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Kimberly Straksys | Poet

@ashespetalsandmoonlight

1.6K

followers

3390

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✨ Earthy | Witchy | Lyrical
🌿 Poems of grief, love & wildflowers
🌙 Author of Misty Morning Confessions
⬇️ Follow for soft shadows & spells

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

A little corner of my world. 🖤

I’ve been slowly putting together a space to write. It’s not finished, and honestly, I’m in no hurry to finish it.

Everything here has a little piece of me in it. The books, the birds, the old photograph, the herbs, the things I’ve collected simply because they spoke to me. Some have stories behind them. Others just make me feel something I can’t quite explain.

I’ve always been someone who finds meaning in the smallest things. A feather, a stone, an old book, the way lamplight falls across a wooden desk late at night. My mind is rarely quiet, and I think that’s part of why I write. There’s always a memory, a character, a sentence, or some little piece of life asking to be put into words.

This is where some of those thoughts will find their way onto paper.

It’s a work in progress, much like the woman sitting behind the pen.

But it’s mine. And it feels like me.

#WritersLife #MyWritingSpace #TheWritingProcess #StorySeeds #darkacademiavibes by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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4 days ago

I came home tonight and stepped into my garden after dark.

The lights were glowing between the flowers. The dahlias still held the day in their petals. The moonvine had opened its white eye, and the whole garden seemed to be carrying on without me.

I stood there for a while, looking at the place I have grown outside my own door, and realized something.

I am not just the author of The Moon Garden.

I live it.

The garden I once imagined onto paper is beneath my feet now. It grows, opens, reaches, and keeps its own quiet hours.

This poem came from standing there long enough to notice.

The Garden After Dark
© kmstraksys

#TheGardenAfterDark #TheMoonGarden #MoonGarden #GardenPoetry #AshesPetalsAndMoonlight by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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2 months ago

1,500 of you. 🥹🌙

I started Ashes, Petals & Moonlight as a quiet place to leave the words that had nowhere else to go. The tender ones. The bruised ones. The pieces of hope that somehow kept growing through everything meant to bury them.

I never imagined 1,500 people would find their way here.

Thank you for reading my words, sharing them, saving them, and sometimes trusting me with pieces of your own stories. Every time you tell me something made you feel seen, I remember exactly why I started writing.

Here’s to everything we have survived, everything still blooming, and all the moonlight we are learning to find along the way.

Thank you for being here. Truly. 🤍

With all my heart,
Kimberly

#AshesPetalsAndMoonlight #1500Followers #ThankYou #PoetryCommunity #WritersOfInstagram PoetryOfInstagram HealingThroughWords WomenWhoWrite WordsThatHeal by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

Some people collect things.

I think I collect stories.

Today I brought home a little Bluebird of Happiness, a brass trinket box that looks like it has guarded tiny treasures for years, and an old duck tureen that somehow made me smile enough to give it a new home.

The best part of thrifting isn’t finding something valuable. It’s finding something that makes you wonder.

Who set this on a table every spring?
Who tucked away their favorite earrings in this little box?
Who smiled every time they passed that bluebird on a windowsill?

Every old object was once part of someone’s ordinary day. I like to think they still have a few stories left to tell.

What thrifted treasure have you found that you could never part with?

#StorySeeds #ThriftFinds #VintageTreasures #SecondhandStories #FoundBeauty by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

✨ Let’s help each other grow. ✨

Instagram is giving a little extra love to small creators right now, and I’d love to meet more readers, writers, dreamers, and lovers of cozy stories.

🤎 Follow me and I’ll happily check out your page.
📚 Share this reel to your story or send it to a friend who loves books.
💬 Tell me your favorite comfort read in the comments.
❤️ I’ll be spending today supporting other small creators too.

If you love cottagecore, Practical Magic vibes, poetry that lingers, Moon Hollow, hidden gardens, old books, crows, wildflowers, and stories that feel like coming home… I think you’ll fit right in here.

Welcome to my little corner of the internet. 🌿 #indieauthor#letsgrowtogether2025 #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #followformoreposts♥️ by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

A Note from the Porch

We had toad spawn this week.

Tiny black pearls that reminded me of summer afternoons with a bucket in one hand and a mission in the other.

Every time Dad mowed, I’d rescue as many little toads as I could find, carrying them to my kiddie pool until the grass was safe again.

Funny how the smallest memories stay with us.

Maybe that’s where we first learn that little lives matter.

🌙
Kimberly. #notesfromtheuniverse #moonhollowfarm #practicalmagicvibes#indieauthor #yourvibeattractsyourtribe by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

Every story begins with a seed.

Moon Garden was the first one I planted, and I never imagined how many readers would find a piece of themselves in Moon Hollow.

If you’ve been looking for a novel that feels like home—filled with gardens, quiet magic, found family, and hope—you’ve still got time to visit before the next chapter begins.

🌙 Moon Garden is available now.

🌿 Where the Moonvine Grows—The Women of Moon Hollow, Book Two—will be blooming soon.

Thank you for every read, every share, every kind word, and for helping this little corner of Moon Hollow continue to grow. 💛#writersofinstagram #indieauthorsofinstagram #followforfollowback #bookstagram by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

🌙 I need your help.

After months of writing, revising, and dreaming, Ashes, Petals, and Moonlight is almost ready for the world.

Now I’m down to one final decision…

The cover.

If you saw these side by side on a bookshelf…

✨ Which one would make you stop?

🌙 Option 1
or

📖 Option 2

Tell me which one and why.

Your comments really do help shape this book, and I’m grateful you’re part of this journey.

Love,

Kim 🤍

#AshesPetalsAndMoonlight #PoetryBook #Bookstagram #PoetryCommunity #indieauthorsofinstagram @kmstraksys @the.story.seed.books @ashespetalsandmoonlight by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

Some feelings don’t ask to be solved.

They ask to be witnessed.

Ashes, Petals, and Moonlight is a collection of poems about ordinary beauty, quiet healing, the people who stay with us long after they’re gone, and the small moments that remind us life is still full of wonder.

These poems grew from gardens, front porches, moonlit walks, family stories, and the hope that even after loss, something beautiful can still bloom.

If you’ve ever needed words that feel like coming home, I hope you’ll find them here.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and believing in my work. Every page turned means more than you know. 🌙🤍

#AshesPetalsAndMoonlight #Poetry #PoetryCollection #PoetryCommunity #Bookstagram IndieAuthor KimberlyStraksys TheStorySeeds WomenWhoWrite NatureWriting GardenPoetry Moonlight Wildflowers HealingThroughWords EverydayMagic ReadPoetry PoetryLovers BooksWorthReading by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

Some poems are written to be read.

Others are written to be carried.

Ashes, Petals, and Moonlight is a collection about the ordinary moments that quietly shape us—the gardens we tend, the people we miss, the homes that hold our stories, and the hope that keeps blooming anyway.

If you’ve ever found comfort in moonlight, wildflowers, old porches, weathered hands, or the simple beauty of everyday life, I hope these poems find a place beside you.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support my writing. Every reader helps these words travel a little farther. 🌙

✨ Ashes, Petals, and Moonlight
By Kimberly Straksys

#AshesPetalsAndMoonlight #Poetry #PoetryBook #PoetryCommunity #IndieAuthor Bookstagram ReadersOfInstagram NatureWriting GardenPoetry MichiganAuthor WomenWhoWrite Moonlight Wildflowers EverydayMagic Poems PoetryLovers TheStorySeeds KimberlyStraksys by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

Some stories are written to entertain.

Some are written to be remembered.

Moon Garden is for anyone who has ever stood in a garden after the rain, missed someone they loved, started over when they weren’t sure they could, or believed that ordinary places can hold extraordinary grace.

It is a story about women who keep planting anyway.

About family recipes and weathered porches.
Moonvine climbing toward the light.
Friendships that become family.
Grief that softens instead of disappears.
And the quiet kind of magic that lives in kindness, memory, and home.

If you’ve ever wished Practical Magic lingered a little longer in the garden… if you find comfort in stories that feel like coming home… I hope you’ll spend a little time in Moon Hollow.

Thank you to every reader who has already walked those paths beside Rue. Every message, review, recommendation, and kind word helps this little story find its next home.

🌙 Moon Garden is waiting whenever you’re ready.

#MoonGarden #WomenOfMoonHollow #Bookstagram #BookTok #CozyFantasy Women’sFiction MagicalRealism SmallTownStories GardenBooks BooksAboutFamily ReadersOfInstagram IndieAuthor KimberlyStraksys TheStorySeeds by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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3 months ago

There’s something in the gray.. the heartbeat flicker of the moment between night and dawn… #shadesofgrey #somethingintheorange🌅 #colorblind#poetofinstagram #poetry#ashespetalsandmoonlight #poemoftheday #poemsociety #lostpoetsociety #poemlover #writer#ɪɴsᴛᴀɢᴏᴏᴅ #follow#moonlight#ashes#petals by @ashespetalsandmoonlight

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a year ago