Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
In Eclipse Challenge Winners
Creator Dane BH is one of our Vocal stalwarts. We’re so grateful to all of your in our Vocal community, and so thrilled by your achievements. This is the third time Dane has won one of our challenges, and she appears too on our Vocal podcast, Write Here, Write Now — take a listen if you haven’t already. But she’s not our winner because we know her: the subtlety and simplicity of we watched the world go dark. together. is what made it our winner of the In Eclipse challenge, with the grace and ease of its lines and observation. As it happens it also expresses the community spirit that means so much to us.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished about 11 hours ago in ResourcesValley Blues
Oh home - How I miss you today Enjoy this article X poetry piece about a time previously lived in a mountain town exploring the Islands of B.C. and its cattle ranges.
Kalina BethanyPublished 3 days ago in ConfessionsTales of the Aurora Borealis
Who knew a solar storm could be so beautiful? Purples, reds, and greens shimmering in our skies like dancing ribbons. Hypnotic and enchanting, the Northern Lights have had us humans in complete awe for centuries. Which got me thinking, what did our ancestors think of the Aurora Borealis?
Rosie J. SargentPublished 3 days ago in FYIStarlight Manor
“First things first,” the white-haired boy commands over his shoulder. His voice is imperious as always, firm with a jurisdiction well beyond his mere fourteen years. “Don’t ask questions.”
angela hepworthPublished 4 days ago in FictionSincerity
True sincerity is the scariest thing to hear It hurts to have others truly know our pain To know someone that has stood in the same rain
Atomic HistorianPublished 2 days ago in Poets$#*£ Resilience
I was going to relax this evening. Tune out, hunker down, look after myself. I need it. I am exhausted. Thoroughly used up. And it's only Wednesday. Not even half way through the week. A week that in the UK, is Mental Health Awareness week. I don't know who decides these things, who gets to co-opt a day, a week, a month, and declare it a thing about a thing. But I do know a lot about mental health. I know a lot about mental health AND I know a lot about working for the UK's National Health Service. And so it was with interest that I clicked play on the below video, earlier today. By the time I finished, I was in tears.
Hannah MoorePublished a day ago in PsycheCoffee with Taylor Swift
Like sitting across from a tarot card reader You somehow find my darkest, weakest moments And tear them from my chest with no warning,
Kiersten WeldonPublished 24 days ago in PoetsA Flower Song
Apparently the Aztecs, Toltecs, Chichimecs and other Mexica were crazy about poetry. Despite the book-burning, slaughter, and epidemics that characterized the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the empires of Mexico, some hundreds of poems from the height of their tradition come down to us in Classical Nahuatl, preserved by Nahua and Spanish scholars of the 16th century. One of the most famous poets, Nezahualcoyotl, was a sage-king who opposed the cult of human sacrifice associated with Tezcatlipoca, God of the Smoking Mirror, and favored Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. Flowers and feathers were the favorite offering of the Plumed Serpent. Moreover, flowers and feathers are a metaphor for poetry. Individual words, scattered petals, the down of tropical birds. The temples of blood sacrifice could be transformed into temples of flower and song. A sublimated offering to the Heart of Earth and the Heart of Sky encapsulated in the Classical Nahuatl kenning for poetry: in xōchitl in cuīcatl, meaning, "the flower and the song." The following poem is part of a longer work, and is in a state of flux, so take the waters as they flow:
Rob AngeliPublished 2 days ago in PoetsStanding Still
There are very few moments in life where time truly stands still. When your breath is taken from your chest and your body hangs weightless in that moment. Just long enough for it to stay with you from that day onwards. Deep in the red sands of the Australian Outback, I found that moment and clung to it forever.
Kevin McLaughlinPublished 2 days ago in Wanderstay
i can never make them stay. they are like orbits always in motion around me but never holding my hand. they are like shooting stars
The first step
Writtten for the We'z Walking on... unofficial challenge hosted by Proud ViM: ~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~
Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 05/15/2024
Welcome to the weekly update of the Leaderboard! We're thrilled to showcase Vocal's most discussed stories, popular picks, and rising stars. Let's dive into this past week's standout contributors and their remarkable achievements.
Vocal TeamPublished a day ago in ResourcesA Spoonful Short of Ecstasy
There must’ve been something in the water. Cuz when I looked at you that night I thought that maybe I would falter in my sense of what was wrong
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ELLEN MARIE
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ELLEN MARIE *** just had to know *** ++++++++++++ As Mike drove through the town he hadn’t seen in about twenty years, he wondered about those he’d left behind when he left for what he thought would be “greener pastures.” He wanted to make his mark on the world. Determination drove him and the little town of Meadowville wasn’t where he wanted to be.
Margaret BrennanPublished 4 days ago in FictionVocal Spring 2024 Updates
It's been too long since our last update, but we've been working hard behind the scenes based on your feedback from Discord chats and Creator Chat sessions, and we've got some exciting new updates to share with you.
Justin @ VocalPublished 2 days ago in ResourcesRed Shelves
Death is a black hole. Think about it. A black hole is the corpse of a star, something once warm and bright, now come to the end of its life cycle. But some will argue that the cycle of life does not end with death. That death is merely another path we must walk once our bodies expire and our souls ascend. In that moment, when the fuel in the star’s chemical tank hits empty and the shiny matte coat explodes into supernova, the mass left behind – the corpse – becomes a black hole. We understand that, around such a vast cadaver, dimensions work a little differently in death to the way we’re used to in life. For example, light cannot escape the pull of a black hole when it hits the point of no return. That’s where it gets its colour. Space itself is contorted by a black hole. That’s where it gets its funny shape. Even time. Time slows right down the closer you get to it. The closer you get to a black hole. The closer you get to death.
Matthew CurtisPublished a day ago in Humanspower shift
for millennia upon millennia, they ruled. when one passed out of all thought and time, another took the throne. whether a giant among the trees or a beast in the clouds,
Alivia VarvelPublished 2 days ago in PoetsCan You Drive a Ford Fiesta Through a Desert?
I’m flying down the B1 highway from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop with a map and a boot full of camping gear. I’m excited for the first stop of my Namibian road trip: the Quiver Tree Forest. I spot the sign and turn onto the C17, off the tarmac and onto the gravel. I’ll be there soon; it’s only ten miles or so. I am unprepared for what comes next. The car slides and slips across the road. I am not fully in control anymore. I slow to a crawl. The car judders and shudders, the noise deafening, the vibrations rattling the teeth in my skull. It takes me around an hour to drive the ten miles. I arrive at the campsite relieved to be in one piece, even if it feels like all my bones have been shaken slightly out of place. I will later learn that this is what happens when the gravel road becomes “corrugated”, and that the roads authority goes round once a week to “grade” them. Seems I arrived about 6 days after the grader had last been round.
Jenifer NimPublished 2 days ago in WanderLei Day
Meet me in Hawai’i the first of May On a sandy shore of a turquoise sea Greet me with “aloha” and wear a lei *** On the Big Island where the palms all sway
D.K. ShepardPublished a day ago in PoetsMayvillanelle: A Mikeydred May Dollar Prompt For All Vocal Creators
Introduction Every so often I set prompts in the Vocal Social Society and offer a dollar tip to three random creators who take part in it and ask them to share their stories in the comments and on the thread in the group.
Mike Singleton - MikeydredPublished 16 days ago in Writers