Fantastical Vocal Favorites Vol. 2

Hello, everyone! I'm very happy to have Fantastical Vocal Favorites Volume 2 act as my comeback article after my self-imposed hiatus for the month of November. It was a long month and I missed the community here a lot more than I anticipated.

So, in celebration of my return to the community, let's dive into my four picks for this FVF Vol. 2 and show these creators some well-deserved love and support!

Here's a break down of how this works: I will choose four published stories per volume and give in-depth thoughts as to why these stories are so great ( and why you should read them ) and then I will be gifting a $5 bonus to each of those writers as a way to pay it forward and show my support.

Please note that if you don't have a stripe account attached to your Vocal account I cannot tip you. :(

I will be doing my best to avoid popular stories, top stories, and contest winners with more than 10 likes. This isn't a hard or fast rule - more like a guideline!

I will also never promote my own work on these articles, as I want the spotlight to be on the writers featured here!

Like the previous volume, I have tried to stick to a theme for all these picks. This time I've settled on surreal poetry; a genre that I hold dearly to my heart! Surreal poetry is considered to be very dream-like, with a style consistent with someone's stream of unfiltered conciousness. I've chosen a few that follow these principles and that has some interesting ties to our real world. One or two of these may not be categorized as surreal poetry, but I felt they had enough surreal elements to justify their place here.

Please note that every piece I choose is run through an AI checker. I can't guarantee that every piece, however, is detectable through certain programs, so if you find evidence that any pieces chosen are made with AI, please contact me so that I may remove them from this article and a new creator can be lifted up instead! I sadly can't take back the $5, but I am more than happy to give another $5 to human creators!

And for those of you who missed it, you can check out Volume 1 below!

Don't Use AI

There was a piece and a creator here but they were found to use AI and admitted to it in an older piece I missed ( and the program I used didn't pick up on it ), and thus they are not an artist I can support.

Down below, please recommend human poets you know so we can uplift them instead!

The Art of War in Poetic Perfection

To subdue the enemy without fighting at all,

That is the pinnacle of triumph's call.

Okay, okay, I KNOW this may not be surreal poetry, but I NEED to share this poem!!

Originally, The Writer's piece was going to inspire it's own volume featured around war, but I couldn't find enough war-related pieces that I liked to make it work. So, here we are.

This poem is so well-crafted that I was drawn in like I was in a trance. I admit to being biased as I have read an interpretation of The Art of War in English for my own research ( novelists looking up random ancient documents is a thing ), and seeing so many of the tactics by Sun Tzu summarized in this beautiful, lyrical format...I wanted to scream from the mountaintops at how magnificent this was.

( You could argue that this is a stream of consciousness from Sun Tzu's perspective as he wrote the Art of War which can fit into the surrealism category...shhhh, it's close enough.)

For I, Sun Tzu, impart these words with care,

May they guide you in war, and life's affair.

Remember, the greatest victory is in understanding,

That true power lies in peace, not in commanding.

The Writer only has 13 published stories as of publishing this article, so let's give them a warm welcome to the community, and show some love for this outstanding poem!

Abstract Nature as an Art Form

Each leaf, a poet in the twilight's choir,

Falling with purpose, consumed by the fire.

Yet in their descent, a promise is made,

Of resurrection, in the shadows they'll fade.

I found The Artistic Universe TODAY believe it or not, and I'm so glad I did as this poem is a near perfect example of how surrealism and abstract thought can bring a poem to new heights.

In the subtitle, The Artistic Universe states that this poem was inspired by abstract art, and I could feel it with their masterful diction and mesmerizing lyrical style. Reading this poem was like being dunked into the very ink of this art that I cannot see myself, but feel.

It flows from season to season; cycles of life and death, warmth and chill, rise and fall. I could easily see myself picking up a poetry book filled with poems like these. This creator joined this year, so give them a warm welcome and show them some love for this artistic take on poetry!

Death Beneath the Moon

You hang onto life so dearly,

though the sun left earth long ago

to rot under moonlight,

oh, how we once worshipped

those pearly beams.

Not every dream needs to be vaulted underneath a shining sun. Jade Hadfield's poem takes us on a darker dream-like journey in a world of moonlight and rot, and while the poem is shorter, it still packs a meaty punch with it's efficient and purposeful diction and imagery.

It's works like this that get me inspired to explore these themes and ideas in my own style, as there is something so beautiful about threading a fantastical story amidst destruction. Hadfield does this through painting a world that once thrived beneath a sun, and a group that worshipped under the beaming lights of a full moon. Now, with the earth crumbling and rot permeating the surroundings, the main character known only as the Apocalypse Survivor, continues to toil on despite the hopelessness of it all.

Gosh, my fantasy writer brain just ran at a million miles an hour after the end of the poem, wondering how this world came about. What a fantastic surreal poem!! Go give Hadfield a like and a comment for this piece!!

End of Vol. 2

And there you have it, four fantastical favorites from Vocal that have made an impact on my reading journey. I hope this encourages others with spare money in their pockets to support their favorite creators financially, as every dollar not only helps the author but encourages them to continue writing with us on Vocal and beyond!

I hope you will consider giving these pieces a read, a like, and leaving a comment if you have the time! Let's boost these talented creators!

Volume III is here!