Title The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet
Author M J Mallon
Genre Poetry/Flash Fiction Forest, Nature, New Age
Publisher Kyrosmagica Publishing
Book Blurb
The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet is a collection of poetry and flash fiction celebrating the beautiful vulnerability of the forest kingdom. It begins with the poetic tale of the kind-hearted Hedge Witch, Fern, who discovers an injured stranger in desperate need of her woodland spells and magic.
The sweet pairing learn from each other and through Fern's guidance, Devin embraces the power of magic to leave behind his troubled past to become The Musical Poet.
Poetry/flash fiction titles in section one of the collection include:
The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet, Rain Forest Love, A Forest Baby Boy, A Forest Baby Girl, A Modern Witch, Rock of Mine, Chester Don & I, The Network of Trees, More Trees Not Less, Two Boys Watching War, Mum Climbing Trees, Let's Play, The Scorched Tree, Owl's Holiday Home, A Man's Holiday Home, A Child's Excitement, The Teddy In The Woods, Run! The Organutans, All Hallow's Eve Candy Girl The Forest Bash, Dreaming At Halloween, A Face on Bark, Golden Willow Tree, Rainbow - Parasol of Light, Lollipop Sunshine Tree.
In Section two I pay tribute to the following poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Ruby Archer, King Forest, Bliss Carman, Woodland Rain, Emily Dickinson, Who Robbed the Woods, Rupert Blake, Stopping by The Woods on A Winter Evening,Oscar Wilde, In the Forest.
With my poetry:
The Forest Weeps, The Forest King, Raindrops and Childhood Dreams, The Woodland Treasures, Winter Woodland Moon, Child Me.
Excerpt
A man staggers ahead, dragging his feet,
Blood dripping from the cuts on his face.
Wiping his eyes, he discerns a clearing ahead,
With flowers, trees, the hum of insects.
Unable to walk any further, he collapses by a tree.
***
His hands reach out to touch the earth,
And water drops from the rivertrickle,
Over his bruised fingertips.
***
Outside a forest cabin, a girl wanders,
Her hands are dirty from digging in her garden.
Worms wiggle at her feet,
While above her plentiful bees fly from flower to flower,
Collecting nectar.
***
She pauses for a moment,
To sit on a bench with her forest friends,
Who often greet her.
***
A robin joins her,
His presence warms her heart,
As she studies his plump red breast,
Grey under belly, brown head, wings and tail.
The robin flits to and fro.
***
Flying in short bursts of flight,
He doesn't settle beside her as it usually does.
"What's wrong robin?" she asks.
***
Placing her hand out in a gentle gesture,
Of kind friendship,
She is surprised to see,
That the robin doesn't come to rest on her hand,
As he normally does.
***
Instead, he lands on her shoulder,
And gently tugs at the fabric of her dress,
As if urging her to come with him.
***
"Okay, okay," she says,
As she follows him into the forest.
***
The robin flies with rapid wing beats.
She follows, from time-to-time the bird pauses,
To check that she is still there.
***
At last, he stops to rest,
At the edge of the forest, by a river,
By the weeping willow tree.
***
He chooses this place to land,
On a branch,
That rests still in the water.
Beside the branch there is a man prone,
His face squashed in the dirt.
***
The weeping willow tree bends its branches,
Reaching towards the injured man,
As if the man might reach out.
And be helped to his feet.
***
The injured man’s eyes open momentarily,
He tries to grasp the tree branch,
But he is too weak to do so.
***
The Willow’s branches sway to and fro.
Scattering,
Droplets,
Of water on his battered face.
***
Rushing over, the young woman’s heart beats with worry as she comes to the man's aid. Bending down, she turns his face, removes the dirt from his mouth, presses her ear to his chest and listens to see if he is breathing. His breathing sounds laboured, she frowns with worry knowing that she must get him to her cottage. Fast. But how?
Amongst the foliage she notices her friend the deer peering out inquisitively. The creature pads towards her and stops.
"Deer, can you help me? I must awaken this hurt creature without delay, and take him to my cottage to tend its wounds."
The deer sniffs the air, its eyes wide with understanding… (the story of the kind Hedge Witch continues…)
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Author Biography
M J Mallon was born in Lion city Singapore, a passionate Scorpio with the Chinese Zodiac sign of a lucky rabbit. She spent her early childhood in Hong Kong. During her teen years, she returned to her father’s childhood home, Edinburgh where she spent many happy years, entertained and enthralled by her parents’ vivid stories of living and working abroad. Perhaps it was during these formative years that her love of storytelling began bolstered by these vivid raconteurs. She counts herself lucky to have travelled to many far-flung destinations and this early wanderlust has fuelled her present desire to emigrate abroad. Until that wondrous moment, it’s rumoured that she lives in the UK, in the Venice of Cambridge with her six-foot hunk of a rock god husband. Her two enchanting daughters have flown the nest but often return with a cheery smile.
Her motto is to always do what you love, stay true to your heart's desires, and inspire others to do so too, even it if appears that the odds are stacked against you like black hearted shadows.
Favourite genres to write: Fantasy/magical realism because life should be sprinkled with a liberal dash of extraordinarily imaginative magic!
YA fantasy series:
Bloodstone - The Curse of Time Book 1
And the 2nd in the series…
Golden Healer - The Curse of Time Book 2
Her writing credits also include a multi-genre approach: paranormal, best-selling horror, supernatural short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She has worked with some amazing authors and bloggers compiling an anthology/compilation set during the early stages of COVID-19 entitled This Is Lockdown and has also written a spin off poetry collection entitled Lockdown Innit.
She’s been blogging for many moons at her blog home Kyrosmagica, (which means Crystal Magic,) where she continues to celebrate the spiritual realm, her love of nature, crystals and all things magical, mystical, and mysterious.
Her eclectic blog shares details and information about her new releases, author interviews, character profiles and her love of reading, reviewing, writing, and photography: https://mjmallon.com/
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