Angie’s Artifacts

Wow!😮 What an amazingly, heart warming story! This is commonly a reaction of mine when reading Vocal poems and stories. Afterwards, I diligently try to maintain concentration long enough to add a 🖤 (sometimes succeeding)… and then continue on to peruse the Comment section…

How can there not be a single comment yet? It’s been a month since this story was published. I guess Dharrsheena must have been ’catching a rare, 57 winks’ when this story came out! Yes! You may be surprised to realise that even she can’t keep up with every single story published on Vocal!

It saddens me when excellent stories and poems seem to go unnoticed. Just as well we write for our own enjoyment and anything else is delicious icing on the cake!

In December, Judey Kalchik published some Easy Writing Prompts and I attempted a few of them. One prompt which I tried, was to select stories from three different writers and comment on them.

I plan to shine a spotlight upon three stories from various Communities. Care to tag along as a fellow archaeologist, while I excavate on ‘digs’…sometimes delving more deeply than others? Naturally, artefacts vary greatly in age, size and perceived value.

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In Poets, John Cox’s Remember the Waves took me back to the exhilarating, carefree days in my youth… sunshine, sea and smiles; family, fun and feasting on my Nana’s yummy cooking. His Villanelle has beautiful rhythm and rhyme and vividly captures life as we see it through the eyes of youth… and then later as we continue on our life’s journey.

Do you remember when we did not fear?

Limbs flailing in the wild sea's waves and sand,

Boldly daring the depths coating Earth's sphere.

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Another gem, barely covered in dust, was discovered in Beats… Andy Potts’ “Playlist: Folksy Flavours: Three great female voices from NE England in the run-up to International Women's Day.”

Despite having a preference for almost any variety of Rock music and next to zero chance of ever visiting Great Britain, I found this to be a fascinating read. I thoroughly enjoyed the film clips, songs (tunes; instruments and lyrics) and Andy’s review of them. To my surprise, I even added a Folk album to my Apple playlist… there’s a first time for everything, and this was it!

Amelia Coburn - See Saw

With echoes of a nursery rhyme, and lyrics that gently straddle the boundary between fairy tale and dark fantasy, this is a delight.

The video, which continues Amelia’s collaboration with the Whippet Up puppet theatre, is also well worth a look, highlighting some acting talent to go with the music.

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In Fiction, very little excavating was required to find Kelsey Clarey’s delightful anecdote told by The B & B Bear. This adorable bear has quite a tale to tell, and happily for him, all ends well. This Microfiction brought a smile to my heart and cheer to my day.

I continued to pose for social media pictures all over the property and doing just about every job. Helping Lucy check in guests, traveling on the housekeeper's cart, sampling new menu items from the kitchen -- I truly did it all! Honestly, I've become a bit famous since I've been here.

I’m keen to enjoy any Vocal artifacts that you come across in your wanderings… please share their links in the comments section.

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The title Angie’s Artifacts was inspired by Donna Fox’s story in December 2023 where she invited us to become archaeologists and unearth forgotten treasures in Vocal… a thoroughly worthwhile endeavour.

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Below is my first story shining the spotlight on three, impressive, fellow creators.