Lying not subtly upon my face
is an expression I won't erase
to administer to others ease
to bluff to help; to deceive to please.
My expression that expresses
and upon audiences depresses
with its purely unrefined and bluntly so defined gaze.
A gaze that makes their eyebrows raise
and then furrow as they anticipate
what in my mind I can create
to display upon my face so eagerly
that they would reveal little of, so meagerly.
I cloak no emotion behind any mask ,
My flesh is the truth and the truth is my task
to uncover, to reveal to those
who look upon the face that glows
because it lacks the veil;
nothing is withheld.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
St. Patrick's Day
Time has dropped us upon a day that happens to have been administered with a name dedicated, apparently, to a saint. Saint Patrick's day conjures up images of green four-leaf clovers, leprichauns and all that is lucky within my poor mind.
And now I cannot recall the slightest memory of having been informed who in the world Saint Patrick is nor what his significance is upon this day. But he did do something and now that I've confessed my ignorance, I would like to cling to it as I do not particularly care what this man did, not to say I care not about the man himself, but, no, I simply cannot bring the desire to know such a thing.
Anyways, St. P's day does not carry the slightest burden of significance to me. I am certainly reminded of the images that have been used to represent the little holiday, yet I would not notice if I didn't get pinched for not wearing green. No, the leprichaun could remain in hiding today and I wouldn't care.
And now I cannot recall the slightest memory of having been informed who in the world Saint Patrick is nor what his significance is upon this day. But he did do something and now that I've confessed my ignorance, I would like to cling to it as I do not particularly care what this man did, not to say I care not about the man himself, but, no, I simply cannot bring the desire to know such a thing.
Anyways, St. P's day does not carry the slightest burden of significance to me. I am certainly reminded of the images that have been used to represent the little holiday, yet I would not notice if I didn't get pinched for not wearing green. No, the leprichaun could remain in hiding today and I wouldn't care.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Butterfly Weed
Whimsical in a way and delightfully satisfying with almost unrealistic but so seemingly completely genuine characters is the story of a time in the old Ozarks of Arkansas. Butterfly Weed by Donald Harrington drew me into the minds of a magnificently smart and honestly kind doctor and an innocent, wonderful little girl named Tennessee.
Doc Swain has been tought all there is to know of medicine and the cure to every existing disease with the exception of tuberculosis. Though lacking any kind of degree, he moves into Stay More and opens his practice, which receives many patients more than the practice of the doctor who resides across the street from him. The people of Stay More do not take long to see how great a doctor Doc Swain is, as he does not fail a single patient. But the Doc faces quite a problem when he begins treating people in his dreams for free. He no longer receives payments and ends up taking a job teaching. This is where he meets Tenny, the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.
The love between Tenny and Doc grows and their story is inspiring, saddening, hilarious, tragic and very happy. All of these emotions were scattered throught the book, which never misses a note or fails to satisfy any of the reader's desire for details.
Harrington's writing is a joy to read because of the uniqueness. The dialogue is incredibly perfect, just the way you would imagine the old Arkansans to have spoken. The things they say are greatly humorous and make the book so entertaining. I loved everything about the characters, especially the things they said.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading. The characters, dialogue, plot twists and turns, the humor and the tragedy are all perfect.
307 pages.
Doc Swain has been tought all there is to know of medicine and the cure to every existing disease with the exception of tuberculosis. Though lacking any kind of degree, he moves into Stay More and opens his practice, which receives many patients more than the practice of the doctor who resides across the street from him. The people of Stay More do not take long to see how great a doctor Doc Swain is, as he does not fail a single patient. But the Doc faces quite a problem when he begins treating people in his dreams for free. He no longer receives payments and ends up taking a job teaching. This is where he meets Tenny, the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.
The love between Tenny and Doc grows and their story is inspiring, saddening, hilarious, tragic and very happy. All of these emotions were scattered throught the book, which never misses a note or fails to satisfy any of the reader's desire for details.
Harrington's writing is a joy to read because of the uniqueness. The dialogue is incredibly perfect, just the way you would imagine the old Arkansans to have spoken. The things they say are greatly humorous and make the book so entertaining. I loved everything about the characters, especially the things they said.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading. The characters, dialogue, plot twists and turns, the humor and the tragedy are all perfect.
307 pages.
Antigone
All those old Greek plays seem to me to be nothing but tragedies that were spurred in the minds of great thinkers whose thoughts were themselves tragic cycles. Antigone by Sophocles did grasp my sympathies for the tragic events that occured to the characters.
Antigone and her sister Ismene have endured the loss of their parents as well as their two brothers. Creon, the king of Thebes, now refuses to bury one of their brothers, Polyneices, because he had fought in a battle against Thebes. When a body was not buried then, people believed this caused the corpse's spirit to roam the earth for a hundred years.
Antigone grieved for her dead brother and attempted twice to bury him but was caught. Creon showed no sympathy for Antigone and decided to punish her. From this point on, the situation only worsens and many die, leaving Creon to suffer guilt.
Sophocles' writing style was not as difficult to understand as some other styles by playwrights then. Though not exactly very inspiring, moving or great, the play was bearable to read for the sake of finding out what would happen to Antigone.
I don't recommend this play to anyone except those forced to read the story because I thought the book was overall very dull. Although, the play may prove itself much better when actually performed as Sophocles intended.
Antigone and her sister Ismene have endured the loss of their parents as well as their two brothers. Creon, the king of Thebes, now refuses to bury one of their brothers, Polyneices, because he had fought in a battle against Thebes. When a body was not buried then, people believed this caused the corpse's spirit to roam the earth for a hundred years.
Antigone grieved for her dead brother and attempted twice to bury him but was caught. Creon showed no sympathy for Antigone and decided to punish her. From this point on, the situation only worsens and many die, leaving Creon to suffer guilt.
Sophocles' writing style was not as difficult to understand as some other styles by playwrights then. Though not exactly very inspiring, moving or great, the play was bearable to read for the sake of finding out what would happen to Antigone.
I don't recommend this play to anyone except those forced to read the story because I thought the book was overall very dull. Although, the play may prove itself much better when actually performed as Sophocles intended.
The Call Of The Wild
Only the strong can survive in the brutal environment of cold. This is a slight expression of the theme of a classic novel I recently read. The Call of The Wild by Jack London captured only my attention to London's talented writing and theme of natural selection throughout the plot. Though difficult at first to keep my attention held to, the book soon cought me up in the story of Buck and made me wish he and all his alliances and enemies could overcome the brutality of the north as well as that of their relationships, which were based cruelly on natural selection alone.
Buck is the protagonist of the book. As the novel opens, we are introduced to the Buck that lives in a civilized manner in a happy time in his life though not with complete love in his heart and passion for what he does and how he lives. The story progresses as Buck does through it, though his progression sadly is not one that encompasses his spirituality or the virtues of altruism as progression should include but his change is simply physically for the better and mentally for the worse, seeing as how altruism is a higher virtue than the quality of cunning to topple enemies.
Natural selection obviously more than interested London because every aspect of his story of Buck seems to revolve around it. After Buck learns the human species to be dominant to his, he cunningly appears to obey just enough to best his situation. Buck kills in the name of himself and for the benefit of his position, and this is displayed as an action of greatness by London, whose human emotions of insecurities about enemies I think were permitted by him to be expressed through fantasy via Buck's story. For Buck does not fail with his kill as he seemed to fail at first when having to learn the dominancy of man; as though London had felt such failure before and wanted to express it with a situation where Buck is the victim and then redeem himself by showing Buck to succeed in all his future encounters with enemies.
Buck's story takes place in an environment suitable to the taste of London, who desired to show his audience brutality and the defeat of brutality-brutality existing as the snow and ice that caused Buck and his enemies (for I think all the other characters were enemies except for Thornton, whom Buck felt the only noble emotion in the entire novel for) to suffer so greatly. Not to mention Buck's lack of food at one point and the couple times he was beaten, etc. Buck's life is anyone's life with the suffering always present and because Buck is not a human he simply could not defeat his desire to harm for his own benefit and to protect himself and whether because of Buck being an animal or his circumstances Buck could not spiritually develop his love further to exist on behalf of more characters than Thornton alone. I think, personally, that London himself had perhaps not considered such a parallel barrier to exist within his own mentality but his story seems to portray the possibility of such a mentality within himself as his words seem to obsess over the need to win and defeat something.
On a different note, London's writing style, as in his sentence formations and word choice, was obviously highly skilled and his words stroke my emotions as they sounded so beautiful. Beauty is quite apparent in his writing, yes, although expressed as harshness to make the story so entertaining and cause readers sympathy for Buck if no one else.
The Call Of The Wild may not possess a positive or enlightening theme, but it does capture our emotions and entertain. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to write.
Buck is the protagonist of the book. As the novel opens, we are introduced to the Buck that lives in a civilized manner in a happy time in his life though not with complete love in his heart and passion for what he does and how he lives. The story progresses as Buck does through it, though his progression sadly is not one that encompasses his spirituality or the virtues of altruism as progression should include but his change is simply physically for the better and mentally for the worse, seeing as how altruism is a higher virtue than the quality of cunning to topple enemies.
Natural selection obviously more than interested London because every aspect of his story of Buck seems to revolve around it. After Buck learns the human species to be dominant to his, he cunningly appears to obey just enough to best his situation. Buck kills in the name of himself and for the benefit of his position, and this is displayed as an action of greatness by London, whose human emotions of insecurities about enemies I think were permitted by him to be expressed through fantasy via Buck's story. For Buck does not fail with his kill as he seemed to fail at first when having to learn the dominancy of man; as though London had felt such failure before and wanted to express it with a situation where Buck is the victim and then redeem himself by showing Buck to succeed in all his future encounters with enemies.
Buck's story takes place in an environment suitable to the taste of London, who desired to show his audience brutality and the defeat of brutality-brutality existing as the snow and ice that caused Buck and his enemies (for I think all the other characters were enemies except for Thornton, whom Buck felt the only noble emotion in the entire novel for) to suffer so greatly. Not to mention Buck's lack of food at one point and the couple times he was beaten, etc. Buck's life is anyone's life with the suffering always present and because Buck is not a human he simply could not defeat his desire to harm for his own benefit and to protect himself and whether because of Buck being an animal or his circumstances Buck could not spiritually develop his love further to exist on behalf of more characters than Thornton alone. I think, personally, that London himself had perhaps not considered such a parallel barrier to exist within his own mentality but his story seems to portray the possibility of such a mentality within himself as his words seem to obsess over the need to win and defeat something.
On a different note, London's writing style, as in his sentence formations and word choice, was obviously highly skilled and his words stroke my emotions as they sounded so beautiful. Beauty is quite apparent in his writing, yes, although expressed as harshness to make the story so entertaining and cause readers sympathy for Buck if no one else.
The Call Of The Wild may not possess a positive or enlightening theme, but it does capture our emotions and entertain. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to write.
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