Shiny Penny

A story of a memory about once long ago.

The Power of Rest

#Wattys2014 Award Winner: This candid, heartfelt collection of essays addresses many of life's thorniest challenges. Whether you struggle with a perennially messy house, run away worrying, depression, an unhappy relationship, mega-stress or even the devastating loss of a loved one, give yourself the gift of The Power...

The Wake - Table of contents

THE YEAR is 1968 and the Swinging Sixties are still swinging - though not in Ireland. But wait! An old woman dies in a northern Irish town and her wake becomes a rendezvous for lesbians, bisexuals and political revolutionaries. And in there among them all is Jeremiah Coffey, lonely Jeremiah, an innocent abroad in his...

Journey Home

Journey Home c.2013, Olan L. Smith Journey Home is a collection of poems that is a personal search for my spiritual home. I go about this search with the tools of poetry using the English language as my map. Love, peace and freedom, Olan L. Smith

Lisonneta

Fourteen line poems.

Hurry Slowly

'Festina Lente' is the Latin phrase. The headmaster, of the grammar school I went to as a boy, once uttered it in my direction as I skidded round a corner of a corridor like Charlie Chaplin. He never raised his voice except in assembly since he kept a cane or two in his office. I heard that phrase again in the wind, i...

Coalescence

I am attempting to branch out and free myself from the constraints imposed by the label 'war poet'. I once wrote a poem (sadly lost) which voiced my frustration at my apparent inability to write about anything other than combat and its aftermath. Now I am retired from the military, it's time to move on. So here goes...

The Journal

Random stories, poems and thoughts. “Write what should not be forgotten.” - Isabel Allende

Camouflage

Millennial's Monologue: Secret Dramas in Our Hearts & Souls

REAL LIFE STORY: I was a stereotypical high achiever in an Ivy League school who got suspended for plagiarism; April was a sweet girl who worked in a high-end prostitution ring. We were both in our early twenties when we became friends. A perfect timing, because my heart was full and swollen, so was hers. With the...

The God Litmus Test

Memoirs of an Outlaw: Life in the Sandbox

In Fallujah, during a particularly difficult time in the Iraq War, a group of Marines are deployed on a tour that will bring them closer together, while threatening to tear them apart. The Delta Company Outlaws are a group of USMC infantrymen deployed in 2004 to one of the most hostile war zones in the world. Through...