Month: March 2025

After Rain Skies: The Global Anthology by Michelle Ayon Navajas now available in Kindle and paperback editions

On By Mike U.In Previews / Reviews14 Comments
Image © Michelle Ayon Navajas

After Rain Skies: The Global Anthology, curated by internationally acclaimed best-selling author Michelle Ayon Navajas, has been released and is now available in both paperback and Kindle versions. This profoundly important and deeply moving collection of poetry and prose deals with the horrors of violence and abuse. As Michelle states:

“Each poem and prose piece is either a personal story or one that inspired the writer–a voice raised in solidarity with those who have endured hardship. These are raw, real stories of resilience, courage, and the search for light after darkness…”

Already an Amazon #1 best-seller in multiple categories, this collection is a must-have for anyone who has experienced violence and abuse, or knows someone who has been a victim. Michelle’s courage and tireless advocacy shine throughout this book.

You can find more information about After Rain Skies: The Global Anthology, here:

“After Rain Skies: The Global Anthology Kindle File Release Today”

After Rain Skies: The Global Anthology is available at Amazon.

“From Tsukiko, While Watching the Moon”

On By Mike U.In Poetry48 Comments

“From Tsukiko, While Watching the Moon”
© 2025 by Michael L. Utley

I have waited long enough
among midnight forests
and somnolent bamboo groves
the furtive whispers
of pensive yurei
a forlorn supplication
to dissolve further
into the rayless world
of lost souls
to seek the sleep
of bōkyaku

cloistered among
susurrating reeds
I bathe my feet
in Sanzu’s nocturnal tears
adorned in fragrant
willow shadows
as koi drowse
in the depths of dreams
and kitsune slink
clandestinely
their night-thoughts
unfathomable

the red footbridge
dun and sullen
in this half-light
recedes into nothingness
an abandoned relic
leading to nowhere
its purpose forgotten
another ghost in this
world of ghosts

beyond the bridge
emptiness

somewhere out there
lies a buried memory
the bones of a life
once lived
once lost
forever regretted
a recollection unknown to all
but mindless breeze
and insentient earth

above
insensate stars spin
upon eternal axes
their astral trajectories
a testament to futility
their presence neither
proof nor denial
of divinity
alignment
retrogradation
degradation
collapse
blackness
silence
eternity in the
blink of an eye

oh, but you, arrogant moon
gōman’na tsuki
skulking through the trees
your cold light casting you
as villainous
your spectral aria
a surreptitious siren-song
I must resist
oh, moon
your dubious countenance
burned into my soul
your serrated sickle’s
jagged tracks still scarred
across my pallid wrists

you don’t know me, moon
in your hubris
you assume all things
in your haughtiness
you presume to decide
the fates of men
your judgments
surpassing Enma’s
in their brackish cruelty
your domain the darkness
and all who dwell within
you of many faces
and the tongues of serpents
beguiler of hearts and minds
you don’t know me, moon

but I know you

you named me Tsukiko
birthed me in
the gloom of obscurity
flung me upon Fuji’s flanks
and fled
moon-child
daughter of Tsuki
I have watched you
all my life
from afar I contemplated
your shifting phases
your covert risings and fallings
your feckless betrayals
your eldritch gleam

and I waited
for acknowledgment
for recognition
for the simple pleasure
of moon-dapples
on lotus ponds
and still I wait

you don’t know me, moon
and you never shall
for now I embrace my fate
and begin my journey
into the tenebrous aether
of oblivion
no more shall I hope
for that which you cannot give
no more shall my tears
blind me to the truth
no more shall my dead heart
ache from your rejection

I am Tsukiko no more

“A Summer’s Field in Winter” published at India & Masticadores

On By Mike U.In Poetry47 Comments

Hey, folks. I’d like to let you know my poem “A Summer’s Field in Winter” has been published at India & Masticadores. Many thanks to Editor Abhilash Fraizer and his team for the opportunity to share my writing with their readers. I truly appreciate it.

“A Summer’s Field in Winter”
© 2022 by Michael L. Utley

“let us sift through summer’s solemn ashes
let us scavenge rusted hopes from twisted
hulks of yesterdays amid the swelter
and the din of frigid silence
as crows circle

this broad swath the acreage of sorrow
garden of the gods whose feckless mewling
echoes ‘cross the eons and the seasons
crumble into dust as autumn
gives up her ghost…”

You can read the rest of my poem here:

“A Summer’s Field in Winter” by Michael L. Utley

Also, please consider following and subscribing to India & Masticadores, where you’ll find unique voices and captivating topics to spur your imagination.

“The Grief of Winter”

On By Mike U.In Poetry70 Comments

(Author’s note: On January 20, 2025, fascism replaced democracy in America…)

“The Grief of Winter”
© 2024 by Michael L. Utley

in each flake
a brief eternity
the grief of winter
as December bleeds out
and January’s hell awaits

there shall be
no insensate oblivion
no benignant Lethe
no purgatorial reprieve
awaiting us on eternity’s cusp

only the purulent spoils
of our own wretchedness
a just reward for
embracing hate
and abandoning compassion

we have chosen darkness
consorted with the enemy
sold our souls in our
lust for power
and betrayed our fellows

January’s hell awaits
and we will all suffer
for the sins of those
who embrace fascism
racism and intolerance

those with black hearts
and frozen souls
have birthed a monstrosity
a nameless winter wendigo
whose reign of terror awaits

and what say you
you betrayers who have
cast your lot with madmen
who would see your fellows
dead or worse

what say you
when your turn shall come
when your wendigo god
regards you
with its slavering grin

our new world
a vast expanse of ice
a permafrost desolation
incessant howling winds
and the screams of the damned

winter’s grief
the delicate crystal latticework
of hiemal tears shattered
human warmth is dead
eternal winter has arrived