25/06/2020
1. I am enough. ❤👩🦰❌🤗🌈
2. I create my own space in which to live and work. ✍🏻📖📚🤗❤🐈🐈❤
3. I deserve people in my life who will uplift and validate me. ❤👩🦰❌🌈🤗😷
- 🍇💚💙Random… Haiku/Senryu – 🍇💚💙No.594 – Full Sturgeon Moon🍇💚💙
#randomtheme #haiku #senryu #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
full sturgeon moon in
August touched by red dust
glows in the night sky
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸ABC7Chicago - ✈️💙Free Verse 93 – The Cats and I💙✈️ 💙✈️
#freeverse #poetry
We are together in the confines of the house.
Yet we are islands within its rooms.
The cats and I taking an afternoon nap.
Me, because of insomnia and pain,
the cats – just because they can.
They conserve their energy through sleep.
I have none to conserve as fatigue overtakes
the excruiating pain of sore joints and limbs.
We sleep and we dream the cats and I.
They dream of climbing trees and catching birds.
My dreams are full of pain and suffering.
Writhing in a darkness without seeing or
hearing, just feeling the pain until I cry out,
for the arms of the angels to catch me.
I beg for healing for acceptance and understanding. To rest, to sleep, to heal.
My cats just live in the here and now.
They follow their daily routine like clockwork.
The scars of trauma lie heavy upon me.
It has wormed it's way into my psyche.
Forgiveness is a powerful tool – if only I could
let it go! Be rebrthed in a pain free body.
To have a mind where the ego is dead,
But life is all about the light in the darkness.
As the cats gather and conserve their life force,
so must I in the forgiving of myself and others.
Be like the cats in their meticulous self care.
Live each moment in the here and in the now.
Let time erase the trauma from body and mind.
Allow sleep and rest to be my two guardians
against the noise and stress of modern life.
Raise my vibration in joy and compassion!
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Salud - 🧡💛Cento: Found Poetry💛🧡No 12 – The Innocence of Guilt 💛🧡
#cento #found #poetry
She could not forget the painted woman with her curved tail; the green scales discoloured by rust.
Enthralled by the question of innocence and guilt, she is not sure she can face it. The humiliation.
The press of other bodies against hers
In the city crowds, the noise and frenetic movement overwhelmed her.
In the privacy of their own spaces
they talked of the future, the things they'd do and achieve.
She presses her hand to her abdomen,
In the dark, every sense is heightened
The splitting of her flesh.
A witch hunt – all he had seen was his own ego reflected back at him. She had given him power over her.
Now, she takes it back and passes it on in the strands of her DNA. Her empowerment is complete.
There is a beauty to it all. Every soul deserves a proper resting place. A marker. The perfect fit of her, a mollusc in its shell.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
**Bold Italics are my words. The rest of the poem was 'found' from random sentences from The Sirens by Emilia Hart.**
©📸Riadh/Pinterest - 📚Book Review📚 – The Sirens by Emilia Hart
#book #review
It is always a pleasure to read Emilia Hart's books, and The Sirens is no exception.
I like the way she weaves the threads of women's stories past and present to form the complete version.
The past and present intertwine seamlessly in a dramatic yet empowering story of women's survival in the brutal confines of a male dominated world.
Emilia Hart's book is well researched and joins historical facts, myths, and legends into a cracking good story.
This will keep you reading through the night!
☆☆☆☆☆ Highly recommended reading.
©✍️CarolynCrossley
https://amzn.eu/d/0bSWRV45
Available to read FREE on PRIME reading, an Amazon account is required.
©📸EmiliaHart/Amazon - 🐈⬛🐈💜CAT’S WORLD 258💜🐈🐈⬛
#catsworld
©📸JasminGirolami-Bus/AImodified - 🤣Sense of Humour 🤣🤣💙386💙
#senseofhumour
©📸RaychelBackland - 🧙♀️🐈⬛Crone’s Corner (29)🐈⬛🧙♂️
#crone #corner #eclectic #solitary #coven
LAMMAS / LUGHNASADH
The First Harvest Festival — Gratitude, Skill, and Sacred Offering
What Lammas / Lughnasadh Is
Lammas (from Loaf‑Mass) and Lughnasadh (from Lugh’s Assembly) mark the first grain harvest around 1 August.
It is a celebration of abundance, labour, sacrifice, and transformation.
Key Themes
- First fruits and first grain
- Gratitude for abundance
- Skill, mastery, craft
- Sacrifice and renewal
- The waning of the Sun
- Community gatherings and games
Myth & Symbolism
- Lugh, master of arts, warrior, poet, and craftsman, presides over the festival.
- He founded Lughnasadh to honour his foster‑mother Tailtiu, who died clearing land for agriculture — a mythic symbol of sacrifice that enables sustenance.
- Traditional celebrations included athletic contests, matchmaking, feasting, and hilltop gatherings, echoing Lugh’s many skills.
Symbols of the Festival
- Wheat, barley, oats
- Freshly baked bread
- Corn dollies
- Bilberries and first fruits
- Sun wheels, golds, reds, and earthy browns
Traditional Practices
- Baking a loaf from the first grain and blessing it
- Crafting corn dollies as spirit‑of-the-harvest charms
- Offering first fruits to land, ancestors, or deities
- Hill walks and gatherings (e.g., Garland Sunday, Bilberry Sunday)
- Feasting, storytelling, and friendly competitions inspired by Lugh’s mastery
Magical Focus
- Prosperity and abundance
- Skill development and creativity
- Protection for the coming darker months
- Gratitude rituals
- Transformation through offering
Spiritual Meaning
Lammas is the threshold where summer’s fullness begins to tip toward autumn.
It teaches that harvest requires sacrifice — the grain must be cut to become bread, effort must be given to yield reward.
It invites reflection on:
- What you have grown
- What you are harvesting
- What must be released or transformed for the next season of your life
©✍️CarolynCrossley + CoPilotAI
©📸CamiDilsaver - ✍️🩵Ha’ sonnets 🩵✍️( a form by Stephen Buchanan) No 105 – 107🩵✍️
#ha’sonnets #StephenBuchanan #poetry #7/4/ababccd
No. 105 – RAIN
Rain falls onto
the parched dry earth,
gives it a green hue
like a rebirth.
Trees sigh relief,
leaves with lives brief,
will still cling on.
No. 106 – THE YEAR'S WHEEL
The cats dream on,
out of the rain.
Days in the sun,
will come again.
Autumn's drumbeat
Takes summer's heat.
The year's wheel turns.
No. 107 – TIME
Time hurries on,
a beating heart.
People's time done,
Or yet to start.
Tempus Fugit
No time to sit
So, live it large!
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸FY!/Pinterest - 💜💐Cherita Terbalik – 474💐💜
#cherita #terbalik #poetry #Japanese #aili
when love is lost, it lives
on in our hearts in fond
memories and recollections;
looked at through rose-tinted
glasses, it shimmers like gold,
ethereal and no longer corporal.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Cat/AImodified - Cherita💜💐473
#cherita #poetry #aili
the storyteller can be
a parent, grandparent, or
a belovéd teacher from school;
an author, a poet, a stand-up
comedian, we can all tell stories,
and we all have a story to relate.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸CyrillicName/Pinterest - 🌿❤️🌻Triolet for Thursday 38 – Habits🌻❤️🌿
#triolet #poetry #French
Watching TV passes the time before bed.
Reading a good book is another way,
Rids worrying thoughts out of my head.
Watching TV passes the time before bed.
Insomnia means more books are read.
Sometimes, poetry writing holds sway.
Watching TV passes the time before bed,
Reading a good book is another way.
Washing up before bed is good to do,
No dirty dishes in the sink the next day,
Is not a thing you will have to rue.
Washing up before bed is good to do.
Tidying up is a good habit to get into,
Not just leaving things were they lay.
Washing up before bed is good to do,
No dirty dishes in the sink the next day.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Buzzfeed - 📚🤸♂️Slow Renga (157) Wednesday 🤸♂️📚
#slow #renga #poetry #Japanese
A chill in the air/summer's end
No. 1
summer's end will come
with a chill in the air, no
more heatwaves
No. 2
a chill in the air,
brings my male cat in
female cat observes
No. 3
summer's end is
heralded by August bank
holiday – rain's due
No. 4
a chill in the air
summer shivers on
her way out
No. 5
summer's end
will blend into
autumn's embrace
No. 6
a chill in the air
warns us of summer's end
the wheel turns
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸AmandaWhite/TheDailyHaiku - 👨👩👧💜🌿6 Word Story No. 33🌿💜👨👩👧
#6word #story #ErnestHemingway
In the style of the poignant six-word story attributed to the late, great Ernest Hemingway:
For sale
baby shoes
never worn.
💜💚💜💚💜💚💜💚💜💚💜💚💜
No. 33
The winter
of life is
precious
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸GabiAlcázar - 🌍👀✈️You Are Never Too Old For Snoopy 🌍👀✈️
#youarenevertoooldforsnoopy #senseofhumour
©📸CharlesSchulz/surojitdas - 🐠🐦🔥GOOD VIBES 🐠🐦🔥- Raising Our Vibration🐠🐦🔥
#goodvibes
NEW🧡🐦🔥Raising our vibration is all about ridding ourselves of negativity and living a positive focused life.
In this feature, I bring you quotations to make you think. These are positive or thought-provoking in order that you can choose to change your life for the better.
The choice is yours. Choose to be positive!🐦🔥🧡
©✍️CarolynCrossley
http://backfromdarknesstolight.com
YOU CREATE YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR THOUGHTS🩵💜💚🩵QUOTATION🩵💚💜🩵
The way you speak to yourself matters.
-Persephone Distorted
©📸Tropic - 🦚🪷🦎CHALLENGING THE NARRATIVE🦚🪷 🦎- Positivity
#positiveaffirmations
- I am strong.
- I choose acceptance.
- I am happy in my own skin.
- I have what I need.
- I am living my abundant life.
NEW💖🪷What do we mean by 'challenging the narrative'? What are positive affirmations?
Challenging the narrative is calling out the negative that our ego keeps catastrophising our thoughts. In the current climate it is easy to give in to this.
Using positive affirmations challenges this train of thought. Write 5 a day and speak them aloud to your reflection in the mirror. Speaking words aloud gives them an energetic power. Make it a habit ( studies have shown that doing something consistently for 21 days establishes the habit in the brain.)
This is a good mental health exercise, it improves self confidence and can lessen anxiety and 'imposter syndrome.'🪷💖
©✍️CarolynCrossley
THE VIXEN OF VERSEIN THIS HOME WE LOVE THE ZEN OF CATS
©📸ZenCat/Pinterest - 🌿🐝💚COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS🌿🐝💚 – Gratitude🌿🐝💚
#gratitude #counting #yourblessings
- I appreciate each breath as it comes.
- I am grateful for my feelings of kindness to others.
- I am thankful for love.
- I am blessed by self care.
- I am grateful for the seasons.
NEW💛🐝What does "counting your blessings' mean? It means changing your negative thoughts to positive ones.
By cultivating gratitude in our thoughts, words, and deeds we are projecting positivity out into the world. What you put out is what you get back.
Writing 5 things you are grateful for daily cultivates the gratitude habit. So why not treat yourself to a nice new notebook and get started today 🐝💛
©✍️CarolynCrossley
http://backfromdarknesstolight.comALL IS WELL IN MY WORLD
©📸Omrya/AIMODIFIED - 🐲💚Tanka 338🐲
#Tanka #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
the moon guides the tides
keeps earth at a twenty-three
degree tilt as we
spin, giving us our twenty-
four hour days and nights
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Via:Clowy - 🍇💚💙Random… Haiku/Senryu – 🍇💚💙No.593 – Balance🍇💚💙
#randomtheme #haiku #senryu #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
life is balance
and counterbalance
always delicate
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸EtsyUK - 💐💜🪻English Sonnets🪻💜💐 No 22 – Love Bound
#English #Sonnets #poetry
Love remembers - a whisper in the night,
Calling melancholic on the breeze.
Rising with the sun in magenta light
Resembling a picture in a frame freeze.
Love recalls its passionate footsteps,
Disappeared from the sands of time,
Obliterated from the eastern steppes.
Annilated in western rhythmic rhyme.
Love lies bleeding and is left behind.
Buried in regrets and something lost.
The indefinable loss that will bind
Us together as lovers who were star-crossed .
I live in you just as you live in me,
Forever bound and never, ever free.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸TheMind’sJournal - Fibonacci Poetry🪴No. 31🪻– Ever-Present
#fibonacci #Poetry #112358
Some
nights
are long
without sleep,
reading and writing,
distract the ever-present pain.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Muslimah/Pinterest - 🐲💚Tanka 339💚🐲 – For Tanka Tuesday
#Tanka #Tuesday #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
a senior moment
made me arrive a day
early for a test
better early than late
here I am again!
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸CarolynCrossley/DiabeticEyeClinic - 📚Book Review📚 –The Paris Affair (Love in War —Book 1) by Victoria Cornwall
#book #review
Victoria Cornwall's The Paris Affair – Love in War Book 1 is an emotional roller coaster set in WWII Nazi occupied
Paris.
I read this book in one sitting, and it enthralled me. I found myself routing for Charlotte Bray as she found herself drawn into the dark, secretive world of SOE operations.
Pierre was a suitably brooding Frenchman with a lot of grief in his life.
The spark between the two was palpable but who could you trust in occupied France? Charlotte and Pierre live their 'acquired lives' with danger in every step.
Having read true stories about the brave SOE female spies, I thought this novel was well researched and found the premise of the story very believable.
☆☆☆☆☆Highly recommend reading.
©✍️CarolynCrossley
https://amzn.eu/d/0ebF42OC
Available to read FREE on PRIME reading, an Amazon account is required.
©📸VictoriaCornwall/Amazon - 🩵💛🎉Tritina No 7 – Treachery v Forgiveness🎉💛🩵
#Tritina #poetry #abc #cab #bca #lastline
Human nature can be treacherous.
Some people have a capacity to hurt,
And others a heart full of forgiveness.
Who really benefits from forgiveness?
Is it the betrayer who is so treacherous?
Or the wounded who are so often hurt?
Letting go is the secret to healing hurt.
The true benefits from their forgiveness,
Release the hold of the treacherous.
Although humans have a capacity for the treacherous, they also have a capacity for forgiveness, and in the letting go begins the healing of the hurt.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸uma_digitalideas/Pinterest - 📚Book Review📚 – The Surf House by Lucy Clarke
#book #review
The Surf House by Lucy Clarke is an engrossing crime mystery that model, Bea gets dragged into.
Following a horrific incident in Marrakesh in Morocco, Bea is plummeted into a missing person mystery where the plot twists and turns just keep on coming.
The characters are flawed and realistic. No one is what they seem to be. Bea wrestles with her conscience, and she is not the only one. As the mystery begins to unravel to its nail-biting climax.
☆☆☆☆recommended reading.
©✍️CarolynCrossley
https://amzn.eu/d/0605Y7nH
Avaiable to read FREE on PRIME reading, an Amazon subscription is required.
©📸LucyClarke/Pinterest - 🍇💚💙Random… Haiku/Senryu – 🍇💚💙No.592 – Flowing 🍇💚💙
#randomtheme #haiku #senryu #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
the stream is flowing
it's tinkling, merry way
to join the river
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸Shameer/Pinterest - 🐈⬛🐈💜CAT’S WORLD 257💜🐈🐈⬛
#catsworld
©📸Delray415 - 🤣Sense of Humour 🤣🤣💙385💙
#senseofhumour
©📸GedBackland - 🍇💚💙Random… Haiku/Senryu – 🍇💚💙No.591 – Surprising🍇💚💙
#randomtheme #haiku #senryu #poetry #TheDailyHaiku
nothing surprising
man's inhumanity
to his own planet
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
©📸CatMoonraven/Pinterest - 🩷🩵The Sunday Whirl – Wordle 771🩵🩷
#TheSundayWhirl #wordle771
Wordle 771 Words:
Waves, cake, strays, strand(s) churning, spot, buzz, colours, sudden, flow, early, stirring,
THAT DAMNED SPOT
The sun shines, and the colours of the
Flowers are vivid and bright, scenting
The air, all of a sudden the morning
Peace is shattered by the shouts within.
Out, out, damned spot, she shrieks!
As the buzz of a mosquito disturbs
The house's early stirring with the
Servants rising to complete their tasks.
There was a certain busy flow as
Tasks were completed within and
Outside, too, the strands of labour
Coming together in perfect harmony.
The milkmaid is busy churning golden
Butter, in the kitchen, the cook was
Preparing breakfast and putting the
Finishing touches to a birthday cake.
The barn cat strays awaited their scraps
After a successful night of mousing
The lads were mucking out the stables
One whistles and waves to the milkmaid
The ladies' maid quietens her young
Mistress and applies a salve to her spot.
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
*With apologies to Shakespeare.*
©📸B.Warren
VIXEN of VERSE 
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