snow sends fathomless missives to the ocean
frozen kisses that kindle love
and we become one
storms thunder and unleash rain
born from a mountain glacial lake
in the watery center of my being
across the distance I traverse to you
naturally responding to the power
of your gravitational pull
ebb and flow I travel and remain still
upon a rocky shoreline,
deep current and unending whole
This is a digital alteration of a polaroid picture I took when I was 6. The original was purposely out of focus.
Peering into the past
lenses initiate selective focus
a fantastication brought about
through a child’s eyes
prismatic sensibility only possible then
encased in the vault of unextinguishable incunabulum
developing the picture as it emerges
revealing the essence of a life
showing one moment, one side of perception
in its inability to capture without speciousness
(the exposure length is too short)
belying motion, upheaval and change
in the niveous nature of memory
my meandering dreams recast
glimpses of truth like halations appear
ocular glitches hinting at tathata
of what can be distinguished, claimed
flashbulbs of burning visions
encoding through elaborative rehearsal
all known and unkenned phenomena
to create a picture story, a meaning,
yet these converging lenses are limited
by one focal length expanding as
depth of field grows, patulous schemas incubate
my evolving mind forms eidetic imagery
uniting as episodic memory stitches an identity
holographic retrieval reveals
clarity amidst the circle of confusion
a positive memory distortion prevails
polaroid process makes positive images
without negatives (they were never created)
artmaking acts as my nepenthe
coalescing strands of experience
collaging each image of striving
into a concatenation of aspects of a self
lighting recesses in this house of mirth
Notes: Method of Loci: A mnemonic device that relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. Selective Focus: Is a technique in photography that allows one part of the image to be sharp while the rest of the image is out of focus. It works to great effect in macro shots where the foreground should stand out intensely from the background. Fantastication: Action of framing in fancy. Incunabulum: Early stages of development. Speciousness: An appearance of truth that is false or deceptive; seeming plausibility. Halation: Spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries to form a fog round the edges of a bright image in a photograph. Tathata: Ultimate nature of all things, as expressed in phenomena but inexpressible in words. Encoding: The process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory. Elaborative Rehearsal: A memory strategy that involves relating new information to something that is already known Unkenned: Unknown, strange, unperceived, unexplored. Converging Lens: Lens such that a beam of light passing through it is brought to a point or focus. The lens of your eye and that of a camera are converging lenses. Focal Length: The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light. In most photography where the subject is essentially infinitely far away, longer focal length (lower optical power) leads to higher magnification and a narrower angle of view; conversely, shorter focal length or higher optical power is associated with a wider angle of view. Depth of Field: In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance. Patulous: Open, expanding, gaping Schemas: The integrated frameworks of knowledge and assumptions a person has about people, objects, and events which affects how the person encodes and recalls information. Eidetic Imagery: The ability to retain the image of a visual stimulus for several minutes after it has been removed from view. Episodic Memory: The type of declarative memory that records events as they have been subjectively experienced. Circle of Confusion: In optics, a circle of confusion is an optical spot caused by a cone of light rays from a lens not coming to a perfect focus when imaging a point source. In photography, the circle of confusion is used to determine the depth of field, the part of an image that is acceptably sharp. Positive Bias (Memory Distortion): States that pleasant events are better remembered than unpleasant ones and memories of unpleasant events become more pleasant over time. Nepenthe: Something capable of causing obliteration or reduction of grief or suffering. Concatenation: A series of interconnected or interdependent things or events.
Nirvikalpa (work in progress) – oil, acrylic and pigment stick on board by Anna Montgomery
Wandering in the cold choking darkness
blistered fragile feet on eggshells
loneliness is a prison
torn knuckles rapping on bars of isolation
People don’t listen
they just wait for their turn to talk
turn inside and disconnect,
waiting out the storm
Love is a flower unnourished
in this Eden of the heart
weary veins pump a love story untold
searching the hopeless dawn
for a brighter day
Scrying the skies for a star of rebirth
constellate a new form
Dionysus seeks the Gemma of his crown
praying for the piece/peace he’s not yet found
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Ariadne meanders along a path
repeating permutations
of sublimated desires
wound around in concentric circles
on a dancing ground
of intellectual games
The Mistress of the Labyrinth
spins her golden thread,
sutra, to escape the restrictions,
rise above encapsulating
the supreme artistry,
the manifesting order
connecting this world to the eternal -
human to divine
Prophesizing the paradoxes:
multiplicity and unity
imprisonment and liberation
separation and intimacy
Her sussurating heart
beats a transcendent pattern
resounding his true name
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Her heavenly form
celestial symmetry of solace
sanctum of the surrendering heart
eternal peace within her labyrinth
guided by crystal tears
shining beacons
and whispering the luring
language of love
His fertile mind
anacrusis in the symphony
of devouring time
irreplaceable beats of exuberant strength
he initiates a sacred marriage
of Heaven and Earth
eternal taijitu
Swirling whispers in the aether
found two ears
one in the lowlands
one in the mountains
symphony of symbiosis
floating like leaves in the wind
the Sun and Moon
elliptical eclipse
upon the earth dwellers
Raining sensuous energy,
an initiation into sound,
each string taut with potential
striking bell awakening
along the constellated lines
of the subtle body
Eternal vibration of this sacred thunder
resonates between the lovers,
nirvikalpa samadhi unveiled
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Notes: This is a collaborative poem written with David Chamberlain, Jr. for the dVerse Poets Pub prompt on peace. ”In Hinduism, when used as a technical term in Raja Yoga, the phrase nirvikalpa samādhi refers to a particular type of samādhi that Heinrich Zimmer distinguishes from other states as follows: Nirvikalpa samādhi, on the other hand, absorption without self-consciousness, is a mergence of the mental activity (cittavṛtti) in the Self, to such a degree, or in such a way, that the distinction (vikalpa) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved — as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes into the sea.[3] The difference to the other samadhis is that there is no return from this samadhi into lower states of consciousness. Therefore this is the only true final Enlightenment.”
for Yumiko Kayukawa
Sacrosanct superflat allusions
meticulously drafted shamans
pop art girls snog anime animals
postmodern bestiary of familiars
floral fantasia collides with
kawaii panda bears
Kid Robot toy spins
her subculture hothouse
of mystic supa luvas
I have the privilege of hosting Meeting the Bar today where we will explore Bernadette Mayer’s Writing Experiments and hopefully have some fun doing it. I chose to write in 3D. You are welcome to pick any one of the suggestions that appeal to you for today’s prompt. See you at dVerse Poets Pub!
We were wild gods long forsaken
our bed of passion birthed
thunder dragons in a blooded sky
We were sea monsters ruling
the muted oceanic world
scrying in the dark depths
We were bundled soul sticks
so that we could not be broken
straining against the pressure
We were travelers in the spirit boat
our shamanistic selves couldn’t tame
tempest remnants of our humanity slain
Our deep psychic work mirrored
sexual arousal, oh how those sustained
plateaus shuddered through me
So I grew afraid, apart
ate specious tales of hearth fires
believing I could be safe
For a long while I was invisible
wanderlust overtook me and I forgot
my unrelenting intensity and we
Until I awoke, bathed in the potential
of my ferocity, regained my form
and headed to the mountains
Upon a forest path I encountered you
my wild, blackest wolf, blue eyes piercing,
your chaos magic revealing my true name
You howled it to the heavens, claiming me
as your equal, creating our language anew
outer being/inner creature regained
Your soulful tenacity and endurance
prevailed, reuniting us; at night I cry out:
cover me with your wildness!
Please use headphones and turn up the volume, both on your computer and YouTube to hear the audio, this is a spoken word poem. It is an erasure poem based on the 3rd chapter of The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana. I am hosting Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft today at dVerse Poets Pub where we will be exploring Erasure Poetry. There are tons of ways to approach the prompt so for further examples see here and here or visit others who’ve already posted their erasure poems today. Please don’t be intimidated by the visual aspects of this prompt, you may simply chose words from an existing text and post them (attributed) on your blog as you would any poem or you can incorporate white out, marker, paint or multimedia to create a visual aspect. I would love for you to join us later.
To join in Kelly’s birthday cyber-celebration of life I’ve posted a kaleidoscopic music video at Chromamisc. Also, I’ll be hosted Meeting the Bar at dVerse on Thursday; I would love to see you there.
incoherent, irrational
emotionally hypothermic
she initiates terminal burrowing
paradoxical undressing,
an illusion of warmth,
accelerates her demise
beneath the frosted
eyes of aspens
a final hallucination
circle of frozen angels
their wings long distorted
by the transformative ice
preside, their excruciating
silence heralds her
last breath, reveals
her true nature
Notes: This poem is a continuation of Ice Floe, originally posted in March:
I am a compass point in an unending universe, embodied individual, imperfect processor with selection bias – they tell me there is no central intelligence, no consciousness observing, overseeing the multifaceted psyche – no woman in the Cartesian theater of the mind, no audience observing the play of my life
yet I can’t let Baar’s global workspace theory rest when asked to paint a self-portrait in words I wish to defend the existence of consciousness – to believe my thoughts, perceptions, memories, emotions, will and imagination are a concatenation, a gestalt, a self, a soul, a sentient mind, a meaning! constellation of attributes that create my relationship with the world, engaging objectivity and subjectivity, the binding problem, central enigma, hard question of consciousness (to locate the integrated coherent global response that allows me to stand at Hecate’s crossroads and choose)
fractal cascade of central nervous processes – query: do I have wave or particle nature, or both? neurons exhibiting stochastic resonance, signal to noise ratio maximization in a ‘∩’ shape plot – am I the signal, a self, a capital I subject? dynamic chaos rules under these blue eyes, star trails ink pathways beneath porcelain skin, correlation matrix maps burn into my endothelium, scar tissue reminds me of all my xenophobic visitors
don’t edit, don’t rewrite, don’t debride the wound as the error light flashes – global brain excitations, an inflated quantum system – entangled anticipation resonating future brain states, he says, ‘the anticipatory quantum chaos of the living cell has become the conscious mind . . . generations of conscious beings traversing the sentient wave-particle universe’ – but you want something more personal, more specific
I dissect and create in equal measure so here is some objective data I’ve compiled, indexed, and collated: 99.99th percentile IQ and EQ, 99th percentile achievement test results spurring an interest in the theoretical and abstract, I’m a highly conceptual complex thinker who seeks out deeper meaning and layers – exhibiting extremely high reasoning, organizational, spatial, logical, mechanical, numerical, verbal, and visual capabilities
what of ethics? under quantifiable circumstances I value empathy, equality, sacredness, engagement with natural, artistic, and moral beauty, all balanced by a high need for cognition
tested and verified personality traits compared with hundreds of millions of people/’selves’ around the world – very high: friendliness, assertiveness, activity level, altruism, sympathy, self-efficacy, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, cautiousness, artistic interests, emotionality, adventurousness, intellect, liberalism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience – very low: modesty (you’re shocked?), depression, self-consciousness, immoderation, vulnerability, and neuroticism (if you knew my childhood you’d see this as miraculous)
in my subjective view I embrace the objective and add generous, resilient yet fragile, prone to question, defined by and baffled by love, spiritual, flawed, an optimist in love with the world and ideas, always seeking engagement, strategic, passionate, curious, always connecting the dots whether they should be or not, limited in one state and unlimited potentiality in another, a less than stellar speller, embroiled in an inevitable process of biology
I am a ghost in the machine, an unbounded magnolia and a speck of stardust, no one yet everything I’ve got, a mythic beast and a mystic seeker, an explorer, a constitutive defensible line, an act of imagination and an embodied person, artistic filter in photoshop and the camera’s cold eye, a corpus collosum, a liberation and confinement, a querist let loose in the imaginarium
This prose poem/stream of consciousness was written for Fred at dVerse Poet’s Pub. Its alternate title: Lost in Translation. His excellent and thought provoking prompt on self-portraits shouldn’t be missed. http://dversepoets.com/2012/10/27/poetics-self-portrait/#comments
hypothermic, she floats in emotional abandonment, oblivious,
envisioning snow laden aspen eyes that loom and glow phantasmagoric,
revealing his love’s asymmetric reciprocation as insidious
she remembers unkindly his shameful, long held defenses, impervious
to all her attempts at breaching, whether metaphoric or allegoric -
hypothermic, she floats in emotional abandonment, oblivious
that all striving for contact, all scouts sent ahead, all her love, fastidious,
is deflected, destroyed, deflated, mere decoys ensnared by the satiric,
revealing his love’s asymmetric reciprocation as insidious
like a censorious atmophile that will suffocate her spontaneous
expressions of unmitigated joy that once strained for the exospheric -
hypothermic, she floats in emotional abandonment, oblivious
thrusters malfunction unable to reorient, fueling a pernicious
lingering in the unfathomed cold of mesospheric grace, once chivalric,
revealing his love’s asymmetric reciprocation as insidious
love renders her blind, she will never come to understand this erroneous
foundation, inverse escape velocity, adrift in the atmospheric -
hypothermic, she floats in emotional abandonment, oblivious,
revealing his love’s asymmetric reciprocation as insidious
Notes: This was written for my husband who has read it. He said it was beautiful and honest but also heartbreaking and that it sounds like his eulogy (I didn’t correct him – elegy). Sam, over at dVerse, lured me into trying a Villanelle with his excellent article on physics and Dylan Thomas. This is my first attempt and for my second I will choose a less personal subject. Today, however, I was reflecting on how one of my regular readers called me out, saying I hide my vulnerability between the lines. It’s true. Also, I apologize for the late returns of OLN reading (which I completed this morning), I’ve been a bit hypothermic, which slows everything down. http://dversepoets.com/2012/10/25/form-for-all-physics-dylan-thomas-and-the-art-of-the-villanelle/
