OTI:one poem, notes, one illustration:10/29/16

Open To Interpretation

Treasure

So, so,
I told you they wouldn't have
Time for you,
They never do,
And now you're saying
You don't have time for me.
Oh, I rest alone on this bench
Perched on the bluffs above the sea,
A crystal cove,
A treasure trove,
Of time for you and me.

DolphinWords

Notes: Progress!...I guess...I have The Black Ship Tale in the Creative Space Publishing template...it's a bunch of pages!...brb...it's about 13,350 words!...double spacing between lines, doubledouble between poems, that's 150 pages!...I think it's 12pt font...brb...yep...rather not go smaller than that...have to see if that many pages CSP will make...brb...oh...was debating title...from just Black Ship...scads of other books and things titled such...to Of Black Dragons and Black Ships, which references Burns (and maybe Steinbeck!), which is the title, and will remain, of the last two poems...but musing here I altered the Black Ship tale to The Black Ship Tale, and realized that's it!...and it has like the perfect pun!...oh...what CSP does for book lengths...brb...oh...for just black and white, it's like over 800 pages...noob that I am at this, 150 pages seems a lot!...the poems run on together just like here in the blog...I'm hoping the jumps from page to page don't make for awkward readings...sometimes when I read a poem in Poetry I miss the ending...it will be like one line on a following page...poems present layout problems!...and, and, I found how to make illustration for the cover...Nat Geo has a pic of an obsidian spear point...it is just gorgeous...and what I always pictured for the Black Ship...I'll make a painting...cover all black with the point in deep maroon red, and the title, and my authors name...ral...I thought to have a black t shirt made...words Black Ship with the point...oh...here, I made a adobe photo elements sketch...this big on back...and just the point over one's left chest!...even a black ball cap with this...and when people ask, I give them a business card, the title art again, and link to my book on amazon!...have always thought we should get paid for wearing apparel advertising something, like beer t-shirts!...anyway, I need a nap...up all night last two nights...sleep cycle destroyed...I get word silly when such!...I need to study out how to make my own cover in CSP!

OTI:one poem and notes:10/27/16

Open To Interpretation

Apart

Oh,
I crumple it all together,
The finished jigsaw puzzle,
Kneading the pieces to separate them
Apart,
An amorphous lot now bagged,
Boxed,
Set on the storage shelf,
To be forgotten,
Apart.
Maybe someday someone
Will puzzlepuzzle
Just this same puzzle,
Bring back together
Its art.
"A few pieces are missing,
It was from a second hand store."
I should leave in a note.

DolphinWords

Notes: now, yesterday's post may be it for awhile for the Black Ship tale, working title now, Of Black Dragons, and Black Ships...when I have it arranged chronologically all by itself, it may be seen to have a beginning, middle, and end, as any tale should!...I'm transcribing it from the blog to word document...it began back there around 4/28/16, along with OTI, which is like 4/17/16...and, and I'll make another book like I did with Women Can Do No Wrong, so one can read it first to last...as I post, I read things backwards, from today's post, backaways, editing, and trying to keep track of where I am...it must all seem a jumble!...but it's not...in every post, I kind of carry an overall sense of the whole blog from it's very beginning...speaking of which, some of the very old posts seem to be still active, insomuch the pageview counter is counting readership numbers I hadn't seen before...I think much of that is keyword stumbling...readers searching with keywords happen on a post...example: there's a post with over five hundred page views that gave me pause...re read it...it's about the Kingfisher on the Chapel Bridge Post...and it has mention of the Xmas Count, and that mention I conjecture draws the 'ClicOns'...it's a good post, so maybe readers read it, even though it's likely not what they were looking for...normally, I think, maybe like a half dozen readers read the posts, maybe a couple dozen browsing...this is about the circumstance with my youtube clips too...though one, a one minute clip of a swap meet canopy being lofted in the wind, has like 287 views!...such is fame...this musing about page views happened as I'm having to go into the editor a lot to get the old Black Ship posts...I had thought to get them from the blog on line, but for some reason, a whole section of page background color comes with the copy/paste to Word doc...so one by one I'm going through the edit window listing...meanwhile, I find myself reading the old Roman playwright Terence...a comedian...I'm a little unbalanced on the gloom side like a one big claw beach crab, and 'am studying the old playwrights for wtf is funny!...oh!...thought to copy/paste from blog to notepad...and that works...and will speed things up!...I don't think notepad will retain the page color when copy/paste to Word doc....

:)

DavidDavid

OTI:two poems:10/25/16

Open To Interpretation

Of Black Dragons

Beside Volcano Never
A small cone, a crater,
It's ragged rim broken
Making one entrance for the sea.
Beneath this sheltered circular bay
Fumerals on the sea floor
Steamed and glowed,
Black and red pillow lavas oozing.
This heat kept the bay warm,
Ice free
And a perfect harborage
For Petra's navy,
Three Black Ships,
A long slender craft,
And one battered submarine
That Nemo was delighting in
Showing off to Hephaestus.
Not to be outdone,
Hephaestus took out an
Object from his pocket.
"A scrub brush?" Nemo said.
Hephaestus set it down on
The planks of the wooden wharf,
And it scrubbed
All on its own.
"For the Black Decks,
An automaton!" Hephaestus said.
Along the wharf
Assembled the ranks of the crews.
A difficulty has always been if it is
Dragons with their Humans
Or
Humans with their Dragons.
Nevertheless,
Each crew member was paired
With a Dragon of the Southern Reach,
And beside one another they stood
In their ranks;
First Mates Ishmael, Jason,
Ned and Ichi,
Astride their Dragons at the forefront.
Petra, Glauce,
Calypso and Kannon,
Astride their Dragons,
Looked on.
The crews saluted their Captains
With the Dragon Wave,
And the Captains saluted,
Waved in answer.
All began to sing the Dragons' Roar.
"Petra," said Pet to Petra,
Beside herself hearing the singing,
"We Dragons rule Nevermore,
The white cap of this world,
Our Human Towns our care,
Will you be our Queen?
Deal?"
"Deal." Petra said.
"Mount up!"  Petra said to the crews.
"It's a long flight to the
Midnight Flowering."
And the Dragons belched flames
And roared to the Song's chorus.

And Black Ships

Snow had fallen
Over all the Northern Reach.
The treasures on the
Midnight Ceremony Crater's
Central stage
Covered over
Under a white blanket,
As they would be until Spring,
Save for one,
Placed by
Onyx and Medea,
The Golden Fleece on a tripod.
Golden it shown in the stage's
Lanterns' glow over the snow.
The Northern Dragon Flight
Rested,
Perched each on their families' perches,
A respectful audience listening
To Onyx finish the eulogy
For the Black Dragons
Fallen in battle
With the Black Ship.
Onyx finished,
And a stillness in the snowy landscape
So quiet one could hear the Stars.
Onyx left the stage to
Medea
Who began to sing the Dragon hymn
"Somewhere it is Fall
Somewhere it is Spring."

DolphinWords

:)

DavidDavid

OTI:one poem and notes:10/24/16

Open To Interpretation

A Shadow On The Moon

As a bird's shadow over the ocean
On a sunny day,
The Northern Black Dragon Flight
Obscured the Stars
And then the silver Moon
By their thousands overhead.
Hephaestus happened to look up.
"Oh, Medea, look!" he said.
Medea joined Hephaestus in amazement,
The Black Deck's entertainments forgotten.
The Flight was bound North, home,
The confrontation in the Southern Reach abandoned.
"Bats?" Hephaestus said.
"Not so tiny," Medea said.
"I know these,
But never so many!
Dragons!"

Glauce was restrained gently
In her gondola,
Onyx's claw,
High over the Black Ocean,
The Golden Fleece held tightly
In Onyx's other claw.
Onyx flew at Flight's lead.
Looking down, Glauce could see,
Far below,
A glowing many colored gem
On the Black Sea.
Onyx too sighted
The Black Ship.

"Hephaestus, set your maidens,
The Keledones, to singing."  Medea said.
Hephaestus commanded,
And a chorus to make the Sirens envious filled the night.
The Dragons overhead overheard,
But flew on
Until at Onyx's  command
They circled above the Black Ship.
'A Black Ship that serenades its own doom.'  Onyx thought. 
'A pleasant song too,
'Not that imprisonment
Of that southern Black Ship's instrument.'
"We can take our seats in the night sky for this concert." 
He told the Flight,
Who were joyous as Dragons always are
To hear a Human tune,
Though this one seemed a bit off,
Inhuman, but with ethereal beauty.

Medea discerned Onyx.
"Hephaestus!"  Medea said.
"They have the Golden Fleece,
And Glauce,
Oh, and intend to attack!"
"How can you tell?" said Hephaestus.
"I know Dragons," said Medea,
"I have them for pets.
On your Eagle now, we fly up to them."
At the Black Ship's bow,
Hephaestus' Eagle that he rode from Olympus to Pegasae
Sat perched.
Hephaestus spoke to its animation,
And he and Medea were taken aloft.
And Medea began to sing.

Onyx and the Flight
Heard Medea's voice join
The Keledones' chorus.
The mix of heavenly and human
Was beyond any Dragon's ken.

"We surrender."
Onyx's first words
To Medea hovering before him
On Hephaestus' Great Eagle.

Medea studied Onyx,
"No need." Medea said.
 "Your cargo I would have,
And you for captive.
The rest,
Too many to feed,
Can go free.
Bargain?"
Onyx studied Medea.
"Will you be our Queen?" Onyx said.
"Our land, the Northern Reach,
The white cap of this world,
We rule
And share with Humankind.
You wouldn't be alone."
"I have things to return, your cargo...Medea said,
"But...
Perchance, is there a Palace?"
"Palaces." Onyx said.
"I will be your Queen," Medea said,
"And you will be my ride.
Deal?"
"Deal." Onyx said.
Medea met Glauce's look.
"Drop me in the sea." said Glauce.
Medea lowered her eyes,
"Hephaestus," Medea said,
Take the Fleece,
And Glauce,
To the Black Ship,
Hers now to command."
"The treasure," Onyx said,
This Fleece,
Please?"
Medea reconsidered.
"Just so."  Medea said.
"Once and always
The Fleece in Dragons' care."
Onyx belched flames with pleasure, and roared.
"I am Medea."  Medea said astride Onyx's neck.
"I, Onyx." said Onyx.
"Sail South, Hephaestus." said Medea,
"Deliver Glauce to where I once belonged.
Farewell."
"Visit me at Olympus, Medea," said Hephaestus,
"I would see the gods' envy."
Onyx and Medea at the lead,
The Flight continued its northern journey.

DolphinWords

Notes: oh, it's an easy step to fashion a clay animal or person, and imagine it alive...the world of children and their toys...and Hephaestus was the Greek's toymaker...reference for yesterday the Silly Symphony Aesop Fables by Walt Disney, all on youtube it appears...

:)

DavidDavid

OTI:one poem:10/23/16

Open To Interpretation

Fable

Medea
This Black Ship whisked us away, Hephaestus.
Hephaestus
It is curious.
Medea
And you, curiosity manifest. 
Don't you miss Olympus, Hephaestus,
The court of the gods?
Hephaestus
My lameness they mock.
Medea
Rather with your automatons you talk.
Hephaestus
And you, Medea, with your magic lore,
Was the conversation at the Palace's dinner table
Engaging?
Medea
Entertaining. 
I miss it so. 
And my sons,
And Jason.
And after dinner,
Gathered together for tales.
Hephaestus
Tales we have...
Hephaestus sets his hand to the Black Deck...
Moving scenes begin to appear...
Medea
Oh, a fable!
From Aesop!
The Black Ship sails on the Black Ocean, the waves fluorescing, the neon sails shimmering, Black Dolphins riding the bow waves, and the Moon full, the Stars in a clear night sky...

DolphinWords

:)

DavidDavid

OTI:four poems and notes:10/22/16

Open To Interpretation

Sand

Oh
We arrive unknown
And leave soon forgotten
No matter what sensation
Between tides
We drew in the soft sand.

Petals

Oh
We live close to the ground
Like flowers
When our petals wilt
It's a short drop
Not likely we can
Build your palace
Or moated castle
But when you decorate
Only our songs
Can echo through your halls
Only our freedom speak
Through your walls.

Trap

The Golden Fleece was a trap,
Helen of Troy too,
And Penelope at her loom
Waiting for Odysseus to come home.
A trap for every school boy
On a summer afternoon.
Soon enough each will grow to see
Glory Beauty Family
How illusory they can be.

Traps

The Homeridae beneath the Dodona Oaks one afternoon...

Twain
Well, it is a trap, Jason and Orpheus,
On the Black Ship Argo,
Chasing after the Fleece again.
Poe
Don't forget Glauce.
Emily
Of course, there's always a girl.
Melville
What fishing line doesn't have a hook?
Dana
We can never be entirely free,
But to oppression,
We can be entirely opposed.
Poe
We consider imprisonments?
Verne
Of myriad sorts below and above the wide sea. 
What does Nemo want with a Black Ship? 
He has Calypso back.
Poe
Yes, how did that sleight of hand happen?
Emily
A lost fragment.
Petra found her searching
The Humankind villages of Nevermore,
Returned Calypso to Nemo.
Cervantes
Today it is so hot, not a breath of wind. 
We share the shade under the Oaks
With the dry wing chatter of grasshoppers;
An afternoon lassitude over these storied hills:
Windmills still,
Dragons napping.
Poe
A confinement
With the door open,
What sweeter torture?
Dana
Well,
Perhaps an earthquake;
It's that kind of weather
I knew in the West.
Twain
Just so, I too.
This round globe
Has its ways
To rattle our cage.
Euripides
Let me turn the page...
Jason and Medea rage.

DolphinWords

Notes:  I get interrogated...it just happens...a casual conversation about the baseball game with another peddler on the stationary bikes at the gym inevitably, inevitably, turns to employments...backed into that corner, I have my ways to get out...today I tried Cicero!...on facebook there was a post up pointing out the deceitfulness of a candidate, imagine or real, I dunno, and in the comment scroll was a quote from the old Roman orator, Cicero...now, as it happens, on the nightstand is Laurel Masterpieces of World Literature, Classical Age, and I've been in and out of it...hadn't read Cicero yet, but he's in there, so I looked him up...read the introduction, browsed a bit, and happened on this...

quote

Now there are many at present, and there have been many in the past, who in the pursuit of this peace of mind I have been talking about have withdrawn from the affairs of state and fled to the refuge of retirement, among them the best known and by far the most distinguished philosophers and numbers of men of high seriousness who have not been able to stand the conduct either of the people or of princes, and have lived in the country enjoying their estate.  Their aim was like that of kings: to lack nothing, and obey no one, to live independently, the essence of independence to live as you please.
... ... ...
(Cicero goes back and forth comparing those who take up the political life, with all it's vicissitudes, with these close to the earth philosophers, and comes to this...)

This is easier for the philosophers, since there are fewer things in their lives open to the blows of fortune, since their needs are less, and since if misfortune befalls them, their fall cannot be so heavy.

Moral Courage: The Retired Life
The Duty of Public Service
Cicero
Laurel Masterpieces of World Literature, Classical Age
pp485-6
paperback

end quote

Nearly everyone of the author introductions in this book goes on about how difficult it is to translate the classical authors.   And it may be why my eyes glaze over so often!  Cicero can really go on and on, and must have been Shakespeare's model for Polonius...brb...there's a bunch of side by sides...

quote

Cicero's advice on practical philosophy in this volume make his the most likely role model for Shakespeare's Polonius. 

from the comment reviews

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10862190-selections-from-the-writings-of-cicero

endquote


where was I...oh, so I'm going on about Cicero at the gym...trying not to be pigeon holed as a wastrel and a vagrant...and the conversation went back to baseball...Cubs!...Sand...these old poets often wrote just commonplace conceits...maybe they weren't commonplace back then...maybe they still aren't...Petals...'close to the ground'...'short drop...reference Cicero's 'their fall cannot be so heavy'...took a bit to get to this note!...Traps...now and then a resort to the 'authors in eternity' for the Black Ship Tale...I cant remember if it was Arthur C. Clarke, or Ray Bradbury, who had on Mars a community of deceased writers, spirits that would continue so long as someone was reading their writings...now maybe 'Sand' is not so commonplace!...oh...I'll look again...brb...

quote

The crew of a rocket ship headed for the planet Mars is dying and plagued by nightmarish visions and dreams. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Mars – supernaturalist authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce — are also dying, fading from existence as the people of Earth burn the last of their books, outlawed a century ago for their superstitious themes. Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare are there too, although Dickens bitterly resents his "ghettoization" among genre writers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exiles_(Bradbury_story)

hmmph...time was 'Beyond The Pillars Of Hercules' was like Mars when it had 'canals'...and Edgar Rice Burroughs!...reference 'authors in eternity'
"I may praise it, since I dare not pretend to be any other than the secretary; the authors are in Eternity." William Blake (I've had that as a refrain in my head for like forever, this link is to a gigantic blog all about Blake!...2004 intro)...update Sand...changed 'from your walls' to 'through your walls'...now it's interesting!...and...and I change it back to 'from'...I need to knuckle down on this one and get it right!...'knuckle down'?...where's that from, marbles?...brb...yep...I was very good at marbles...

:)

DavidDavid

OTI:two poems and notes:10/18/16

Open To Interpretation

Invention

What battles have been won
And taken for granted
I mean
Sometime somewhere
Some critter invented
BREATHING OXYGEN
Success!
Sometime somewhere
Some critter invented
LEGS
Success!
Then comes along this critter
US!
And we invent
AUTOMOBILES
??????????????????!

The Black Deck

Hephaestus and Medea aboard her Black Ship.

Medea
Your automatons are boring, Hephaestus.
Hephaestus
Yes, like rain finding ways down a mountain.
 I can have an ensemble sing for us.
Medea
I've heard all the tunes,
They have about them a sameness.
Hephaestus
Yes, my authorship, such as it is.
Medea
And this,
Medea holds up her scrub brush. 
Who authors this? 
Compelled I am, like eating and breathing,
To keep this Black Deck clean and polished. 
And you, Hephaestus, an Olympian no less,
On your knees beside me.
Hephaestus 
I don't know.
Medea
You, among all the gods, must have a clue,
The why of this scrubbing,
And the nature of this Black Ship.
Hephaestus
I study, and I've been humbled. 
Here, let me show you this Black Deck's magic,
Magic even you, daughter of Hecate, may find entertaining.
From storage, Hephaestus gathers a tarp,
And tosses it over both himself and Medea. 
Underneath it they both sit on the Black Deck in darkness,
Shaded from the sunlight.
Medea
A sunless world for a tryst, or are we camping?
Hephaestus
I hadn't thought...
Oh, it is this you should see.
The crap rained down from the rigging
By the Ravens and Gulls
Is nourishment for the Black Ship.
And our scrubbing is like teeth masticating,
Helping the Deck eat the crap, absorbing it. 
It's no ordinary crap,
The Ravens and Gulls no ordinary birds,
Though on their foraging they consume the same,
Fish and bugs and such. 
They crap some magic transformed from their digestion,
Magic food for the Ship. 
The Ship is no ordinary ship,
Not an automaton as I first thought. 
I considered it may be a creature, or even a god,
But it is some new category on the Tree of Things. 
Here, in this sunless ink under our tent,
Set your hand to the Deck with mine. 
Before them the Deck begins to fluoresce,
Colors and geometries,
And then a scene,
The round earth and the sun and moon and planets
Against the backdrop of stars.
Hephaestus
This much we Olympians perceive
And consider proudly our domain, our universe. 
In truth, all we know, and thought to know.
Medea
Just so mortals are told.  I see no beyond this. 
Just as Medea speaks,
She feels the deck is speaking to her,
Showing to her,
And the scene changes,
Another sun but with different planets and moons,
And another,
And another,
And then she sees the galaxy,
And understands she is seeing the Milky Way
With countless suns.
Medea
Yesterday I was a child.
Hephaestus 
And I an immortal. 
Careful now, what you feel and think, 
Medea,
With your hand on the Deck.
Medea
How so?
Hephaestus
It is a black mirror of sorts,
Giving back reflections
Of our innermost feelings and thoughts.
The deck ripples with images and scenes,
Lifelike as can be,
Snatches of Medea's thoughts, feelings, memories, imaginings. 
She watches entranced, feeling one with the Ship.
A scene of her sons graves makes her pause,
And scenes cluster of their time together as they grew,
And she catches her breath in shock to see again the travail. 
Her hand recoils.
Medea
Hephaestus!
Hephaestus
Think of just one thing, it doesn't have to be a perfect focus.
Medea
I can think of Jason?
Hephaestus
Yes.
Medea
I have reason to think he lives.
Hephaestus
The Deck can tell you so.
Medea holds her hand to the Deck,
And sees again when the Helios chariot dragon swallowed Jason,
And then the scene with Athene, including Glauce and Creon,
When the dragon vomited Jason up,
And they were all taken away to Pegasae in Helios' Chariot.
Medea
I thought as much,
Jason lives,
By Athene's intervention, along with Creon and Glauce. 
Would our sons had escaped me too, Hephaestus.
Hephaestus
The Deck only relates, it can't make.
Making is our purview.
Medea
I would see where Jason is...
A scene presents of Jason with Orpheus
Aboard the Black Ship Argo,
And the scene fades,
Along with the Deck's colors and geometries. 
It is barely fluorescing.
Hephaestus
Ship's hungry.
Hephaestus stands, and stows the tarp. 
After nightfall, we can explore, see more scenes in the Deck. 
At night, the Deck doesn't dim.
Medea
In the meantime, my appetite for scrubbing returns!
What does this all portend Hephaestus?
Days now beyond the Pillars of Hercules,
On this vast ocean,
We sail like a ghost ship without destination.
Hephaestus
I have my amusement, the mysteries of this Ship,
But I understand,
A queen needs a palace.

DolphinWords

Notes: I've arrange things like a movie script, I think...have to study movie scripts!...but not to make a script, but rather a poem that includes back and forth dialog, and descriptive asides...there was a little video game for Macintosh computers at the outset...shadow something...it had little dialog balloons in the present tense!...there were torches that faded as one meandered in the dungeons...if one was too slow, they went out...SHADOW GATE!

quote

The game is notorious for its many opportunities for death, including being burned by a dragon's breath, attacked by a cyclops, sucked into outer space through a broken mirror, dissolved by acidic slime, mauled by a wolf-woman, eaten by sharks, and suicide. Virtually any action taken by the player which is not the correct solution to a puzzle will result in a fatality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowgate

unquote

I wouldn't have even gotten in the door if I hadn't overheard someone telling their friend, 'click on the skull'...

:)

DavidDavid