R J Schwartz, Author at The Creative Exiles

The Bridge Painter

June 12, 2026 R J Schwartz 68 Views 0 Comments deep thinking, short story, silence as a companion, the bridge painter

There were days, many days actually, when everything below the bridge just disappeared. Not like a man going crazy saw

Inspirational Poetry Poetry

The Mountain Road – Wildlife Along the Way

May 27, 2026 R J Schwartz 133 Views 0 Comments poetry, R.J. Schwartz, the mountain road, wildlife, www.creativeexiles.com

The mountain road and its twists and turns Like a concrete river cutting through forest and stone Shaded valleys still

Creative Writing Short Story

Let Me Tell You About My Day – A Plumber’s Tale

May 21, 2026 R J Schwartz 184 Views 0 Comments blue collar stories, let me tell you about my day, plumbers tale, self awareness, short story

Cole Maddox sat alone at the corner table nursing his second beer while waiting for the fellas to arrive. Unlike

hubris

Fiction Historical Fiction

Involuntary Enlistment in the Continental Army

May 15, 2026 R J Schwartz 166 Views 0 Comments boy taken too young, continental army, historical fiction, hubris, revolutionary war story, short story

They came at dawn. Six hardened men on horseback, each one armed with a musket, surrounding the gangly boy while

Fiction Historical Fiction

Two Sides of the Tracks – You Can Only Choose One

May 15, 2026 R J Schwartz 262 Views 0 Comments depression era america, historical fiction, short story, stories about choices, two sides of the tracks

The railway tracks split the town clean in half. Those worn ropes of rusted steel were more than just a

Fiction Historical Fiction

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

May 11, 2026 R J Schwartz 363 Views 0 Comments Doc Holliday, Gunfight at the OK Corral, historical fiction, western short story, Wyatt Earp

What the boy saw, the man remembers. Momma done told me time and time again to stay the hell away

The Spring Collection

May 8, 2026 R J Schwartz 177 Views 0 Comments awakenings, Haiku, new life, spring, sunshine

This spring collection of haiku reminds us that the earth changes, regardless of our stance. The cold blanket of winter

Faces Without Names

May 6, 2026 R J Schwartz 219 Views 0 Comments aging mind, drifting awareness, emotional refuge, empty spaces, enduring love, fading light, familiar stranger, fear of forgetting, fleeting clarity, forgotten names, fragile recall, gentle decline, her face, her touch, her voice, holding on, last anchor, long marriage, lost moments, love against time, memory fading, passing time, quiet confusion, quiet devotion, recognition, searching eyes, shared history, silent prayer, slipping thoughts, worn hands

She hinted, it went over his head Left clues, but he failed to notice Shared content he never watched She

Romantic Poetry

In That One Breath

May 4, 2026 R J Schwartz 208 Views 0 Comments in that one breath, love poems, romantic poetry

Memories, oh sweet memories Times lost to the moving hands Yet forever scored in my mind’s eye Do recall my

The AI Voice

Inspirational Poetry Poetry

The AI Voice

April 30, 2026 R J Schwartz 193 Views 0 Comments AI voice, algorithmic speech, answer culture, artificial fluency, artificial language, automated knowledge, cognitive laziness, collapse of comprehension, collapse of inquiry, death of the rough draft, decline of critical thinking, digital cognition, disappearance of revision, disappearance of struggle, educational unraveling, erosion of education, frictionless writing, human voice vs AI voice, information vs understanding, instant answers, instant literacy illusion, intellectual decay, knowledge without effort, loss of authorship, loss of curiosity, loss of thinking, machine writing, manufactured intelligence, outsourced thinking, over-polished language, passive learning, pre-assembled language, prompt culture, sterile clarity, synthetic tone, thinking vs output, thought compression, voice without identity

The AI voice, unspoken but there all the same You see it everywhere Advertisements, social media, magazines Clean, sanitized sentence

nothing is ever fulfilled

Dystopian Poetry

Nothing Is Ever Fulfilled

April 27, 2026 R J Schwartz 191 Views 0 Comments death of humanity, dystopian poetry, end of the world, futuristic world, no mercy, nothing is ever fulfilled, prisoners march

Angry ragged cloud cover hangs like a dim vault of iron breath Slow-moving ash hides the forgotten pathways to the

Inspirational Poetry Poetry

Words I’d Wished Not Spoken

April 20, 2026 R J Schwartz 287 Views 0 Comments apology, consequences, despair, emotional pain, guilt, introspection, reflection, regret, remorse, sorrow

There are conversations Words I’d wished not spoken Yet no action will reward my wish They’ll remain in the universe

Inspirational Poetry Poetry

The Struggle of Understanding

April 13, 2026April 13, 2026 R J Schwartz 328 Views 0 Comments adapting to change, changing clouds, connection to the earth, deep roots, earth based insight, elemental truth, going with the flow, grounding practices, harmony with change, impermanence, inner landscape, inner stability, learning from landscapes, lessons from nature, living with uncertainty, mindfulness in nature, mountain strength, natural balance, natural cycles, natural resilience, nature as mirror, nature wisdom, new beginnings, observing nature, patience and time, personal growth, presence in the moment, quiet reflection, renewal, resilience through pressure, river flow, seasons of life, sky awareness, soil and seed, spiritual clarity, spiritual connection, stillness, transformation, tree growth, understanding life, understanding self through nature, weathering storms

The struggle of understanding Why, for what reason, who benefits, and more why So often minds are clouded with questions

Creative Writing Halloween

How To Deal With Frost on Your Pumpkin Patch

March 25, 2026 R J Schwartz 366 Views 0 Comments autumn harvest, backyard gardening, cold weather gardening, DIY food storage, fall gardening, farm harvest practices, frost damage pumpkins, frost protection crops, garden harvest tips, garden preservation, homesteading tips, post-frost harvest, preserving pumpkins, preventing pumpkin rot, pumpkin care, pumpkin curing, pumpkin shelf life, pumpkin storage, saving frozen pumpkins, storing squash after frost, winter squash storage

If you happen to be a Halloween junkie like I am, then you likely grow your own pumpkins. It makes

Spring

Free Verse Poetry

The Awakening of Earth – A Poem of Springtime

March 18, 2026 R J Schwartz 448 Views 0 Comments awakening of nature, blooming earth, changing seasons, earth awakening theme, earth cycles, earth renewal, fertile ground, life returning, natural rhythms, nature awakening, poetic nature, rebirth symbolism, renewal and growth, seasonal rebirth, seasonal transition, spring awakening, spring imagery, springtime poem, vernal energy, warming light

Such joy found in the awakening of earth The blanket of white, now mostly forgotten Remnants of dirty-grey shadow piles

Political Poetry

The Republic of Perpetual Outrage

March 7, 2026 R J Schwartz 358 Views 0 Comments cancel culture, outrage, political poetry, www.creativeexiles.com

Outrage, outrage! Get your daily dose of anti‑everything! Shouting, pointing, watch out now the rage is forming Maybe it’s him,

two older men having a meal at a diner

Fiction Inspirational Fiction

Thoughts Over Coffee – The Cereal Taxonomy Crisis

February 25, 2026February 25, 2026 R J Schwartz 536 Views 0 Comments aging and identity, coffee shop reflections, diner conversations, everyday philosophy, finding meaning later in life, friendship in retirement, growing older with humor, humorous short story, identity crisis in retirement, life after work, men after retirement, observational humor fiction, post-career life, redefining purpose, redefining success, retired life reflections, retired men dialogue, retirement, retirement adjustment, retirement humor, taxonomy of food, thoughts over coffee

The diner was your everyday small town greasy spoon kind of place. Trucks, station wagons, and the occasional tractor were

R.J. Schwartz, American poet dressed in a black suit, silver tie, and top hat, his head is tiled forward, grey beard, menacing look on his face

Normal Was The First Casualty

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026 R J Schwartz 429 Views 0 Comments algorithmic control, architecture of oppression, authoritarian systems, blue code symbolism, civic decay, civilization breakdown, collapse of normalcy, collapse of truth, controlled chaos, cultural disintegration, digital authoritarianism, digital dystopia, dystopian poetry, fire and rebirth metaphor, future dystopian literature, information warfare, loss of individuality, mass compliance psychology, modern totalitarianism, Normal Was the First Casualty, poetry of collapse, post-apocalyptic society, propaganda culture, resistance and survival, social conditioning, societal unraveling, state surveillance drones, surveillance state fiction, systemic manipulation, technocratic control, urban ruin symbolism

Normal Was the First Casualty is a collection of dystopian poetry that examines how collapse does not always arrive with

a man being driven mad by winter and its solitude

The Long Winter Vigil

February 18, 2026 R J Schwartz 462 Views 0 Comments 1920s setting, abandonment, atmospheric horror, auditory hallucination, bleak countryside, cabin fever, cabin in the snow, claustrophobic silence, creeping insanity, creeping madness, darkness and dread, early 20th century winter, emotional decay, exhaustion of spirit, existential cold, frostbitten soul, frozen landscape, gothic melancholy, gothic poetry, haunted solitude, isolation narrative, loneliness and despair, loss of hope, mental unraveling, oil lamp light, Poe-inspired verse, psychological descent, psychological horror, relentless wind, rural cabin, shadow imagery, shadowed corners, snowbound solitude, stormbound night, supernatural undertones, Victorian atmosphere, wind howling, winter as antagonist, winter isolation

Beneath the wooden rafter’s weight And beams with abandoned spider silk, Where hearth once roared with living flame Now but

man and woman embracing in a vision of timeless love

Romantic Poetry

The Silence of Love

February 13, 2026 R J Schwartz 405 Views 0 Comments absence and presence, bittersweet love, contemplative poetry, deep affection, emotional depth, emotional distance, enduring love, hidden feelings, intimate stillness, introspective poem, longing, love and loss, melancholic romance, muted desire, poetic longing, quiet devotion, quiet heartbreak, reflective writing, restrained passion, romantic tension, sacred silence, silence of love, soulful connection, spiritual intimacy, subtle romance, tender restraint, unspoken love, vulnerability, wordless connection, yearning

Love rarely arrives to the sound of trumpets and drums Nor does it storm ashore with the shouts of conquest

trade or barter - a dark dismal look at a trading camp in the post-apocalyptic future

Dystopian Poetry

Barter – Why We Trade

February 4, 2026 R J Schwartz 470 Views 0 Comments adaptation after collapse, black market survival, collapse of currency, endurance without hope, lawless exchange, life after money, moral erosion, post-apocalyptic barter, post-collapse society, resource scarcity, scavenger markets, survival economy, trade without trust, transactional survival, wasteland traders

Paper bills are just paper now Backed by no one and nothing No vaults of gold or silver bars Worthless

Free Verse Poetry

The Seven Deadly Sins

January 26, 2026 R J Schwartz 524 Views 0 Comments anger, gluttony, Greed, lust, poetry of fear and fright, pride, R.J. Schwartz, seven deadly sins, sloth, wrath, www.creativeexiles.com

The sins of seven, counted here Deadly as they are revealing Cuts the truth from the souls of men Peels

Poetry Political Poetry

When The Dictator Falls

January 12, 2026 R J Schwartz 557 Views 0 Comments Dictator, Dictator falls, justice, political poetry, R.J. Schwartz, www.creativeexiles.com

Eyes focused on the monuments and statues Propaganda posters with eager children Smiling faces on worthless currency Starving hands reaching

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