Author: Samantha Rae Lazar

Writing is childlike and serious business: poetry, fiction, and essays in celebration of being a Mom, Wife, Educator, Writer, & Lover of Life
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November 28, 2021

Dear Readers, 

Welcome to my new newsletter, which I will send out bi-weekly. My letter will inform you of my writing projects, stories, blog posts, and poetry. You may even find something that inspires you. 

Thank you so much for reading!

THIS WEEK’S

FEATURED STORIES

Science Fiction Magic?

A few years ago, my cousin and I were waiting for the subway and riffing off each other’s ideas for Black Mirror episodes. I just love the brilliance of that show, and I wondered if I could write science fiction that reads like magical realism. So I re-published a short story (or first chapter, potentially) titled “One Percent.”

 One reader commented: “This reminded me of a Black Mirror episode, but with a supernatural spec––the telepathy. I also enjoyed the atmosphere. The concept is really cool! I wanted to read more!” 

Maybe you’ll enjoy it too and convince me to continue writing it.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Everyone meets online these days,” Melanie said.
“I know, but this seems way more complicated than using Match or OK Cupid.” Lauren sipped her coffee and laughed at Melanie. She was always trying to set her up!
“Just try it- I know it seems a little scary, but it really isn’t. Actually, I have found my real matches here. I mean, you do not want to meet up with just anyone, do you?”
Nodding, Lauren avoided eye contact with Melanie.
“Besides, Melanie said, “You can just delete it if you don’t pass the Portent. But I know you, and I know you will get in. You are one of us.”

READ MORE ON SIMILY

Sky Collection Poetry & Quote Prompt

Sky Collection is one of my publications on Medium. In addition, I host monthly Quote Prompts and publish a wide variety of poetry, fiction, and personal narratives by new and established writers. 

After returning from a yoga retreat on the NC coast, I wrote the poem “Cycles of Darkness.” It explores the idea of embracing the shadow parts of ourselves after this quote:

“Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you.” — Frederick Nietzsche.

Here is the first stanza:

she walks about the sand
here, a piper is her grandfather
finishing dripped touches
on a Gaudi castle

READ MORE ON MEDIUM

Project Updates

Exactly a year ago, I released my first poetry collection, Reaching Marrakesh. My goal is to bring my second book of poems Sky Collection to life by the end of the year. Thank you so much for your support! 

Two other books are brewing:

One is a collection of dark and chilling short stories and poetry, currently untitled.
The other is a chapbook of prose-poetry entitled, Don’t Tell Grandma.

Did you know you can read endless stories by myself and many other inspiring writers on Medium? Consider upgrading to a monthly subscription here. 

Follow along on my writing journey and be in touch here. 

That’s all for now. Thank you so much for reading and supporting my writing work. If you enjoy it, please consider sharing it with a friend or your sister. 

Love, Sam

Dancing lessons from God by Jay Sizemore

Intense and beautiful poetry!

Rusty Truck

~after Kurt Vonnegut

If I wanted to end the world,
they’d give me the Nobel Prize
for perfecting genocide,
for understanding the plight
of the garden plow
and inventing the first religion
to call prayer nothing
but a poem written in excrement.

The cat’s cradle
of God’s love
can be found
in the indices
of the unholy.
but what is God?
What is love?

Time, such a beguiling bastion
of the illusive spirit,
its passage like a staircase
accepting the momentary weight
of our countless footsteps,
where we fool ourselves
into believing we matter
more than we are matter.

The ragged rim of oblivion,
welcoming as a leper’s smile,
calls us from our oubliette
to explore,
to build the better bicycle
and pretend
not to feel the cold
of the nuclear winter,

where the snow falls
like orange blossoms,
and the horizon yawns,
a Calypso
made of beautiful worms.

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Words, Beautiful Words

A Sky Collection Newsletter

Photo by Nataliya Smirnova on Unsplash

Hello Sky Collection readers and writers,

I hope you are all staying safe and warm where you live. Here in NC, the ground is saturated, and the cold rain continues. But muddy paws and disappointing impeachment trials aside, the beautiful words of this publication help keep me going. Thank you so much for your continued readership, and to our writers, thank you for filling our lives with your thoughts and art.

January Highlights

Did you know we now have an editor’s picks page? Please take a look! The featured pieces from January are:

“Rain on New Year’s Day” by Vixen Lea

“Unity” by Gayle Kurtzer-Meyers

“Handy” by Amy Jasek

“Still Waters Run Deep” by MDSHall

“The Art of Healing” by Priyanka Srivastava

“The Halls of Power” by Janaka Stagnaro

Each of these unique pieces is worthy of your time!

Quote Prompts

My baby, who was due on Valentine’s Day, 2011, born 2/12/11, turned 10 this week, I have a lot of feelings about that. Our most recent prompt connects time passing and children growing up to parenthood and feeling needed.

Check it out:

Kids Don’t Stay

On a personal note, I have intentionally slowed down my own writing this month. It has been a year since my father died, and I am feeling more introspective without wanting to produce too much. I ride my moods.

However, there are many projects in the works. Did you know, besides teaching in the classroom, I teach individualized writing lessons and coach writers of all ages? I have a new client today, and I am very excited to work with her.

I am in the process of putting together my second poetry collection. I hope to have this ready by the end of the month!

That’s all for now. Thank you for your continued support!

Love, Samantha

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate.

My Little Patch of Sky (Part 2)

A reflection on the winter solstice and this year

December 21, 2020- blurred photo of Jupiter and Saturn by author

Last night, we tried to set up the telescope my son got for Christmas last year, but the tripod was broken, and the view from my front yard was clear to look with our eyes. It was incredible to see the Jupiter and Saturn conjunction on a relatively mild North Carolina evening. Even though I live in the city, I can still find a way to block out much of the light pollution to star and moon gaze.

It was winter solstice 2019 when I decided to begin my Sky Collection project. I made a goal to write a poem a day inspired by taking sacred pauses to look up and notice. I did not write 365 poems for the project, mostly because so much happened this year. In February, my dad died, and right after that, the pandemic hit the U.S., so my teaching job became remote. I sure learned a lot about teaching online and about returning to school under strict safety protocols.Masked and Ready for School
Teaching during COVID-19 is making me a better educatormedium.com

Dealing with the loss of my father both closed me down and opened me up. A lot of my poetry in Sky Collection became about that experience. It was a way for me to grieve, I suppose. Growing up, I was always losing my dad. This year was just the final loss. Ambiguous grief has been difficult throughout my life. It is a sense of always waiting for the next trauma to happen.

Ambiguous Grief is Real
Coping with loss before it happensmedium.com

Ambiguous grief/anxiety took on a whole new meaning this year because of COVID-19, and that anxiety is far from over. I still feel like I am waiting. Waiting to be with people I love. Waiting to go somewhere. Waiting to feel safe enough again. Waiting to get my son into more stuff again. Waiting for things to go “back to normal.” I want to stop waiting and just be. So if I had to make any new year’s resolutions, that would be it.

My ritual with the new year is not to resolve to stop doing something. Instead, I decide what no longer serves me and slowly or all at once, I let it go. Sometimes I write those things down and burn the paper. Then I decide what to keep with me for the next year. So into 2021, I will bring a new sense of healing, a wonderful writers’ community, a powerful and beautiful writing practice, strength to be a teacher in-person or remotely, stamina to wear a mask all day, everyday.

Looking back at what I accomplished this year in my writing: I wrote a total of 115 poems in my Sky Collection project and hundreds more poems and stories in my notebooks and elsewhere on Medium. I opened up my publication Sky Collection to dozens more writers. I created a writing prompts practice, which inspired many people to create a diversity of responses.

Most of all, I am proud that I published my first poetry collection, Reaching Marrakesh, which is a book I think I have always been writing about losing my dad.

So even though I am finished with last year’s Sky Collection Project, I will also take into the new year my practice of stopping and taking in the sky. It is always important to take sacred pauses — to look up at the sky and notice there is so much more to our universe. To my little patch of sky, thank you for continuing to fill me with wonder and joy.

Happy New Year, dear readers!

  • Samantha Lazar 2020

Here is the link to the poem of the same title:My Little Patch of Sky
Sky Collection — Poem 96medium.com

This piece was originally published here.

Thank you for reading. I am excited to announce I have at last released a poetry narrative collection out into the world: Reaching Marrakesh. You can find that here.

Day 1,061 (of this president)

Photo by Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash

this madness, let us sleep
louder and ruder by day
division and diversion

but we won’t look away

my eight year old wants to know
on our drive home 
how did he get elected, mama?
that is a great question, love

we cannot even keep up
there is not even a way to explain it 
to myself

but I remember day one
how can we forget that rainy 
upside down
clown show

refusing to watch
but then sneaking a glance
the curiosity outweighing the protest

the fury unearthed 
better than the lunchroom gossip

if this is US history
will we survive long enough
to say we were there for the nightmare?

when at last will we stop?

if numbers actually don’t 
matter so much
why should we show our work in math?

if the truth is an illusion
what is the point of learning?

© Samantha Lazar 2019

Loving Myself at 45

Poetry for Sunday

Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash

Hell yes, I will come on your yoga and meditation retreat. 
I will meet you where I meet myself. 
I will sing loudly on the way up the mountain. 
Yes I am of Generation X. 
I still know all of Dark Side of the Moon by heart.

I am still growing up. It’s fun, remember? 
It’s also great to go nowhere be seen by no one answer to no one. 
I will listen to NPR and my books on tape, 
and I will stop to think and forget to get going again. 
Yes, turning into my mother (still) wild and earthy hippie she is.

I will laugh about the permanent bruise on my hip 
because where is my body in space? 
Where are we anyway?

I will dance with my child and sip coffee and fill in the boxes. crossword and Sudoku. bliss. leisure.

I cannot sit still just like my 5th graders. I need to hold a fidget spinner. My brain at times won’t stop. I will pull at the weeds and not plant anything this year. The garden will volunteer tomatoes. And maybe a pumpkin.

There is a cardinal. Home for a while. 
I will walk and walk even though my arch hurts and my heel hurts and I stretch beyond what I thought possible.
That adjustment in me has yet to come.

I am bold. I speak my mind. I am hard on myself. And then I am not. I get lazy then busy then I just cannot deal with the world.

I love the routine but I want a shake up. 
I am still that girl on the train. 
Running that race, swimming the lake, learning guitar. 
Singing and singing with all my heart.

I am still losing my tent at a music festival. 
I am still playing house too soon.
I am dancing in a light up hula hoop in my wedding dress. 
I am still lost and totally and completely one hundred percent myself.

And love. I love. I love you so much.

© Samantha Lazar 2019

Thank you for reading. My name is Samantha. I teach 5th graders everything from Language Arts to How to Be a Good Human. I also teach creative writing classes, workshops, and lessons. I still want to be a writer when I grow up.