindly agreed to keep this website afloat in my absence. Now you can follow us on @WritersGT. Submissions will go to his email address for the time being. There have been some changes in layout.
What will not change is our mission statement to publish excellent content by bloggers and writers from around the world while providing a platform to highlight your work. The goal of WGT has been to offer exposure to readers through a growing network of dedicated authors who promote each other’s work. The more…the merrier: So tweet and network away to your heart’s content!
We all love comments! Don't hesitate to give us some feedback. Everybody needs encouragement!
Thanks to everybody contributing here and making this site a success. Wishing you a productive and safe summer,  I’m only an email away on the other side of the pond. Cheers!
Siggy Buckley 

A ONCE AND FUTURE WRITER

                    

      There it was, "Through the Eyes of a Teenager", a book of poetry offered to the world on a beautifully designed web page, a book of poetry graced by a lovely pink and pastel gray cover and draped in the gingerbread of gorgeous fonts.  All for $.99.  That's right, ninety-nine cents.   Attention fellow writers!  We are now engulfed in the insistent winds of change that have been stirred up for good or ill by that inexorable phenomenon of instant global communication, the Internet.   No news to most of us, I know.

      Ohhhhhh!  The young ones are tight on our tails.  What a smartie and harbinger of the future this teen is. . .she and her kind will walk on the graves of the great publishing houses of America who are now paying a high very price for attempting to keep their exclusivity and a very high standard for the writing products within their monopoly.

    Did you know that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, first offered the Kindle digital reader to several of the great Houses in the  New York publishing cartel asking for the right in return for Amazon to exclusively sell any books they agreed to digitize???   Sensing the reading revolution that the Kindle portended, the Houses buried the idea deep in the vaults in the naive hope it would go away.  I suppose they heard the death knell in the distance.

   Bezos trumped their short sighted hubris by going independent.  And that decision changed the known world of writers, readers and publishers forever.  Being the spectacular capitalist that he was, Bezos decided to exploit the Kindle digital potential, Amazon marketing empire and unbeatably low prices to the entire world of readers and writers. This possibly leaves the college sponsored mags and rags with more limited and easily controlled budget models as the last independent hold out for traditional control of the quality of poetry, short stories.  I wish them well.

       In the meantime this doubty teen has the hutzpah to launch her career into this new writers's melee  and offer her new book of poetry for just a dollar. . .hurrah for her and the parents and teachers who encourage her AND to the other many thousands of digital publishing pioneers like her. . .all for a dollar, if they wish to compete. . .and they will, and succeed.

      So American literature readjusts itself to accommodate those who are tech savvy, enthusiastic and have a tale to tell as well as all those who join them in digi writer support, editors, reviewers, promoters, bloggers, site creators (myself, www.eonwriter.com ) and on and on throughout the writing minions that hover in the digi  atmosphere of the internet writers' wonder world.

       Now, for the crux of the matter.  In this rush and tumble to be read and recognized among the millions of would be writers. . .what will be left for this brave teen writer when she grows up should she decide she wishes to make a living as a writer?   We are going through a massive change in the ability of the arts to offer a true living wage for many in the future, I suspect.  Perhaps even subjugating the writers' world to those who have mastered the art of creating connections throughout the internet web best.  Yes, more will be published at more and more competitive prices by more and more writers and more readers (hopefully) at prices that surely will defeat the publishing empire that  parented our marvelous writing heritage in America at the cost of muting much unrecognized writing talent along the way.  

      "It is what is"  the street saying goes. . .once there was a bright and bold young teen who tossed her budding poetry to the digital winds, all for a dollar. . .and Amazon still made its cut at the current going rate. . . but why buy a book of poetry when there is so much more to see and read for free on this marvelous thing, the Internet?

Sandy Hartman