Have a Little Faith | Poetry by Neha's Notebook

Review: The Secret of Mirror Bay

The Secret of Mirror Bay by Carolyn Keene
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Nancy’s aunt invites her and her friends on a vacation trip at a bayside cabin owned by her. The cabin is located across a bay in a small New York based town called Cooperstown. Apparently, this trip is not only limited to vacation fun, rather, it is also an invite to solve the mystery of a woman who is reported to be seen walking atop the bay’s waters during early misty mornings.

This bay, named Bide-a-Wee, is known to possess utter beauty in the form of its mirror-like waters, further surrounded by fine woody mountains and jungly green rainforests.

So, along with her aunt and with two of her best friends – Bess and George, Nancy sets out on this adventurous exploration. And guess, what happens as they step into the town? Nancy is mistaken to be a criminal by town’s people and authorities!

Apparently, a girl whose face resembles Nancy, causes the people in town to mistake her identity as a thief and a swindler. This girl, as revealed gradually, is not only responsible for a vacation hoax, but also for her involvement in other crimes such as burglary of a jewelry store.

This mischievous girl, by the end, is caught by the police as well as her two partner buddies. As they confess, they had been scaring the people away from the forest by showing them hallucinations of a ghost-like creature glowing with flashy green light whose source seemed impossible to locate. Since Nancy didn’t believe in ghosts, therefore, she was able to trace their footsteps in the mud and reach the cave they had been using as their hidingplace.

As always, later on in the plot, the three respective boyfriends of the detective crew also join them and alongside them, an elderly man named Matt, too. Uncle Matt is a science professor.

By the end of their venturesome trip, Nancy doesn’t only discovers the secret of the woman walking on the bay’s waters, but also cracks the mystery of a giant fraudulent operation being carried out in a concealed underground chamber located in a secluded portion of the forest. As a bonus, she also digs out some treasured royal items from the bay’s depths including a box of ancient coins, pieces of a codeword letter and a long-lost royal child wagon carved in white and gold.

But like always, this mystery too wasn’t any plain or simple to navigate. As her friends get smacked on head, get poisoned by the forest’s serpents & almost get kidnapped, Nancy too is caught adrift into panic when she finds herself trapped inside the underground cave along with her boyfriend Ned and Uncle Matt as they are scanning through the forested region in the dark of the night.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the book’s plot, there are repetitive details of scuba-diving, boat-riding and swimming presented in a descriptive manner. These routinic scenes caused me to feel as if I am experiencing the refreshing waters of the mirror bay by myself.

In addition, there is a chapter in a book that I really felt quite immersive to read. You’d come across it when you read the book. This chapter mentions a setting of the cabin’s porch. It’s the time of evening. Nancy, her friends, their respective boyfriends, Nancy’s aunt and uncle Matt – all of these people are sitting on or nearby this porch. And they’re witnessing a swarm of glowing fireflies in the forested region surrounding them. Therein, Uncle Matt explains from his scientific knowledge, the process of cold light generation in the fireflies. And I found this detailing really fascinating to read. As Bess cooks her expertly delicious desserts, salads & sandwiches, and as romance begins to bloom between Aunt Eloise & Uncle Matt, these people spend a cool evening watching the sunset and talking about fireflies. I really liked reading this particular setting from all of the scenes written in the book.

Apart from this, there is a character in the book named Yo. Yo is an interesting character who doesn’t only know how to heal a serpent bite, but is also known for telling intriguing horror stories. I really liked these little horror tales inserted between the mystery and narrated through his peppy character.

All in all, I immensely enjoyed delving into this book. In fact, upon having finished this book, I found myself feeling like I’ve just returned from this trip to the bayside cabin myself!

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#7 THE MATRIX OF HOPE & FAITH | Poetic Slideshows For Simple Thinking Vi...

Two Neon Eyes | Horror Poem

 

Dusty morgue
Lightless chamber
Open window
Crooked branch
across
moon's diameter

His attention
in space outside
while through a
door inside
secretly pops out an arm
behind his back
2 neon eyes
glow on branch
Flashy red reflection
in his eyes' tranche#vss365 #vsspoem #Postmortem

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 25, 2021

Swimming | 8-word Poem

 

Swimming
in currents of time
singing
bittersweet ballads〰️#8wordspoet #MoonMystic

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 19, 2021

All or Nothing | Poem

I want
infinite universe
to spin
at my millimetric fingertips

I want
a heart
as infinite
as infinity of universe's
all-consuming lips

I want
entire existence
to live in
my heartbeats

I desire
all or nothing

Nothing less
can empower me
or calm
my mind's restless feet.#vss365

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 15, 2021

Reminder of the day | Fill your own bucket

Pocket | Poem Freestyle

From the pocket of a rainbow
I picked up a pitcher
brimming with
color squashes
& splashed it atop
a heap of smokey black coals

Simmering
trembling
splattering across
pebbly streetscapes of
my dark heart's ashes
the colors painted a graffiti
to bare my soul.#vss365 #MoonMystic

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 22, 2021

Reminder of the day | Life is an adventure to be explored!

Love | Poem

Love is
the clasped string
of present moment
in a songwriter's rosary
of time-space

Holding together
the beads
carved with
sewholes of duality

Moment to moment
it embroiders
the intricate beadwork
of my changing personalities.
#vss365

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 18, 2021

Reminder of the day | Feeling bitter is okay but not useful for me | Neh...

Reminder of the day | I trust that everything happens for me | Neha's No...

#6 BITTERNESS | Poetic Slideshows For Simple Thinking | Video Series by ...

Reminder of the day | Just keep swimming | Neha's Notebook

Just one more night | Poem

Wineglassy lake
Waters reflect rosy sunset
Geometric glitters of constellations
Tipple on dancy wavelets
My paintbrushes stipple an
inky ocean in a watercup
Thickened pastel-dipped
papersheets settle & tuck
I gather the pieces of my plight
It's just one more night#SlamWords R10

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 7, 2021

We are babies | Short poem

We are babies,
transforming waves & ripples
consistently dying
& taking birth,

a consequence of
loving deliverance
through the womb
of Mother Earth.#SlamWords R7

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 7, 2021

An Invisible Shadow | Poem

An
invisible shadow
lurks
like glimpses
of dusk's last sun

nimbly slips away
at a look
zips through
black of the night

flickers
atop buttery wax blobs
of drippy candles

melts softly
like
waterfalls in love
&
settles in
wound
of my heart
that
it came
to mend#MoonMystic #vss365

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 13, 2021

Balance | 10-word poem

Guitar strings
God's fingertips
playing
chords of my heartbeats.
Balance!#PenYourTen - balance

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 12, 2021

Review: Nancy Drew 25: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

Nancy Drew 25: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Carolyn Keene
My rating: 0 of 5 stars


The Ghost of the Blackwood Hall is a thrilling story, featuring one of the creepiest plots among all titles of the Nancy Drew-Carolyn Keene 64-title series.

As an elderly woman Mrs. Putney, reaches out to Nancy through a friend of her father; she seems somewhat anxious and perplexed. Guided by some superstitious trance that her late husband’s spirit is communicating messages to her, Mrs. Putney seems to be experiencing mysterious occurrences including the theft of her priced jewels & failing to remember the details of certain recent events.

Engulfed in the spell of her superstitions, she almost fires Nancy as her detective; not just once but multiple times. On the other side, Nancy, along with her friends, discovers that not just Mrs. Putney, but several other young girls like Lola & Nellie are involved in this dangerous & cultish trap. These girls appear to be acting crazy; handing out telegrams with their hard-earned cash & money over selected walnut trees in a forest. Again, they seem to be taken advantage of, through their respective vulnerabilities & superstitions.

The hunt for the mystery causes Nancy and her friends to take a trip to the colourful city of New Orleans; which also brings them to their first encounter with a nosy woman, who is also revealed to be a big piece of the mystery’s puzzle.

Meanwhile, in the same forest, a remote & isolated houseblock mansion named Blackwood Hall is discovered. The location, as it reveals to the young detective crew, is being used for something fishy. Some strange events are being carried out in this mansion. Nancy & her crew are welcomed here repeatedly with things like luminous flashes of neon green light, magic witchcraft wands, a ghostly figure playing music on an organ pipe, an invisible intruder, unconsciousness-inducing smoke flames, and what not!

Even her father too is not spared. His car is stolen and sneaked away to some isolated place as he’s inspecting the details of the place along with Nancy’s boyfriend Ned.

Nancy doesn’t just not give up on the mystery, but also, makes these hypnotized girls come out of their trance-like superstitions; also preventing the elderly woman, at the last moment, to hand over all her wealth & documents to these unknown fake séance-carriers…

Packed with intriguingly scenic descriptions of spooky-chilling seances & classic cult control tactics; suspenseful tales of trance-induction, psychological influence & hypnotism, the novel is certainly not to be missed if you’re a fan of the Nancy Drew detective series!

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Lovestory of Star & darkness | Poem

Before all creation & doom
In grey-sand of moon
A poet with a weepy frown wrote a lovestory
on blue dune
Next, at peacock's tune
Darkness kissed a star
the star fell from moon

Fell in my notebook's tress
as if telling me to revive its lovestory with darkness#MoonMystic #vss365

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 10, 2021

#5 TRUST IN LIFE | Poetic Slideshows For Simple Thinking | Video Series ...

ABANDONMENT | Poem

ABANDONMENT

Once the play has finished
& characters are drained for the day

Life condemns us
into brutal abandonment
Discarding like a
dirt-stained paper tray

Even to breathe
deems a competition
Let alone love, that remains
a 1000 dreams away!#MoonMystic #vssDreams #vss365

— Neha's Notebook (@Nehasnotebook) August 9, 2021

#4 FRUSTRATION | Poetic Slideshows For Simple Thinking | Video Series | ...

#3 EMBRACE YOUR FEELINGS | Poetic Slideshows For Simple Thinking | Video...

Video Transcript

Each and every feeling;

each and every movement of emotion I experience;

whether positive or negative,

whether good or bad,

whether right or wrong,

is a reality for me,

because I know that I’m experiencing it.

It might not be a reality for the other individuals.

The other individuals might not be able to accept it.

And they don’t even need to.

Only I need to accept who I am and what I feel.

So, the first thing is to embrace my feelings.

Whatever I feel right now,

I totally embrace it as being a reality for me.

If a particular feeling has been provided to me by the universe,

then, there must be an infinitely significant and universal purpose for this.

And so, trusting the process of life,

I accept the arrival of this feeling in the guest house of my mind.

It can stay here as long as it wants to.

It can leave this space whenever it wants to.

But until the time it is here,

I am willing to be courageous enough

to be the space holding this feeling inside me;

constantly witnessing it,

as it unfolds itself

and reveals its true purpose to me.

I already carry the essential courage and power

to embrace each and every feeling

that I have been sent by the universe in a given moment.

And it is my deepest intention

to navigate through this feeling to its totality,

thereby, freeing my mind

from all the turbulent disturbances

arising from the seeds of this feeling.

I intend to free myself from all suffering.