A New Light, A New Day

Wow, so here we are, my own real web page and our first real blog. Where to start? I have been writing for years, I used to keep an active blog on Myspace. Does anybody remember Myspace? Shesh, I am old right. After that, I got a Live Journal, I admit no one ever read that but not because I wasn’t interesting. I barely ever posted. I always kept a journal growing up, too. My first “diary” I was eleven. I loved writing, would write stories and poetry as a kid.
We have started The Shade of Writing as a Shadow’s Lair family venture. The Shadow’s Lair Family is a family of two dads and two kids, not to unusual. We love to travel, and will post about our travels, everyday lives, fantasy writings, and just a general hodgepodge of things. We also have a goal to one day own a family farm and shop. We will use this blog to update our progress on this goal. For those of you who found this after following the Shadow’s Lair for years, thank you for your continued support. If this is your first time reading our writing, welcome and thank you. Feel free to follow us on Patreon.

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Left to Right Cera, Jayson, Damien, Aaron, 2011 Maryland Hiking trip

Research Paper

By Damien Knight

I stare at the paper eager to write

all my notes sitting before me

I put up my dukes ready to fight

but no muscles and a blank memory

I keep reorganizing typing and deleting

Ten pages of research are you serious!

Typing so much my hands sting

all this writing makes me delirious

Will the result be worth it

or ten pages of hot garbage

hey if I can get a degree in bull shit

I guess I’ll give them this verbal carnage

 

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These Are the Locals Who Get The Story of Charlottesville Right

On Charlottesville.

Longreads

Last Saturday evening, Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas held a press conference about the events that day that unfolded under his watch “We love our city,” he said in conclusion. “Let us heal. This is not our story. Outsiders do not tell our story.”

I was born and raised in Charlottesville. I attended and graduated from its public schools; I still live in the city and call it home. After a weekend in which the national media descended upon our downtown and broadcast the unfolding story with the nuance of a parade of elephants, Thomas’s sentiment was welcome. Aside from being heartbroken and outraged, I was tired. Tired of talking heads calling our town Charlotte, of “The South” appearing in print as some strange monolithic mystery region somewhere below Philadelphia, of factual errors confusing the city with adjacent poor and rural counties, of accusing fingers pointed without question at the…

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Despairing World

By Damien Knight

 

The world is twisted, crying mass

loud and screaming violent place

peace and love seems to pass

and kindness blind from the human race

the blood of innocents

on the hands of angry men

leave behind hated prints

of the ultimate sin

The sin of bigotry and hate

a crime of the uncivilised

I hope we leave such a state

a world where none are victimized

 

 

My Life Partner

By Damien Knight

I took a long time to realize what defined the perfect love. I picked many wrong people to love in the past. I thought love was defined on looks or who was popular. I thought those who were the right ones for me would be “strong enough” to control me, that I must date the bad guy to be cool. I was wrong.

I learned through trial and error what defined the perfect life partner. In fact, I know now I have that perfect life partner, my loving husband. Aaron is strong in character. He is open-minded and yet firm when defending those against wrongs. He is a good parent and a loving husband.

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Above the Trees

By Damien Knight

 

the soft sway of the waterfall

dripping down the limestone cliffs

Melting away all those solid walls

of doubt and what ifs

Gazing from under the water

out over all of the trees

up here I do not falter

Above the world I feel free