What's Good to Read? Keangaroo's Weekly Roundup, 21-Feb-2018

The past week has been filled with cats and other creatures

in fiction, poetry, art, and music. But first,

Another Curie!

We love to see writers rewarded with more than upvotes and comments. Nothing like SBD to let us feel the love, right?

Congratulations,

@warpedpoetic

The Sun Is Not My Friend

So many good lines - e.g.,

The crisp sizzling spark of melting lies,
Of exposed parts, long pinned in the dark.
and
I need the darkness of night
To clothe me, drape me in shadows;
To hide my sins, my stains, my broken skin.

---

Who drew this?

Scroll down to find out. Way down.

Pause along the way...

Given his inexplicable affection for cats,

Guy Shalev deserves a mention up front. To celebrate two months on Steemit, @geekorner gives us, in one handy and convenient post, a list that hyperlinks all his Steemit posts to date.

Two Months on Steemit Report, Thanks, and Post-Index

And before I leave Guy, aka Thunder_God, aka geekorner, here's another shout-out:

@geekorner

We Are Called Legion, for We Are Many
He brought us some fiction this month! A Western, and a war story. Dark stuff:

All around him were blood, the smell of blood, mosquitoes buzzing around, the hot humid air standing still amid the flora, catching their scent mingled with the scent of mangled flesh and spilled guts.

His poems are also dark, but do follow @geekorner and see for yourself. You'll meet someone he calls Malachite. It's deeply affecting, and personal, and haunting.

The end of February had been filled with cats and other creatures.

@byn

The Life of Pets... Who Live on Boats: Animal Photography is fantastic.

So are the stories, especially the letters from the cat, e.g.:

If you start with the most recent post, you'll find links to previous missives from Tempest, the Boat Cat.

Due to popular demand, Tempest, the Boat Cat continues to send letters to her humans back on land:
That Dog Cinnamon, the vicious chihuahua.

If the name Byn is familiar, Mission Accomplished--17 days ago, she got a mention from Isle of Write for My Freewriting Journey: My Escape from Mental Constipation.

Byn is a dynamic Steemit blogger, worthy of many upvotes and Follows.

And, always, so is

@yahialababidi

Prolific, professional, award-winning, published poet Yahia shared one of his textbook poems with us:
"What Do Animals Dream?" A Reading on DSound -- Steemit

And yes, I meant textbook literally. Go, go, read the story behind the poem, and the poem, and then read everything by this gem of a writer!

https://www.amazon.com/Yahia-Lababidi/e/B0042SRQWG

@apnitopathshala

Silhouetting the cat

(
The form of this painting takes shape as I go further filling up the empty spaces. My initial thought process for the...
Click on the link to read more about how one tackles the daunting task of drawing and painting the feline form.

Oh, yes, and about that cute little dog drawing? That's also from @apnitopathshala!

Check out In the Process of Learning--and throw some comments and upvotes her way, if you can.

---

Cats and Curies: Can't Have Too Much of a Good Thing!

@guytmartland

If they only knew...

My Slave seemed pleased with the words I wrote for him a few weeks back. So much so, in fact, that he had the temerity to pass them off as his own. The cheek of it! Perhaps it was my mistake to call it ‘The Gift’. In any case, given that he does provide me with a pretty much constant source of white fish and spinach, I can’t be too hard on him. Even if I do have to pester him to actually feed me. And let’s not mention that time the cat flap broke when it was raining…I’m not complaining – my Slave mostly does a good job....

---

This sequel to "The Gift" is so good, it was Curied.

Watch for Part Three, coming soon!

---

Paranormal fans, don't miss....

@cryptocrown

Night Tale - Chapter 13

"You are somewhere here. I know it. In your animal body, there is enough from the human to prepare a trap. "

Fun, Fun, Fun with Feline Puns

@caleblailmusik

Cat Pun Album Tracklist! -And a Few Comments on my Recent Steemit Behavior

The Whole Kitten Kaboodle!!!

is the official name of the album, “Cat Pun” for short, because the playlist includes gems like these:

Catturday Knight Live
The Kitteness Protection Program
I Can't Hear Myself Sphinx
Honest, I'm Not Lion
I've written the first eight songs and am stoked for you to hear them! I'll probably post lyrics soon, maybe even let y'all hear some demos, he writes.

Mysterious, Mystical, Mythical Views of the Animal Kingdom

@bennettitalia

Dragonflies and Other Magical Creatures blew me away! Two stories of dragonflies show us a supernatural connection to nonhumans in our world. And so much more. In the author’s words:

There are other stories I could tell about experiences with animals and plants...
How hummingbirds would get stuck in our sunroom …
How my favorite cats have….followed unspoken psychic communications with pinpoint accuracy, as if to say "yes, now you are speaking my language"
I could explain the significance of willow trees, and that of crows, and foxes.
He could also tell you how the aspen trees in Colorado began talking to me one day, and you might think it sounds impossible, but…
… It doesn't matter what you believe. What matters is that these are stories of closeness between two worlds that are seldom perceived as close.

Fabulous, heartfelt, and compelling - I love this entry to the supernatural contest hosted by...well, click on the post to get to that link.

Too much cool stuff for one post!

@pyrowngs

Ant

Snakes count, right?

@mariannewest

offered up the one-word prompt "snake" for the Five Minute Free Write last Tuesday.

@cryptosharon

I'm a little moody today because the train wanted a smooch instead of a ride. But I managed to make a freewrite. It's easy to write on the most dangerous app lol. It kills the writer's block very smoothly.

Guttonous Snakey Snake

Follow the #freewrite hashtag for more.

Speaking of snakes, some might argue that men can be included in this phyla.

@lilyraabe

A Man’s Guide to Approaching Women on Steemit

"So you want to connect with that awesome writer/thinker/business owner/artist who also happens to be a woman?" she posted at the Discord channel. "I suppose this isn’t a typical 5-minute free write, but after some chats on discord today I sat down and wrote this in one go for about 5 minutes. It was pretty relevant today--I don’t intend to call anyone out or say “boo”, just want folks (especially male-oriented folks) to be thoughtful about chatting to female creatives on the site!"

While you're there, click on that username @lilyraabe and see what else she writes. Like, why does @lilyraabe go to prison so often? And how does a starving artist keep from starving?

@lilyraabe

5 Reasons Why Steemit is an Artist’s Dream Come True!

You might notice that Lily includes the IOW logo at the end of her post:

But that her hashtags do not include #isleofwrite.

No matter!
Read about art at Steemit and how Lily is making the most of it!

Foxes! Who can resist?

@ clarastorm

Smells Like Cherry Blossoms, Part 5, Finale

The photos alone are worth a the trip clicking on this link will take you to.

Arthropods and Arachnids

Had their day too, the same week dragonflies and other creatures were let loose from @bennettitalia’s pen.

@bennettitalia

Cool contest! I've never written haiku before, I'm surprised by how very different it is from writing other forms of poetry. Here's my attempt:

Porcelain

@dbooster

O Ye Sea Slug Of Little Faith :: Haiku of Japan #96

In Japanese mythology it is said that when the gods were asking all the sea creatures how they would serve mankind, only the sea slug remained silent. So angry was one of the goddesses (amanozume-no-mikoto) that she cursed the sea slug to always remain as indecisive and wishy-washy forever more …. > Knowing that, perhaps you can see my interpretation of Issa's haiku. But that doesn't mean it's correct. What do you think he meant?

Haiku Contest #2: Bugs and Arachnids in Winter summoned more of our alien-looking Earth comrades.

As always, comments from readers entertain me. Tip o' the hat to @caleblailmusik for the charming idea of a Box Welder Bug!

He had replied to my 30 Day Haiku Challenge Day 23:

caleblailmusik ·

I would say the spider and the ladybug from your computer screen could chill, but I don't know if the spider behave itself :P

carolkean ·

Oh, the ladybug is not a loner. I've seen several dead ladybugs in the vicinity of the spider, but I don't believe he did them in. They are not in his web, after all. The boxelder bugs, NOBODY eats.

caleblailmusik

I don’t think I know what a box welder bug is.

Ha! Box Welder! I love it! That made my day.

And that led to his profound insight:
caleblailmusik

We need more stories about bugs, and we need to represent their hecka welding skills. :P

There is more, so much more, but Keangaroo has to hop off to run errands. Please click on those hashtags to get to more of the good stuff. #Haiku, #isleofwrite, #freewrite, and more: keep looking, and you'll keep finding!

Images courtesy of Pixabay,
except Guy T. Martland's cat and Byn's furry friends

art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics