Story and Poem of the Month

April's Story and Poem of the Month have been chosen for us by the lovely Philip Sidney aka Helen Richardson. Here are her picks:

 

Thank you so much for the privilege of selecting the poem and the story of the month for April!
Such a difficult thing to do, so I went for gut feelings.

There were so many fantastic poems. Silver Spun’s warm as honey, ‘Where the Bee Sucks’, works on so many levels: http://www.abctales.com/story/silver-spun-sand/where-bee-sucks Fidud’s, ‘Slaughter’, is so powerful and a subject close to my heart: http://www.abctales.com/story/fidud/slaughter.

 In the end though, I had to go for Noo’s ‘…My Reflection’. A sliver of prose poetry offering shifting perceptions, inspired by an intriguing painting. Silver light glinting on the velvet of darkness, mirrors, tears and the strange things at the periphery. The odd and claustrophobic atmosphere has stayed with me and reminds me of the strangeness of human existence: http://www.abctales.com/story/noo/my-reflection-poetry-monthly

As for the story – well, I revelled in celticman’s comic-sad writing, as always, wonderfully observed and touching in its humanity. Jewel Serpent’s, ‘The baby in the Well’, blew me away. Startling and compelling with such an important message: http://www.abctales.com/story/jewel-serpent/baby-well-0

But there really was one stand out piece for me, Bee’s Journey (the last leg). Wise and warm, touching and truthful; for me this piece shows the power of belonging to our community of writers. We share our words, our worlds and every now and again writing and life overlap. http://www.abctales.com/story/bee/bees-journey-last-leg

Thank you all ABCtales writers for a wonderful month of reading!