The Wordsmith's Forge

dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday with a theme of "Apologies." Leave a comment under that post with your prompt, and get a ficlet!

So, let’s take the idea of apologies and run with it. Tell me a setup, and I’ll write an aftermath and apology.

The Return of the Dire Wolf

Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three separate births last fall and this winter—effectively for the first time de-extincting a line of beasts whose live gene pool long ago vanished.

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Here are the notes for "What You Choose to Build With."

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This haiku collection is spillover from the March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from scrubjayspeaks. It also fills the "Wisdom" square in my 3-1-25 card for the Tolkien Bingo Fest. This collection has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette.

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The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Yes, actually, it IS that bad." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for troubleshooters, activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, police, soldiers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into dire situations, protesting, rebelling, rioting, planning, panicking, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like you stole something, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, war zones, wastelands, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, prisons, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where disasters happen, cataclysms, climate change, the end of the world, S-risks and X-risks, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Tolkien Fest Bingo Card 3-1-25

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has some serious challenges between the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, in hopes of preventing genocide.

A Conflagration of Dragons features the Six Races struggling to survive as the dragons take over more and more territory.

Crystal Wood is about how the mass death of trees can wreck civilization.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons, magic, and other mayhem.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evil. Addiction always has the potential for disaster.

Path of the Paladins includes some really awful situations due to divine politics and mortal foolishness.

Peculiar Obligations deals with Quakers, pirates, and organized crime.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. Among the more relevant threads are Berettaflies, the Big One, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Shiv, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that can destroy things, up to and including whole dimensions.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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The World Longs for More Poets of the Everyday

As a poet at heart, I often wonder if my words, my way of seeing, could weave themselves into everyday moments. What if poetry didn’t live only in verses but in conversations, gestures, and the smallest interactions? Could I, through my presence, bring a touch of wonder to the ordinary, a spark that makes life feel a little more alive?

And so, I hold this question like a lantern, letting it light my path: How can I bring the poetry of life into the mundane, not to escape it, but to enliven it? How can I serve not by trying to change the world but by being a presence that invites the world to feel a little more whole?


Anyone can write poetry. You just need to see what there is to be seen, and speak to its truth.  I've got instructions for writing a nature poem.

These are the character notes for "What's Given by Nature" Part 2 Other Models.

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This poem is spillover from the October 3, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. It also fills the "Chimera / Heraldic Beast" square in my 10-1-23 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Polychrome Heroics series.

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This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It fills the "Good-Bye to All That" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows series.

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