i want my dreams more than yours

i want my dreams more than yours

by Linda M. Crate

i want my dreams more than yours
my temper burns
red and hot
fiery passion of
a dragon heart watch my
wings
bring you chaos,
and i know sometimes i go a
little overboard
but sometimes you're a little too
underboard to satiate
the talons of my lust;
just give me something, anything at all
for me to sink my teeth into—
you rescind to the shadows
refuse to mention
more
than the weather
as if it could be the only thing you'd ever
be interested in speaking of;
anything deeper
i bring up
you bury further down into the ocean of you,
and while i've always liked swimming
these wings of mine are tired
of fighting against
their nature
so goodbye, once friend—
it is time for me to fly through the mists
of ivory clouds
take tomorrows before they're stolen from me
be the dreamer before someone
snatches me up to
build theirs;
maybe it's selfish,
but i want my dreams more than i want theirs, yours.

* * *

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. She currently resides in Meadville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Amethyst Epiphany is forthcoming from Assent Publishing. 

What inspires you to write and keep writing? I have dreams and goals. I am a relentless dream chaser. I want to touch and heal the world with my poetry and other writings. I have so many words in me that I have to get them out. I want to prove the critics wrong, to make something of myself, to show everyone who scoffed at me that they were foolish for doubting my abilities. 

What do you think is the most important part of a fantasy poem? That it not only engages the senses and the imagination, but it also bears some relevance in society or on a personal level that people can relate to. 

The First Fall

The First Fall
by Linda M. Crate

Demeter’s children are wilting,
but none fall as hard as Persephone —

tricked by the lull of pomegranate,
it’s garish hue pleasing to the eyes

of youth that feast upon the world
a little differently than those that

are wiser to the wily ways of it’s
brood; but that’s all in the past now —

there are things that cannot be undone
even by the gods; some things that fall

like rain no matter how hard you try
to avert your wings from the splashes;

sometimes you get weighted down
in the volume of all the problems, that

you can forget like Demeter that spring
will come again along with Persephone.

* * *
Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poems have been previously published in Magic Cat Press, Black-Listed Magazine, Bigger Stones, Vintage Poetry, The Stellar Showcase Journal, Ides of March, The Blinking Cursor, The Diversified Arts Project, The Railroad Poetry Project, Skive, The Scarlet Sound, Speech Therapy, Itasca Illinois & Willowtree Dreams, Dead Snakes, The Camel Saloon, Write From Wrong, Moon Washed Kisses, The Wilderness Interface Zone, Samizdat Literary Magazine, Danse Macabre, and the Horror Zine. Her short stories have been published in Carnage Conservatory, Daily Love, Circus of the Damned, Linguistic Erosion, and Yesteryear Fiction.

What advice do you have for other fantasy poets?

Just keep writing. It's hard sometimes (I got 19 rejections one day!), but you have to keep pushing on. Don't give up. I heard this advice on the news one day: "Keep believing in your dreams even if no one else does." I believe that's completely essential to any writer. You just have to persevere. Even J.K. Rowling was rejected twelve times before her masterpiece was published, and look where the Harry Potter franchise is now! It's not easy to follow your dreams, but nothing good in life ever came for free. Don't ever stop, don't let anyone convince you that you're not good enough. The day you do that is the day that you've let them win. Prove your critics wrong, make them eat their words.

My Vampire Husband

My Vampire Husband
by Linda M. Crate



they always say that he broke in

because that’s what I allowed

them to believe, but he knocked

on my window; I invited him in,

and I know no one will understand

it, but I let him penetrate through

the glass wall of protection because

I felt a kinship with him that I had

known with no one else; he felt

like home before I ever knew him —

my parents hate him, and my in-laws

are disapproving, but none of it has

mattered to us; he stole into my

house the same way he invaded my

heart, with my permission, and I

would rather him to be my protector

rather than anyone else I’ve known —

there’s a feral beauty to this beast

that I could not ignore, he has never

hurt me like a monster would; he has

only ever let me bloom like a flower.

* * *

Linda M. Crateis a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poems have been previously published in Magic Cat Press, Black-Listed Magazine, Bigger Stones, Vintage Poetry, The Stellar Showcase Journal, Ides of March, The Blinking Cursor, The Diversified Arts Project, The Railroad Poetry Project, Skive, The Scarlet Sound, Speech Therapy, Itasca Illinois & Willowtree Dreams, Dead Snakes, The Camel Saloon, Write From Wrong, Moon Washed Kisses, The Wilderness Interface Zone, Samizdat Literary Magazine, Danse Macabre, and the Horror Zine. Her short stories have been published in Carnage Conservatory, Daily Love, Circus of the Damned, Linguistic Erosion, and Yesteryear Fiction.

Where do you get the ideas for your poems? That's really a loaded question. Partially, I'll admit that I'm influenced by things I've seen, heard, or even read - sometimes however ideas hit me out of the blue; my muse is rather eccentric (it takes after me), and gives me ideas that I never thought that even I could conjure. I usually get the best ideas I find in those moments right before I fall asleep or right before I wake up. Inspiration hits me everywhere and my ideas are inspired by everything really snippets of conversation I heard at church, the weather outside, my personal opinions on a wildly debated subject, etc.

What inspires you to write and keep writing? I've always held a love and a passion for writing. I once read this quote concerning writers: "True writers never stop writing until they're dead." I think that describes me. I've been told that I 'write too much'. It's something I'm passionate about and one of my true callings. I am inspired to write because of my favorite writers and I keep writing so that maybe I can change someone's life for the better. Other times I write simply to expose a part of my soul that I could not otherwise examine.

What do you think is the most important part of a fantasy poem? Probably to keep the poem both engaging and easy to relate to. I've read scholarly and academic poems that turned me off right off the bat because of their language similarly I've read fantasy poems on the same vein. It's one thing to be very intelligent, but it's another thing to be an elitist. I feel that if one must use a dictionary on each and every one of your poems or look up the subject matter they're not going to be interested in the poem - fantasy or not nor will they likely be interested in reading one of your future poems.

What do you think is the attraction of the fantasy genre? I'm not sure really, I've always had a strange pull towards fantasy. I think it's because it was always my escape as a child. I've always loved to read and to me - dragons, vampires, werewolfs, elves, dwarves, faeries, chimeras, etc. have always interested me far more than the petty problems of society that I like to pretend don't affect me. If I'm honest, there's also another part of me that says, I wish I were a part of their world. But I'm not Ariel nor is there any Ursula that will steal my voice so I can meet my mystery prince. Pity! I'm sure he would have been quite the looker.

What advice do you have for other fantasy poets? Just keep writing. It's hard sometimes (I got 19 rejections one day!), but you have to keep pushing on. Don't give up. I heard this advice on the news one day: "Keep believing in your dreams even if no one else does." I believe that's completely essential to any writer. You just have to persevere. Even J.K. Rowling was rejected twelve times before her masterpiece was published, and look where the Harry Potter franchise is now! It's not easy to follow your dreams, but nothing good in life ever came for free. Don't ever stop, don't let anyone convince you that you're not good enough. The day you do that is the day that you've let them win. Prove your critics wrong, make them eat their words.