{"id":10521,"date":"2021-06-07T07:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=10521"},"modified":"2021-06-07T08:38:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:38:34","slug":"vigil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/vigil\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Kathy Guthormsen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hold vigil by the campfire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching dry logs send sparks dancing into the twilight, the west coast version of fireflies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My prayers winging their way to you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No more hot tubs under palm trees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No more drinks with paper umbrellas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are distant memories wrapped in protective quilts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask the fire to transform me into smoke that drifts upward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tendrils reaching, searching for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forever just out of reach<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to let your body go<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I hold your essence in my still beating heart where I will keep you safe and warm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as I am here<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Vigil” was created using Prompt #580<\/a> on The Write Spot Blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy Guthormsen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in Skagit Valley, Washington with its verdant farmland gave Kathy an appreciation for the promise and beauty of nature\u2019s bounty. The Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges and old growth forests offered the magic of things unseen and fostered her fertile imagination. Kathy\u2019s work has been published in The Write Spot: Memories<\/em>, The Write Spot: Possibilities<\/em>, The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing, <\/em>and The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings from a Pandemic Year.<\/em> All The Write Spot anthologies<\/a> are available at Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her Halloween story, \u201cRun,\u201d was published in the Petaluma Argus Courier in October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she isn\u2019t writing, Kathy volunteers at the Bird Rescue Center<\/a> in Santa Rosa, California, working with and presenting resident raptors as part of their education and outreach program. Walking around with a hawk or an owl on her fist is one of her favorite pastimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy lives in northern California with her husband, one psychotic cat, a small flock of demanding chickens, and a pond full of peaceful koi. She maintains a blog, Kathy G Space<\/a>, where she occasionally posts essays, short stories, and fairy tales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kathy Guthormsen Vigil I hold vigil by the campfire Watching dry logs send sparks dancing into the twilight, the west coast version of fireflies My prayers winging their way to you No more hot tubs under palm trees No more drinks with paper umbrellas These are distant memories wrapped in protective quilts I ask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1474],"tags":[1217,1226],"class_list":["post-10521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sparks","tag-kathy-guthormsen","tag-the-write-spot-anthologies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s43Dj8-vigil","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10533,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521\/revisions\/10533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}