Category Archives: Uncategorized

Out, Alone by Maria Nestorides (I AM STILL WAITING Series)

Ask any woman you know and they will tell you that the feelings I express in my poem are all too real and all too common. Thank you to Silver Birch Press for accepting this piece and for making it my first published poem.

Silver Birch Press

walking-woman-1949
Out, Alone
by Maria Nestorides

It’s a balmy spring afternoon
and I’m on my way to the craft shop
where I’ve booked a class
to make a heart-shaped wreath for my wall.
And I am still waiting…

I park my car wherever I find a spot,
but this is New York City, and
I need a good five minutes to walk to the shop.
A group of young men are huddled together
outside a shop, laughing and joking.
Ask any woman you know. These men
could be as harmless as a bee in the middle
of the ocean, but
to a lone woman, a group of men being loud
and raucous is a clear and present danger.
And I am still waiting…

Alert sounds scream in my mind,
my flight or fight signals are going crazy.
Adrenaline rushes through my body,
preparing me to do whatever I need to do—fast.

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How to submit a piece of prose by Maria Nestorides (HOW TO Series)

True story… 🙂

Silver Birch Press

untitled-1982How to submit a piece of prose
by Maria Nestorides

Submissions are open.

Great news. This is going to be your best submission yet. You rub your hands in glee and crack your knuckles in anticipation.

Double-check the submission date.

Excellent. You have plenty of time, and all sorts of wonderful ideas swimming around in your head that you’d love to write about. You’ve got this.

Settle on one idea.

Yes, that’s the one. You can hear the words in your head. They flow perfectly, one word connecting with the next in a colourful necklace of thoughts and experiences. Quickly! Get it onto paper before you forget. Start typing, fast.

Surely, that’s not how it went?
Start deleting.

Try again.
No, no, no! That’s not at all what you wanted to say. It just doesn’t seem to flow, and it doesn’t feel right in your bones.

In your mind’s eye…

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Red, White, and Blue Swimsuit, story by Maria Nestorides (LOST AND FOUND Poetry and Prose Series) | Silver Birch Press

Red, White, and Blue Swimsuit by Maria Nestorides Weston-Super-Mare. Beach. Stretches and stretches of it. And bathers by the thousands. I’m wearing my red, white and blue swimsuit. It’s a one piece, and the white part is a frilly skirt. I absolutely adore it. My sister’s is similar, except it doesn’t have a skirt but…
— Read on silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/red-white-and-blue-swimsuit-story-by-maria-nestorides-lost-and-found-poetry-and-prose-series/

Switchboard Symphony, story by Maria Nestorides (MY FIRST JOB Poetry and Prose Series) | Silver Birch Press

Switchboard Symphony by Maria Nestorides Summer, 1981. I’m thirteen and I’m starting my first summer job, standing in for Crystal, the phone operator at a local company, so she can go away on holiday. On my desk, sits a huge state-of-the-art digital telephone switchboard. Its flashing lights wink at me menacingly as if to say:…
— Read on silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/switchboard-symphony-story-by-maria-nestorides-my-first-job-poetry-and-prose-series/