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: June 2026
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It is easy, and even a given, that when my father and I go to our favorite cafe and I sip tea while he drinks coffee, we end up talking together about the things that move us the most. What is the magic in those golden liquids, that they should dredge up such deep topics…
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The day before Valentine’s Day there appeared on the dresser in my parents’ room a vase: tall, crystal, empty; beckoning. It shimmered in the light streaming through the window. When I saw it standing there, I was moved to think of how it was just a given that flowers would soon fill it, given by…
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As I sit writing out on a patio, a terrace, in the center city, I stop and pause for a moment, look out into the distance. There’s a road with cars passing by. There are people on the sidewalks. Planes are crossing in the sky. All is movement. I do not at all regret being…
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One day my lover asked me, what place I’d most like to see in the world. Through my mind ran a host of places, pictures of things I’d seen. There were palaces, and churches, tall cathedrals and temples all over the world. There were oceans of the deepest blue, and fields of the most emerald…
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Whenever I sit and think of today, burgeoning with far new possibility, I say to myself, sometimes, young as I am, “Get ready for the future, kid. It’s gonna hit you hard. You might just in fact really be among the last ‘real’ people ever to live. What once was only talked about, is today…
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Shining tower, rising high to the very house of god. Ivory white in mythical hue, there is none it hasn’t awed. Stone upon stone in herculean travail, built in Shinar the land, tower high of but one tongue, rising high, like statue stands. Cast down by the one above, knowing it had reached too high,…
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…and Atlas cried when he felt the full-blown sting of all the good and evil of this earth cramming itself into his infinite mind. So much was said in anger, even fear, that Atlas became very sad, and to such a degree that he wished not to hold up the earth anymore upon his shoulders.…
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The store is a sea of dresses. Red, green, blue, black, juniper, seafoam, taupe; long, short, plus size, petite, plain, sequined, with adorned bodices, with plush skirts reaching out, voluminous, being tried on by eager women: white, for weddings, or every color you can imagine for a dinner, or a party on New Year’s. I…
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As I looked down from heaven, I was saddened much to see (from a place where I could no longer affect the things that happen in the world) she refused to take her six pills a day, the god-given remedy for the kind of illness no one likes to mention. She would not take them…
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When I was being treated for anorexia at the health services at my college, they made me turn around on the scale during my appointments so I couldn’t see the number on it. I had no idea how much I weighed. My doctor’s office also didn’t have a mirror, so I couldn’t look at myself…
