All I Have to Do Is Dream

/ June 23, 2015
(Art from chattermaster.com)

(Art from bikecolleenbrown.com)

The sun still shines

The clouds still cry

The moon still beams

The stars still align

Every night when they last rattle the gate, I draw a last breath and finally close my eyes.

The artwork above that inspired my poem was one of several sent by fellow blogger Rara to my friend Colleen Brown to post on The Chatter Blog.

Rara draws while she’s incarcerated for a year in California. But there’s more to it than that. So much more.

Back story:

I came to know RaraSaur, as she’s known in full, first observing from the fringes this writer of a wildly popular blog. As I read her words and others’ comments, it started sinking in that she was the focal point of a seriously strong community of creative people here on WordPress.

Yet all the time Rara was helping others, she and her husband, David — who also blogged as Grayson — were waiting for her home state of California to decide what to do about old charges held against her. White collar stuff, with her words of innocence. When the legal system dropped its dime, the water was deep. Although her community here rallied with words and faith and plans and money campaigns, Rara decided to stick with public-appointed defense and a plea bargain and a jail sentence.

She’d see her beloved husband and their kitties when she’d get out for good behavior, in about a year.

People in this community asked me to take Rara’s place as host for their gang in the November write-every-day NaMoBloPo exercise they called Nano Poblano, and I agreed. I met many fantastic bloggers that I still correspond with now. Our logo was drawn by Fishy, OK’d the year prior by Rara. Every day during Nano Poblano, I thought, what would Rara do? I referred to back posts of her blog. After November, I followed her accounts and letters she sent posted by David on a special blog he set up for Rara’s friends.

This spring, David posted on his blog that he was feeling ill.

And then he died.

With Rara in prison.

She drew that art and others posted on Colleen’s blog after being let out for his service and then going back inside.

That creative community of which I spike is still rallying.

If you’d like to take part or simply know more, click the links below.

Here’s the link to the source for the artwork above.

Here’s the link to the Fear No Weebles post about Rara’s awful situation.

Here’s the link to the Go Fund Me page to help Rara.

Here’s the link to the post by Rara’s great friend DJ Matticus, where he in turn links to the post of the text of the letter she sent from jail about how she’s shaken daily by the death of her husband.

Here’s the link to the post by Rara’s friend Not a Punk Rocker where you can find an address if you’d like to write Rara a letter.

If you’d like to take part in helping Rara in any way, feel free to reblog this or click Press This.

Here’s how this challenge works: You Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph that shares your insight or inspiration of or from the image.

This is the third of my entries in the Five Photos Five Series Challenge. My thanks to Amy Rose for nominating me to participate.

Today I nominate my Nano Poblano friend Jackie P. Have fun!

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44 thoughts on “All I Have to Do Is Dream”

  5. I just found Rara’s blog a couple of days ago – I haven’t gone through it much and didn’t realise David had passed away. That’s so sad. It’s good to see the strong community surrounding her though. Thanks for sharing this, Mark

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  9. Rara’s story is so very sad, yet she is the most uplifting of souls. She is going through hell and never fails to lift someone else up that life has kicked down. She is special and one of a kind.

    I feel honored to be nominated in this after such a wonderful tribute to Rara, Mark. Thank you for thinking of me. I will try my best to do well.

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  12. You are a kind and caring man Mark. Thank you for filling in for Rara and for your care and concern about her situation. Excellent poem.

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    • You’re welcome, Scott. One of the hidden stories of BloggyVillle. I just saw on Colleen’s blog that Rara gets out of prison for good on July 18. Into a world that’s forever altered for her. 😦

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  15. Mark, I honestly don’t know what to say. My tears are thick in my throat as I have been reading about Rara. How Life can be so cruel and those of us who do not have the green to pay our way or to help ourselves out, truly at times suffer. What a heartfelt post, one that for me, was not easy to read, for I “feel” others’ pain. I cannot even begin to pretend to imagine what Rara and her family have been through, but just the stress of all this horror, will take its toll, and it did, as seen in Rara’s husband. I’m doing what I can, my friend, and I am donating to the good cause. To think that I have been a part of all this today, makes me oh so very humble. Bless you for having the Huge Heart you do, cuz. Sending Much Love to you, cuz from the west ❤

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  17. Thank you for sharing her information and her story, Mark. Whenever people ask about friends made exclusively through social media and like sites, if they are “real”, I think not only of Rara but the other genuine friends I have made through our connections.

    People buy cars or houses, find jobs and set up dates to seek romance almost exclusively online these day; why not make “real” friends too? ❤ 🙂

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