Tag Archives: ritual

Vigil

Posted on November 17, 2025 by John Biscello

When I watched my mother brush her hair, it made a scraping electric sound: vibrating plastic teeth sinking repeatedly into a fuzzy animal. I loved watching my mother brush her hair. I’d make sure to always stand behind her, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged ceremony, eyes, family, fragment, hair, head, love, mother, portrait, ritual, son, story | 2 Comments

Process and Zeitgeist

Posted on November 6, 2025 by John Biscello

It was what Crowfeather called the Blue Star ceremony, or Above Air ceremony. It took place on Winter Solstice 2020. It wad during the enigmatic, unsettling and ominous period of COVID, the virus that was upsetting the balance of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged attuning, blue star, ceremony, cosmos, creation, essay, micro and macro, novels, process, Prose, ritual, story, trusting, words | Leave a comment

Outtake

Posted on November 19, 2024 by John Biscello

I saw the sign in the window: Lessons Learned/Karma Burned. I went inside. The studio reeked of frankincense. And cotton candy. Greeting me at the door, as if she had been waiting for me, was a tall, well-toned woman in … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged balance, burning, fiction, karma, lessons, practice, ritual, self, session, story, studio, words, yoga | Leave a comment

No Dominion

Posted on November 8, 2024 by John Biscello

Dark. Lights up. Piles of sand on stage. Reddish sand. In some areas, the sand is piled high, forming mini-dunes. In other areas, thin flat layers. Sticking out of the sand are shards of glass. A woman lying on stage … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose, Theater | Tagged actors, camera, ceremony, child, desert, distances, elegy, fiction, play, Prose, ritual, train, writing | Leave a comment

Test Dummies

Posted on February 18, 2024 by John Biscello

(Excerpt from Worlds Last Imagined, novel in progress). We saw them carrying life-sized dummies to the town square. It was eerie how each dummy so closely resembled the person who was carrying it. We watched as all the dummies were … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose | Tagged between worlds, ceremony, dummies, novel, novel in progress, Prose, ritual, seeds, story | Leave a comment

Funereal

Posted on February 17, 2024 by John Biscello

(Excerpt from Worlds Last Imagined, novel in progress.) Last night Ariana and I attended our own funerals. It was something we did from time to time. We saw ourselves, lying there, pretending to be dead, saw a wavering horde of … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose | Tagged between worlds, ceremony, excerpt, funeral, living dead, migrants, novel, number eight, pilgrims, Prose, ritual, vagabonds | Leave a comment

Town Square

Posted on December 17, 2023 by John Biscello

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged community, dummy, poem, ritual, stones, town square, words, you and others | Leave a comment

Sacrament

Posted on April 10, 2018 by John Biscello

The tenderest shoots, she offered as nuptials– Blood, green to the touch.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged blood, haiku, John Biscello, poem, Poetry, ritual, sacrament, shoots, spirit, tender, water | Leave a comment

Easter

Posted on March 28, 2018 by John Biscello

She, tender Sunday, wearing only beads of rain– her skin held the light.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged dream, easter, haiku, John Biscello, Light, love, naked, Poetry, rain, ritual, romance, sunday | 1 Comment

Opaque

Posted on March 2, 2018 by John Biscello

Rebirthing, within fathomless hues, beyond the opaque rim, and vanishing, someone waits to claim your life anew.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged baptism, dark, hues, John Biscello, lake, moody, New Mexico, opaque, photo, poem, Poetry, rebirth, ritual, water | Leave a comment