The Abstract Art Gallery
A writing gallery created by writers from around the world. From poetry to song lyrics, from essays to entire novels and short stories.
I retreat to the Monastery…
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…trees outside are swaying. The rain patters down. Bright new leaves glisten sweetly in the ozone saturated air. It’s a gentle spring rain, peaceful and beautiful, though it might change at any time. It might become violent…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreIt was the beginning of a peculiar friendship.
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…carefully lowered the stylus and dialed the volume to recklessly high. The glorious opening chords of Thus Sprach Zarathustra filled the room with explosive unearthly beauty. It was, thunderously overwhelming. It might have been heard throughout the block. There was every possibility police would soon be knocking…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreDense, dark, suspicion ruminations.
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…that tumble darkly, in complex re-arrangements, for days on end, sometimes for years. It’s not the sort of thinking anyone chooses. It’s more likely a condition, similar to a birthmark; a life-long mark that those inflicted would like…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreHow can anyone be bored or melancholy?
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…often travel hand-in-hand. Two sour friends whose only consolation is each other. I’ve never been bored or melancholy. I can’t imagine it. They’re so many things to think about and do. The real problem is too…
By K. L. Shiplley
Read More…started teaching a few months before the September 11 terrorist attacks. I had two nonfiction writing classes as a brand new instructor with the Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City. Back then, the school advertised…
By Karol Nielsen
Read MoreCan the Fortune-Teller see what's coming down the road?
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…small comfort when number ten runs you over. Still, the exception proves the rule. Ninety percent of all worries come to nothing. We all know that. It doesn’t stop our needless…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreCourtesy reveals actual commitment to equal rights.
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…rounds from a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun took the lives of four souls - Floyd Sanford (shot twice), Bessie Lee Sanford, and Rosalie Sanford. Each died from close-range blasts that splattered blood, flesh and bone. The fifth shot was delivered to the chest of the murderer – Mahlon Robert Shipley…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreA schedule makes it easier way…
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…first prayer, then prepare a small breakfast for myself and Lady Tallahassee, and another day begins - on schedule. I sip my coffee from a large white cup of the sort favored by unhurried boulevardiers, sitting at charming small tables outside so many of the Parisian cafes I’ve seen in…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreIt's not a club you can choose to join.
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…few lines read from an interview have remained in my mind ever since. I thought it was the 1965 Nat Hentoff Playboy interview with Bob Dylan. It wasn’t. I’ve reread that interview on the internet and two more besides. I can’t find the interview I recall. Maybe it was in Rolling Stone, or the…
By K. L. Shipley
Read MoreShouldn't interpretation of the law…
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…was a time not so long ago, when reading the law was the job Judges were hired to do. No more was expected – no more was tolerated. No one was interested in the Judge’s opinion of the law. Opinions about right or wrongness of a law was made by the representatives that…
By K. L. Shipley
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