This Creature is Lore

Challenge #1: Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

My primary goal for July is to finish the first draft of my Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang fic. I would like to but do not expect to finish it before the Mereth Aderthad.

*

Challenge #2:
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like.

Right now, the summer-related thing I want to do the most is to sit on the lakeshore at the cabin and read a book for hours on end. I was able to do that last summer and I really miss not being able to do so this summer. Right on the shore, the lake breezes kept the mosquitos and flies away; even ten feet inland this didn't happen. The lapping of the waves, the sky, the ever-changing clouds (when there are clouds), the birdsong and insects buzzing in the forest: I need this.


And now for the poem:


Natural fireworks:
lightning storms,
lightning bugs.
Fireflies are preferable--
they're less dangerous.
But I love both.

Fireflies I can hold in my hand:
light on, light off
-- and then they're off
back into the wider world.