Living Above Your Fears
Living above your fears
yet below timeless expectations
Living above your means,
yet feel broken beyond repair
Mornings and nights without the light
seem hopeless in rivers of lies
as day by day you struggle,
looking for meaning,
searching for truth,
carrying within you burdens and fruit,
passion for life
mixed in deep regrets to uproot
The light overcomes darkness,
in your life, bringing new seeds,
sowing songs of love
in your heart, and a new field of dreams
First Published: In the March 2020 issue of The Scarlet Leaf Review
Into the Light
(another version of "Living Above Your Fears")
Living above your fears,
yet below timeless expectations.
Striving above your means,
but feel broken beyond repair.
Mornings and nights without the light
would be hopeless in rivers of lies,
but you hear a soft whisper,
“Do not give in without a fight.”
Day by day you struggle,
seeking direction,
learning and striving for truth,
carrying within seeds to bear fruit.
Your passion for life
burns as crimson delight
as you frantically search for meaning,
conquering evil in shadows of death,
and sometimes drown in deep waters of regret.
As the Light defeats darkness
your life revives into new springs.
At times, cascading down an immense abyss,
and for a few moments, it flows peacefully.
His love through the ages speaks to you softly,
sowing sonnets of love into your heart,
deep in your soul.
Your fields of dreams replenish
in the blazing rays of His brilliant glow.
E. Izabelle Cassandra Alexander was born and raised in a little village in Hungary. After immigrating to the US, she first lived in New York. There she graduated with honors from Monroe College with a Bachelor’s in Information Systems before moving to Chicago, where she earned her MBA in Business from Webster University.
In 2013, Izabelle refocused to pursue her life-long dream of writing and began taking writing classes at Oakton Community College and online. Since then, she’s been a member of numerous writing and poetry groups, attending workshops and conferences, continuously updating her writing and editing skills. She’s a single mother. Nature and animal lover. Izabelle writes short stories, creative nonfiction essays, flash fiction, plays, and poetry. Also, she’s currently working on a few novels and a series of children’s books along with illustrations.
Publications
Several of her fiction, creative nonfiction essays, and poetry have been published by Oakton Community College in 2016, 2018, and 2019 issues of their annual print literary journal, Spark, as well as by The Scarlet Leaf Review on their website in 2018 and in their March 2020 issue. By the Illinois State Poetry Society (ISPS) on their website in 2017, 2018, and in the ISPS print anthology,
Distilled Lives, Volume 4, 2018. Also, in Yearning to Breathe, a print anthology by Moonstone Art Center, 2019. By WOW! Women on Writing, 2019 & 2020, in The Book Smuggler’s Den, 2019, by Tint Journal, 2020, in Unlimited Literature, 2020, forthcoming in Ariel Publishing in 2020, and more.
Honorable Mentions, Runner Up, and Finalist
She won Runner Up status with her flash fiction “Fragments of Bones” in a contest by WOW! Women on Writing in 2019, and with her creative nonfiction essay "Why I Hate Yellow Peas" in April 2020. An interview was published by WOW in The Muffin on January 14, 2020, and another one forthcoming in May.
Her creative nonfiction essays “Disciplined Discipline” (2017) and “My First Camel Ride” (2019), and her flash fiction “Invisible Love” (2018), “Drowning Under Pressure” (2020), and “Yellow Carnations” (2020) each received an Honorable Mention in contests by WOW! Women on Writing while they chose many of her flash and creative nonfiction pieces as finalists.
In The New York City Midnight Challenge Flash Fiction Contest, she won the first round within her tier with her flash fiction titled “What Eyes Can’t See” in 2018. Several of her poems, fiction, creative nonfiction essays, and plays had been selected by Oakton Community College over the last six years as a finalist to represent them in the annual Skyway Competitions (eight community colleges competing).
To Reach Her
You can find Izabelle on her website: izabelle2012.wixsite.com/Izabelle Critique her unpublished work at www.scribophile.com/authors/izabelle-alexander/ Connect with her on Facebook: Fb.me/E.IzabelleAlexander And support her work on Patreon at www.patreon.com/IzabelleAlexander
She leads a writing/poetry group on Discord: Izabelle#0202; Server: Creative Writing
Twitter.com/IzabelleAlexan3