Mardrax

ad infinitum

I stare upon the smiley face

two beady eyes

awful wry grin

This little piece of paper here

so crisp, so dry

tells me I'll fly

Will I lick this stamp?

Will I post this letter?

I guess I will

I have had some better

This one tastes quite damp

All becoming suddenly clear

I'll not just fly

I'll taste the sky

I stare upon the smiley face

it's message clear to me

praised be the escapes

I get from Alice Dee

"A hypochondriac now, walking through the streets at night"

"Dude...."

eclectic

Insanity and logicallity, when do those ever match up to inspiration?

To dislocation? To getting lost inside oneself and renouncing every claim to anything approaching being logical or sane, illogical or insane?

To move along that stream?

Banana-leaf boat carrying a midget.

Drops of perspiration and morning-thoughts collecting in its hollow,

mingling with the pools of dreams and visions.

Threatening to drown its miniature passenger.

The big question is: can we keep our heads above the water when we do? And will we need envisioned machettes to cut our way through the jungle if we do wash ashore?

"Well... Like I said before Mister... HawkWing? I can offer you anything you want, you just have to name your desires to the letter... I'm afraid I cannot guarantee your satisfaction otherwise. If all you want is a soft bed to sleep on though, that can easily be arranged."

The man stood for a while, seemingly in deep thought. His right hand sank back into his pocket while he combed through his tangled mass of hair with the other hand. Suddenly he seemed to awaken, a look of honest shock on his face as he withdrew his hand from his pocket.

In it was a blue stick, with small white hairs sticking at a straight angle out of it on one end.

"Oh my, now where did that go?"

The hand went back into the pocket, grabbing around while, the other hand unerringly getting caught up in his hair again.

"Ah yes! Here it is" The hand came back out, the small white object held firm once again. "Now, what did you desire again? A soft bed... and breakfast... right? Did you have anything specific in mind, or would you like me to just... how do you say that?... Get wild?"

eeeew!

And may I be the first to welcome you, Faith?

hurl

door

Fauna, if you're looking for über-long series to pick up, there's one I can really recommend, though it does require a fond appreciation of "non-standard" fantasy, and ofcourse, alot of time

Otherland, by Tad Williams. I've just finished reading it for the 2nd time, while being in the middle of the dark tower series and my shakespearean collection 0_o

One of the few long series of books I would reread, apart from the Death's Gate cycle perhaps. One of the only prose authors who's managed to impress me just about since I got into high school on top of that

As far as my own reading's concerned, I haven't been doing enough of it lately. Apart from the long-term dedications named above, I haven't really read anything lately, apart from web comics and rereading this really odd Dutch book by Gerrit Komrij, of which I'd be surprised if a translated version exists.

It's called Hercules, a relative small (200 pages or so) book about a man well into a midlife crisis with some serious imagination problems. As in some scenes (or actually, just about the whole book) had me thinking the author must have been using something seriously hallucinogenic, or otherwise he wanted the main character to give that impression.

Outrageous imagination aside (my Dutch teacher two years back tried in her own way to explain that with the words "oh well... he probably always will be more a poet than a writer.")... well... honestly I can't say there really isn't much in it beside that, but I'd say it's well worth the read if only for just that. If it's ever translated into a language some of you (except for the usual suspects ofcourse ) will be able to read and understand, and you see it in a bookstore or online even, don't hesitate to try it if you like weird reads

Gooey marshmallow filling dripping

Red and bright yellow tongues whipping

Around that fellow's stick

Quickly roasting his midnight snack

Sitting next to his best friend,

beauty in flamed maple: An-Chang.

She's bound beside him,

never spoke, but clearly sang

she would be with him to the end.

We sat there for while,

looking at the fireworks,

faces in flickering smirks,

around the stone-bound isle.

His attention flared,

-expression of dismay-

our last sweet reprise'd fared

onto the pitch black clay.

The remnants boiled blackened

on the end of his stick.

She was picked up with a shrug,

calmly singing us the dirge.

A-five, D-two, G-two, B-three.

I could just resist the urge

to cry over our glucose drug.

He played her like a fiddle,

knew when to pluck her strings.

How bound she is, she still sings.

To me she'll always be a riddle.

I need a love with keys to press

we'd be just a mess

otherwise

Oh the joys in sugary poetry

"Cow, chicken, wheat and sugarcane"

if sweet's organising it? I don't think so... She is... preoccupied for a while it seems

...tenk?

undertow

bicker

dice

Ever heard a song with lyrics that paint your life so accurately it takes your breath away?

Ever painted the lyrics of a song so accurately with your life, then not realise exactly what it is you've painted until you've put your corporeal brush down and it speaks fourteen words to you?

Ever sit on top of a person with your hands around his neck, your thumbs just slightly pushing his adam's apple inwards while being in honest doubt about whether you should push through?

Ever had that person be your dad?

the path I walk -

a cobweb in white

tracing across that strange yellow brick road

seen by a hawk -

i'm stalked by a chalk

how our two bodies must seem interlocked

it calls in mock

diving into its flight -

in that split moment we seemed to explode

me and my chalk

the path that we walk

ending now suddenly, in the beak of a hawk

now I will talk

in midday's full light

contemplating this, the words I now wrote

how 'bout this end?

it seems too ad hoc

my mind seems to have run into a block

"that delicious caramel filling"

I might not be a member, or know most of you as well as I'd like to, but I'll give it a shot too

Dogwonder!

and everything's useable if you want it too

here too spar, nothing but sympathy

guy

(strange, the associations english may provoke when a word is spelled exactly the same as in another language )

A drunken haze surrounds her,

as she takes up my hand,

drags me to an empty patch of floor.

Round and round and round she twirls,

until she can barely stand.

This girl... I adore.

She falls over,

I catch her;

the first of many times?

I drag her to her feet,

our eyes silently meet.

...

She twirls on.

I just wish I had more guts sometimes.

junk

*tentatively raises a hand, hiding the straw he's been using for launching projectiles behind his back with the other*

Miss? Might I toss in a little insight/side comment on what you said there?

I actually have offered this in IRC as well, though that was pretty much behind closed doors I guess, so I'll offer it again up here.

Regarding your comment about there not being a pool of power to grab, or any noteworthy tools to go along with that other than web-tinkering ones. I agree and disagree. As I know some of the people concerned (the elders in particular, but in that respect, you are very much an elder too Tzim) to maintain that same line of thought, I will state my observation here then, in hopes of changing that mindset of powerlessness. So hear me on for a while, if you will.

Indeed, no one will have power over any other here, but then again, everyone will, in some way.

The power to make people feel, which has been proven beyond doubt countless times already.

The power to make people agree with what we're saying, the power to sway things our way.

Words alone give more power than any "tool" can, as most of us here will readily acknowledge normally.

Don't forget about that now.

This does not only hold true for writing, it holds true for everything beside what this forum was created for as well. In our communications amongst eachother, like the way we are communicating now, here in this thread, like the way we communicate through IRC, through PMs. Most people here will also acknowledge this as tempers have risen high enough several times over, and continue to do so, I myself not having been part or witness of one of these occasions in the time before I came out of lurking, but I have been witness to such an occasion later as well. These situations are never pleasant, but they do demonstrate the power of these words quite aptly.

Ofcourse, none of these are quite my observations, 'cause I have said a few times before, most of us are aware of this.

However now I'll look into this a bit further, again to try to discover what's the reason behind.

Why do words touch us so? Their meaning? The stretch of them? In part.

The main reasons I see are because the words touch either upon subjects we care about, because the words are spoken by people we care about or just respect, or because the words are spoken in a way we pick up on them.

The first and last are reason why tempers tend to flare, the middle is what usually calms those tempers back down. All of them however, can be turned to good with a little effort.

The first is something that can't be influenced, when something needs to be spoken about, there's nothing to do about that. The latter two however can be influenced. Who speaks, and the way he speaks are things that greatly influence the way whatever is spoken come across. The latter of which is also already realised by alot of people when criticising works of others, for example. The "who" part however, seems to be widely disregarded, which I can imagine... you just can't change who you are, so why bother with that part? There again though, it's not something that needs to be turned negatively. As all well know, people can be very biased about what someone says, just on the bases of considering wether or not they like that person.

If they don't like that person, they'll be very quick to negatively interpret anything he says, on the other hand, if they do like him, they'll be much more likely to interpret whatever he says positively.

And that's where my observation comes in.

The way I see it, this community consists of a whole lot of "vets". People who have been in this community for very long, sometimes with differing backgrounds as little groups within the community, but even those go back a very long way. It's these "vets" who form the pennite core. And through that, it's these "vets" that influence the way the rest of the community handles the most. If only just because of the deep bonds these people have together, the ammount to which they have grown attached and accustomed to one another, and the major part of the community these people take. Sure, there are others, an alot more numerous group, but they will never influence either the reactions of their peers, the "vets" or this community as a whole the way the longtime members do.

Most prominent among these longtime members are the elders. They have the "highest ranked places", not because they are powerful as such, but because they are perhaps the most important part here. Not because of the various administrative duties they fulfill, but because of their relationships.

With these relationships comes the power to influence the others, in good ways.

That was my meaning in my previous post when saying that if any leading entity should clear up problems of non-activity, strife between membership etc. , it should be the elders. They are a closeknit group of friends, who unlike any other in this community, know the community as a whole. They are the ones who know where to poke people if they start to feel discomforted by something, or they know who to ask to do it for them.

Please, don't say you don't have any power, but learn to control that power instead. Learn how you can exert it to its greatest influence, as you no doubt knew once before, with the people you've lived with for a long time. Having a larger base of people together though, means having to get to know them too, to achieve that effect.

That concludes my little rant about that. As I've said before to one, I will now say to all: do with it as you will.

....

And Miss?.... Thank you.

*sits back down with a sigh and the unnerving feeling of having said too much in too short a time*