Ruth Benning

Hi, I’m Ruth Benning and I am a creator of art and music and stories! My imagination runs a bit wild, but sometimes I manage to confine it to pages such as these. I value honest feedback and criticism, hoping to publish a book of my own some day.

Ruth Benning

The Revelation

Ruth Benning

1 min read

You say I am wise for my age, yet when I speak a word

You do not heed the simple truth, as though you never heard

You say I am a scholar, my thoughts poetic script

Yet when I say to live again, you do not leave the crypt

You judge a book by its cover just because it is not perfect

But no one here is blameless, and you don’t give the verdict

You preach the golden rule, yet do not see it throug...

Poetry

One Hundred ‘I Love You’s’

Ruth Benning

5 min read

She leans into him, her head pressed into his chest, her body shaking, wracked by sobbing. Tears spill down her cheeks in rivers of mourning, unable to be kept in. Her hands clutch the back of his shirt, hands balled into fists. A deep sorrow curls her frame, seeming endless. Anguish is etched into her faces, her cries long and echoing. A deep void opens beneath her into which she fears she will f...

YA fiction

Drama

Mud Pie

Ruth Benning

4 min read

WHUMP.

The box hits the table with an alarming thud, causing a cloud of dust to rise from the rickety piece of furniture. Pedro, AKA Water boy, switches on the basement light, which hangs just above us, emitting a dim glow. I feel like I’m in an interrogation movie scene.

Karmi, AKA Toothpick, drags one of the wooden chairs from across the room and slams it down across from me. She hops onto it,...

Action

It Seems I’ve Forgotten

Ruth Benning

1 min read

Forgot to change my laundry from the washer to the dryer.

Forgot about the dishes sitting in the drying rack

Forgot to put the downspouts down before the thunderstorm

Forgot for a second that you didn’t love me back.

Forgot to write my journal entry

Forgot to have more than one meal

Forgot to call the bank last night

Forgot how your betrayal feels

Forgot about the turned on fire place

Forgo...

Poetry

YA fiction

The Dance Of The Desert

Ruth Benning

1 min read

The tambourine rattles to the rattling of her body

They move like pulsing, electric thrums

In time, in tone, the serpant, she embodies

Feet leap at the first beat of the drum

Now the tempo quickens, all the audience enraptured, ensnared as the watch, as they listen and anticipate the next hand position

Feel in the floor the new thundering pace as it races and it chases and yet somehow sti...

Poetry

YA fiction

And Yet

Ruth Benning

1 min read

(A poem that can be read both forwards and backwards)

And yet

It seemed impossible

Who could bridge such a casim?

Except for you, determined to never let me go

Showed me that there was a way

Moved heaven and earth

You went to hell and back

Just so we could touch

I am undone by you

For there is no greater love

In my suffering and at my worst

You held me through every moment

But of cours...

Poetry

Romance

Pitter Patter

Ruth Benning

2 min read

A story like this writes itself.

Can’t you picture it perfectly?

Does your imagination not fail you as you see them, soaked through and without a care, hand in hand, almost as if they are right in front of you. They are almost real.

The beginning might be a bit rocky, but the ending is definitely happy.

And they have such bright smiles it makes your heart ache.

A story like this writes its...

YA fiction

Revenge Of The Bad Date

Ruth Benning

2 min read

“Well, I’m _disgusted_ that I ever even thought liked you! I used to think you were so cute and charismatic, surrounded by everyone half the time, that you must have a great personality if so many people liked you! But now all I see is how brainless and shallow you really are! Your not even that handsome! You’re a spoiled, copy-paste version of all the other idiotic guys out there and I- Ugg-I jus...

Drama

YA fiction

Have No Shame

Ruth Benning

5 min read

Chore duty always seems to fall to me. I shouldn’t criticize Elder Punto, but his ‘magic stick’ choosing system mysteriously only ends up picking me to sweep the cobbled steps. I can just see his long white beard, the one that hides most of the bottom half of his face turning up into a smile as he cracks open his eyes to see that his staff, guided by the ‘spirits of wind’, has chosen me once again...

Action

Fantasy

Solstice

Ruth Benning

1 min read

(You may only use a word once in this poem, and every second line must rhyme (ABAC…))

I wait all year for its shortest day

Through months that scorch, blaze, burn

My heart seeks shelter from flaming rays

Longs after chilling, comforting snow

Blizzards cause the willows’ sway

Chipped ice, winters breath

And though flowers seemingly signal May

This foretells Decembers harvest

We admire night’s...

Poetry

YA fiction