Scribo Scribere
A Literary Blog
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I am a writer based in New Jersey. I have a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto. I have experience as a German to English translator, a technical writer, and a grant writer. In my writing, I explore myth, legend, and languages. This blog is devoted to my past and future writings. – Johanna Rodda
Month: April 2026
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This flash fiction piece ponders the question of material things versus more life. How Much Is Another Moment Worth? The first piece she gave away was worth more than most. It was yellow gold, with baguette diamonds in a figure-eight pattern. It was a wrench to give up, and no doubt. She had worn the…
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This poem was inspired by a gelato shop in Toronto. Gelato Shop I am walking down the streets I’ve always walked, for sweets. Through the downtown-filtered air streaming through my bob of hair. On my tongue the great desire for flavors that will lift me higher, high above quotidian me: flavors that are bold and…
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This flash fiction piece questions whether animals know grief, like humans. What The Animal Teaches Me Sometime during the night, the bird’s nest fell to the ground. When I came out of my room for breakfast, I saw it lying on the path that snaked through the quadrangle of the college. The toppled twigs, still…
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This poem expresses love and hope at the end of a long life. The Final Breath Once there was a man who thought he’d die if ever he stopped counting his every breath. With each beat of his heart – pat-pan, pat-pan – he heard the passing-by of his life. While he lay, dying, in…
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This short short plays with Chaucer and Beowulf. When Chaucer becomes so much on your mind you begin to wonder where Chaucer went Ibsen left the books on the table in the library then skipped out. One book was green, one red. The green was Chaucer. On the cover was a seated scholar, reading a…
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The following three poems are also from my collection “Devotion to Heroes.” The Poet-Artist Poetry’s a bumbling and a fumbling art, an art that’s finished before you start. It fits the shape of a container, on a page it’s the remainder of all the thoughts you’ve thought; it’s turning what you’ve thought to naught, then…
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The following three poems are from my collection “Devotion to Heroes,” and deal with Grail legends, biblical myth, and an ancient goddess. Parsifal (Parzival, Perceval) Too close and deep is the king’s malady, never relenting, never asleep, he. The fallen knight upon the bier, who cannot see and cannot hear, for whom lament is ever…
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This poem paints the creation of the universe as a musical act. The Composer Before there was time, before there was “was,” before because of our worldly forms we had worry, nature, norms, there was a simple singularity, with parity of all matter, not created, not yet fated to one day die: a time before…
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This poem expresses what is sometimes felt living in a big city. Tall People In my city there are many tall buildings. In these buildings there are many tall people. To the side of the tall men are many tall women. To the side of the tall women are many tall men. In my city…
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The following is a poem that plays with Latin and with concepts in the study of medieval literature. Iocundus espresso The codex of my every thought is of life, not baring brown, with fine black inkings ruled or bound into quires (yes, it is dangerous to say how much I see the ends of my…
