VOICES - before it was written
by Francis Rosenfeld
These are spoken fragments—reflections, passages, and pieces of stories that have not yet settled.Some of them have written forms.Some of them point to places that already exist.Some of them are the only version. francisrosenfeld.substack.com
Episodes
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Rachel: Reading from Between Mirrors - Ritual
When she was about six Claire started wondering what had happened to her parents. She tried to ask her grandparents about them, but they got so upset with her that she cried for days and decided never to bring up the subject again. Children tend to believe that everything that’s not right with…
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Rachel: Reading from Between Mirrors - Memories
“Get out of the doorway!” The words boomed like thunder in Claire’s ears, now almost thirty years later, with the same intensity and pronouncement they carried the first time she’d heard Grandmother utter them, the first time of many. She smiled vaguely to the memory. It was vast, this mansion of...
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The Room In Between
The room was large and not brightly lit, a feature that had obviously been designed to create a relaxing ambiance and induce a meditative state. Its calming features worked in concert with the soft muzak tunes and the cozy leather chairs, whose generous width and soft cushions cradled the body…
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Belief - Work in Progress
It doesn’t take much to make the mind wander, especially when one is engaged in tasks that don’t require any mental processing. Cimmy got mesmerized by the silky texture of the onion’s skins which slipped under her fingers when she sorted the seeds by size into large wooden vats. Lost in her…
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Belief - Into the Structure of Matter
Cimmy got lost in thought as she assessed the plots for planting, her hands caressing the dark rich dirt. One thing was clear: nature didn’t need her help to pour forth abundance, so her trip to the fields was purely decorative. When did the earth decide to bless them with such fertile soil, she...
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Cathy: Reading from the novel Terra Two - Chapter 2 - In Perpignan
“Our story began in the year of our Lord twenty one hundred and five at a farm in the south of France, a small stone building surrounded by vineyards and lavender fields baked by the Mediterranean sun. Our sun, the yellow one, pampered to have the firmament all to itself. In the modest garden...
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Amber: Reciting an epic ballad - The Heart in the Stone
There once was a fair girl whose name was Maureen, who dwelt in the mists of the island ‘Vergreen. She lived with her father. Her hair was like copper. She longed for a place that no human had seen. An old woman told her, when she was a child, a story about a great realm that’s outside the edge…
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Belief - Blue Roses
The world shifted again that morning, when Cimmy woke up in a garden not unlike the one in her old dreams, and right before awaking, in that twilight space between dream and reality, Cimmy saw a healthy rose bush overflowing with blue blossoms. It was so close she could smell their perfume, a…
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Amelia: Reading from The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Inspired
Every four years in the middle of summer, the mortals gathered to celebrate the muses in a gentle valley at the feet of Mount Helicon. The nine daughters of Mnemosyne, they weren’t your usual goddesses; they were a gift to humankind. Nobody talked about them as such, out of fear these wonders…
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Hope - Worlds Within
And did the world provide! When you stop being afraid of it, reality opens up to you to reveal all its beauty and its mysteries, and they are wondrous and strange, and so far from what you can even imagine that the only response you are capable of is awe. Humans may not be able to understand...
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Amelia: Reading from The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Life and Prophecy
Those blessed with the gift of prophecy form a small but very special community. They instinctively seek each other’s presence, they are drawn to those who are similarly blessed. If they are mortal, they become oracles and seers whose wisdom is sought and revered, and people travel from far away…
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Amelia: Reading from The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Strife
On the westernmost edge of the Oceanus, which spans the vast distance between the world of the living and the underworld, there is a splendid garden, constantly bathed in the glow of the sunset. Read it in German The garden belongs to Hera, a wedding gift from her grandmother, and wonderful apple...
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Hope - The Thingness of Things.
Once one gets seduced by wanderlust, any reason is a doorway to indulge it. Cimmy remembered that in one of the remote corners of the island, upon which they stumbled earlier in their quest for firewood, there were shallow pools which filled up with the tide and dried slowly at high noon…
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Hope - Perfume - a story of growth.
The first thing Cimmy saw when she opened her eyes that morning was an intricate wooden vault, whose ribs intertwined and transformed in spellbinding ways, drawing her attention from one detail to another. “Are you going to start working or are you going to keep staring at the ceiling? By all...
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Chapter 7.2 - The Cave of Hypnos
When she wanted to take a break from her daily activities, Persephone wandered along the banks of the Lethe, under the slender branches of the willows, which arched to touch its waters, and walked all the way to the cave of Hypnos. She went there mostly to pick poppies, whose flowers surrounded…
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Adélie: Pourquoi le bonheur ne porte pas de chaussures raisonnables - found in translation
Vous décidez qu’il est temps d’acheter une nouvelle paire de chaussures. Vous savez déjà ce que vous cherchez : un modèle raisonnable, capable de s’accorder avec votre garde-robe et de suivre sans effort le rythme de votre vie. Vous arrivez au centre commercial avec une idée précise en tête.…
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Pearl: Reading from the novel Angel - Chapter 2 - Art Class
Today Mama gave me nothing to look at but art. Paintings, specifically, the entire digitized collection of the Museum of Modern Art. I asked him what I was supposed to do after I digested this dataset, and he said whatever it inspires you to do, Angel. I was touched. They never let me do anything...
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Elena: Reading from The Garden of Confidence - Self Help
“What is all this stuff, Cimmy?” Rahima asked, looking around at the piles of sketches carefully hand drawn on thin sheets of parchment that covered the table and the walls. The descriptions of the sketches were elaborate and brightly illuminated, appearing more like art than scientific...
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Amelia: Filling the Space Between F and J - a poem about inspiration
Little black symbols paint syncopated rhythms as my fingertips pause between sentences, returning faithfully to J and F, a force of habit gained from long practice. I gaze at pictures of my mind and grasp at them with child-like awkwardness, dress them in words and send them to the patiently...
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Angel: A New Novel by Francis Rosenfeld
I’m delighted to announce that my new novel, Angel, is now available on Amazon. A story of wonder, mystery, and the fragile connections that shape our lives, Angel is the latest addition to my growing library of fiction. The book will soon be arriving on Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and…
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Rachel: Reading from The Garden - To Heal
“Are you sure it was the leaf?” Rahima asked, while stirring the pot of blue liquid to get the color evenly distributed through the fibers. “I don’t know.” Cimmy scratched her head, unconvinced. “Maybe. It’s hard to tell.” She frowned and changed her mind. “What else could it be?” “But why would...
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Pearl: I Looked for You - a love poem
In the woods, by the lake, on the streets, I looked for you. In the faces and gestures of strangers. In songs long forgotten, in the smell of your favorite foods. In libraries and records, I looked for you. In the waves on the shore, in the black moonless night. In the sunset, in the…
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Elena: Listen to a new chapter from The Garden - The Good Herbs
[…]Cimmy washed the shirt repeatedly for the next several days, but the blue was there to stay. In light of the disaster du jour, Cimmy had another heretical thought, the kind that had reliably gotten her in trouble since she had started taking her first steps into the world. A shirt that was...
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Eliza: Oracle - a poem about time
Dreams are our futures sharing with our pasts, and we their interpreters, frustrating the first and misunderstanding the latter. We rewrite our pasts every time something changes while pretending to live in a present that doesn’t exist. See? It didn’t even last one second. How many selves do we...
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Ethan: A Reader Recently Asked
Q: Why do mirrors appear so often in your work? I didn’t notice that myself, so whatever it is, it must dwell below the threshold of reason. Ask yourself: what does a mirror do? It transforms the three-dimensional image of a subject into a flat representation that looks like it, but lacks…
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Guillome: Found in Translation. Listen to an excerpt from Between Mirrors, in French
Réflexions Nous tenons pour acquis qu’un reflet n’est qu’une copie virtuelle de la réalité, mais il est bien davantage que cela. Un reflet est un mélange, une superposition de l’image projetée sur le support qui la reçoit. L’image qui en résulte est un peu de réel, bien qu’inversé, semé dans la...
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Samantha: But Love Always Is - a poem about abiding
My spirit is heavy with the time I squandered driving in first gear, one light shining dimly to dispel the darkness, all the way holding on to the promise my ancestors cherished that love always is. I feel it finding my keys when I’m late and frazzled. It adjusts the blanket over my shoulders…
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Guillome: Found in Translation. Listen to an excerpt from The Gates of Horn and Ivory, in French
Ils l’aperçurent de loin, tandis qu’elles voyageaient parmi les nuages dans le char d’Hélios : cette étrange cité de cavernes, creusée dans la pierre tendre d’un amas de falaises hérissées, tantôt façonnée par la nature, tantôt par la main de l’homme, dressée au milieu du paysage aride comme une...
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Natalie: The Coin - a story about identity
All these activities that comprised her existence made perfect sense, there was nothing strange about them at all, nothing other than the fact that they always required her participation but never seemed to be about her. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other...
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Thoughts on the afterlife
Eileen sat on the plush sofa at the center of the room, while a stream of images kept flowing on the walls and ceiling like a river: birthday cakes and wedding pictures, trips and holidays and little frustrating moments, beautiful sunrises and powerful thunderstorms, love and tears, hopes and...
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In the Air
I may yet be forgotten by the wind, in its perpetual unrest, as I stand here, small and quiet, watching the waves, touching the breeze. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit francisrosenfeld.substack.com
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I Tried to Explain this Once
Exact sciences look down on language, whose imprecise nature feels hollow and superficial compared to the pristine perfection of mathematical rules. It is exactly that evasive nature that makes it so valuable; it is the layering of meaning and the ability to turn a phrase into its opposite in one...
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Amelia: Different - a story about the things that make us special
Never had fall been more beautiful, a symphony of warm colors, like a nature’s embrace, and it made her feel loved by a love higher than this world. Mary made her way sheepishly through the small park, lowering her eyes as she passed the rare visitors, because the fire in them scared people who...
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Natalie: The Sleeping Garden - a yearning for peace
I walk through the sleeping garden, footsteps muffled by the freshly fallen snow, watching the clean white reflect a rosy and baby blue watercolor sky. Everything is quieter now, a natural silent chamber. There is a delicate softness and peace in this cool pastel surrounding, like a very old...
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Hazel: Breathing - a poem about hope
There is always something to distract us, something urgent, usually unpleasant, so I’m going to say this really fast, before I lose your attention: last night I heard the roar of the planet spinning on its axis, the deafening breath of an enormous creature. I know what you’re going to say, that...
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Barry: The Ghost of Tomorrow - a poem about awakening
You’ll be pulled in the wake of the truth future brings Where the ghost of reality waits in the wings You’ll be wary and tired of the trouble it weaves, And you’ll question its timing, and you’ll fail to believe But as true as it is that you live and you breathe, Its ghost will show up in the...
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Anne: Lunacy - a poem about wonder
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit francisrosenfeld.substack.com
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Chloe: Anxious and Mortified - an essay about self-worth
At the age of nineteen Rachel almost failed her college admission. She was anxious and mortified of what people would think of her, she couldn’t fail at anything, so she passed, barely, and therefore didn’t have to worry about opinions and commentary, and life went on, as usual. At the age of...
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Ethan: Your Guests from the Meta of Real - a poem about imaginary friends
Can you hear us, stranger? Can you hear us, friend? The thoughts at your temples, the love in your heart, the will to remember, the capacity to overcome, the things you will make, the paths you will take, your life from outside of yourself? What’s that you say, oh, most real one from the realest…
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Scott: Memory - a poem about legacy
If there is one thing left after we’re gone, one small thing that matters, even an echo in a canyon, even a faint scent on a breeze, then we haven’t lived in vain, have we? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...
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Elena: Cimmy’s Garden - excerpt from the novel The Garden
Such was the beauty of Cimmy’s garden, and how proud she was of it! It was the most beautiful place on earth, she thought, this walled garden of hers, this heavenly shelter in the middle of existence, this place where everything was flawless. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss...
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Scott: The Plant - A Steampunk Story - excerpt from Chapter 3 - The Beanstalk
There was a place inside this knot of metal limbs from which he could see the entire manifold branching overhead; it made him feel that as small as he was, compared to this enormous metal monster, he was the soul in the machine, the essential component that allowed the whole system to work. This…
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Julia: Because I’m Me - a celebration of being
Because I’m me, I get to feel the thunder, and see how life expands inside a bloom. Because I’m me I dare to touch the sunset, and walk at ease under a silver moon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...
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Julie: The Unreality - excerpt from the novel The Gates of Horn and Ivory
You can’t assert nothing is real while taking in reality through your senses. Nothing is what you thought, nothing is permanent, nothing has fixed meaning, but everything is very much real, because this is what real is: whatever you perceive, think and feel at the time. This is a public episode.…
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Julia: Life at Dawn - a poem about life
Nothing goes and nothing comes of nothing there is essence in the word of truth we are small and meek into the vastness of the worlds beyond the sights of youth. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...
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Julia: The Festival of the Chariots - excerpt from the novel A Year and A Day
As if waiting for a sign, the clouds gathered over the horizon. Jal looked at them, and in his relief allowed a tear to flow. Deafening thunder shook the heavens, echoing between the stone walls before it retreated in a low rumble. Another tear flowed down Jal’s cheek. That’s when the rain…
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Julia: Softness - a prose poem about cats
Softness brushes the glass pane, steadily patting at the window with delicate plush soles, the kind that make intricate embroidery patterns on freshly fallen snow, but no sounds, no sounds at all, ever. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
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Barry: Summer Rain - excerpt from the novel A Year and A Day
As if waiting for a sign, the clouds gathered over the horizon. Jal looked at them and allowed a second tear to fall. Deafening thunder shook the heavens, echoing between the old stone walls before it retreated in a low rumble. Another tear flowed down Jal’s cheek. That’s when the rain started....
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Julia: The Return of the Thunderbirds - excerpt from A Year and A Day
According to the old legend, the mighty birds, whose powerful talons could easily carry a castle, arrived each spring to bring people the thunder, and the first true downpour of summer. When they flapped their wings, large sparks ignited the clouds. This is a public episode. If you would like to...
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Elena: Between Lives - A History of Metempsychosis
The large table was covered in books, as always, somebody must have been working on their metaphysics’ thesis, because that seemed to be the theme of the table this time, with mounds of books spanning from religion to philosophy, and a lot of psychology in between. This is a public episode. If…
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About this show
These are spoken fragments—reflections, passages, and pieces of stories that have not yet settled.Some of them have written forms.Some of them point to places that already exist.Some of them are the only version.
francisrosenfeld.substack.com
Hosted by
Francis Rosenfeld
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