for more pills for the pile of pills I have become.
Winners or Losers
Perhaps it’s a roll of the dice
Or a coin flip
Or one of those childhood games
Rock, paper, scissors,
But somehow, we end up winners
And/or losers.
It’s hard to tell where it comes from.
Perhaps it’s written in the stars
Or in the lines crisscrossing our palms
The Ouija Board or tarot cards.
Too often it seems like the luck of the draw
Some of us win, others lose.
I remember being given a book about
Andrew Carnegie to read.
Back then they thought that role models
Like that would move us along
Especially those of us who seemed to be moving
Off in the wrong direction.
Needless to say it didn’t work, but I still have
The book somewhere
Gathering dust in some pile of my lost projects
The millions I was going to make, the books
I was going to write, and all my inventions,
Inventions that never quite worked. All this must have been written in the stars.
Hiding Places
What happens when you lose
Your hiding places
And you must
After all these years
Move things, things you piled up
Put aside for another day
Sure you would need them
Use them
Two of this, two of that
Things you barely remember
Half empty, half full
Hiding away until now
And now you reach in
Reach over
Pull things out and try
To think of what you can do
There’s the rubbish of course
Or other places
New hiding places to set them aside
Again
Prizes you can accumulate against need
Against an uncertain future
Hiding places you won’t have to face
For years or
Maybe you’ll never have to do this
Again.
J. K. Durick is a retired writing teacher and online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Literary Yard,Black Coffee Review, Literary Heist, Synchronized Chaos, Madswirl, Journal of Expressive Writing andHighland Park Poetry.
That tall order
fell on its face
Drew its Last Breath
And turned over to
Look at the Stars.
In Wonder
I Wonder
Bliss is sometimes
where I fall,
resting with
All the Sky
a part of my
heart.
My Sizeless glance
Wakens the fall
into a natural lift.
Behind the window
this was outside my reach.
So Safe to have
no future
Looking back on what I
had.
fallen without a Past to
drive my rivets
to steel , another
Day ahead
winding Down my
Belief in Self,
Until time loses its Last
Rhyme spent to
impress myself more than others.
Until homeless grows a new
home in a forested walk.
The moon peeks around a
Big tree as the ground is
Softer than I had been used to
in the concrete world.
I'm stopped by a feeling
of exhilaration
accelerations compensating
with tangential swings to keep
us apart in a
Dance, that joins our souls,
to feel good about this.
Good has my Back or
was that you for neither Lack.
Sung becomes singing
The Invisible evaporates
to make a delicious flavor
pleased
I'm fallen to Rise Like
Breathing
♡
by John Edward Culp
C- Caring is a good Character
R-Resilience is the path to actualizing Recognition
I- Information is Important
S-Sense speaks Sanity
T-Truth is Thorough
I-Initiating an idea is an innovative Inevitable
T-Teaching is Technical
I-Introduction makes understandable a subject Interest
N-Nature is the observed Norm
A-Appreciation encourages Accountability
D-Defining your purpose is a life Decision
E- Encouragement is also useful to Empowerment
P-Purpose leads to Profoundness
T-Training people is a part part advancement's Totality
U-Unity is Unbiased
L-Love Subtly resist the power of Lies
A-Availability is the engine room to Advancement.
Foreclosed
Withdrawal shoulders folds along mouths
staged tales fault us. They coffer
day’s issue, the chance randomness
arranged when we leave cautioned
a house our growth each door leads to.
All for themselves now, it’s dread
their kingdom announces
in counted nights yearning
for song under the old roof’s uses
while as out of an encapsuled globe
Xerxes himself would approve of,
we sit new rooms alone and suggested.
-
The enlisting sepulchre
Out of windows
gloomed light insurrects
incompatible suddenness
rotted with years
soundless worlds
pretend to.
It peals and strips
ripe notions to death
where drunk and various
pronouncements
soft eyes took care with
as ears proclaim
the glass between them—
our palms their hands
a mausoleum traces.
Andrew Cyril Macdonald considers the role of intersubjectivity in the poetic encounter with place. He celebrates the confrontations between self and locale and the challenge that occurs in the fomenting of identity and independence. You can find his work in such places as A Long Story Short, Blaze VOX, Cavity Magazine, Down in the Dirt, Mineral Lit Mag, ODD Magazine, Thorn, Green Ink Poetry, and Unique Poetry Journal among others. When not writing he is busy caring for seven rescued cats and teaching a next generation of poets.
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
So, Martin Scorcese compares Marvel movies to theme parks. And honestly, what a mood.
True, this isn´t exactly the newsworthy material, Ricky Gervais discussed Scorcese´s top-notch diss of superhero culture movies during his monologue at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards.
But it recently popped up in my recommended videos because the Youtube algorithm works in mysterious ways and got to thinking – is it just about shallow screenwriting and the allure of cheap CGI action, the mindless fun?
And I realized that the problem of Marvel storytelling runs even deeper than the genius director conveyed to us out loud – that it heavily influenced the type of novels we get to read – and it´s not exactly Marvel´s fault … Not entirely.
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS
One-dimensional characters or flat characters do not change or grow from the start of the story to the end. Their purpose is to highlight the main character, to be a plot device, or a tool, and they typically are simpletons with a one point of view on life – they only see one dimension – hence one-dimensional characters, hold a simple and small perspective about life or the situation in the story. Their character is often used as a literary device to keep the narrative moving – many times when the script has written itself into a corner, or the writer has run out of effective ways to move the plot forward.
Now, Marvel, from the three-hundred and seventy-two movies total from which I´ve seen eighteen, does not suffer from one-dimensional characters on the hero side of the story. All the good guys go through trauma, they learn, they grow, they develop new opinions (ehm-ehm- some of them).
Marvel has been criticized for sucking at writing an effective villain but the problem is not the villains, the problem is the root of the Marvel storytelling – the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad.
One would think that they would take their own advice and write all the villains the way Loki is written – which is the reason (not the only one, yeah, Tom Hiddleston is awesome and all that) why audiences flock to him so much. He has a strong motivation, he´s smart and his character is a rainbow of personalities – just like a regular human being, which makes him likable and most importantly, relatable.
But Marvel is not the inventor of one-dimensional characters.
William Shakespeare is.
Benvolio from Romeo and Juliet, Gertrude from Hamlet, Shylock from The Merchant of Venice very effective plot devices with one stubborn character feature that poses an obstacle to the protagonist.
However, Shakespeare didn´t have Hollywood studios behind him to balance out the lack of personalities in his stories with raging beam in the sky and generic CGI armies. To give a complete experience to audiences, he had to support the narrative by creating strong protagonists, interesting antagonists, and villains with complex personalities (Lady Macbeth, Hamlet, Portia). And when you do that, your story not only allows for the one-dimensional character to make sense, it makes it even more immersive and realistic – because we all know that one blank person who is just sort of … there. Existing, with one opinion on all the debatable, morally grey, complicated stuff we deal with in life.
And that´s why people will never have such a raging allergy if a Marvel movie turns out bad and will keep watching them and paying for the next one and the next one and the next one.
Low stakes, low damage.
Now compare that to a show heavily driven by character development where there are no villains and heroes like the Game of Thrones.
Feel like re-watching it? No? Me neither. And no one can blame us. That show became un-rewatchable due to replacing the complexity of the human heart with a hero vs. villain storytelling and adding some explosive Marvel-type action as the final lethal, cyanide-like icing on the cake.
IN BOOKS
All the teenage apocalyptic series. Thank you for your time, good night.
….
I really didn´t want to get into this but there is no better example than the popular doomsday book series where children hunt each other in a world that no longer resembles a rational society. And they gave us all the subsequent movie franchises in which those very same teenagers are at least twenty-six years old, of course.
However, there is a silver lining on the horizon in a form of Shadow and Bone. I´ve never read the books but the popular fantasy book series The Grisha has been picked up by Netflix and the first book has been adapted in a form of a limited TV series.
And if the source material is as strong as the adaptation, we might just be plunging out of the lazy storytelling brought about by the likes of Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey.
DOES I AM CECILIA DO BETTER THAN THAT?
Cecilia used to think that being born to a small fortune, accompanied by chrysanthemums on the way from the hospital and surrounded by exploding fanfares of affection, would set her up for a never-ending life of lottery wins, parades without rain, and smooth slides on the slopes of adoration. She never realized how slippery that slope of adoration was. Maybe money was not the root of all evil. Family dysfunction was.
An Excerpt from I am Cecilia by Zara Miller
As promised last time in the first article, I would reveal a little bit behind the story and the inspiration behind writing this YA novel.
The hero vs. villain in the Marvel movies is something that was always on my mind and tried to avoid during writing. Blurring the lines in the protagonist/antagonist/villain/anti-hero characterization. Not just because it´s a lot of fun but because it makes for a rich experience.
When you find yourself disliking the hero yet rooting for them anyway, or loving the villain yet understanding that they have to be stopped – the writer is probably doing it right.
You can follow me on Instagram @zaramiller_author, or on LinkedIn under Zara Miller for more news and swoon-worthy fiction content. Looking forward to meeting you all!
Triaging "triage"
I find the way words drift & shift in meaning delightful.
Yesterday I checked on the spelling of "triage" in my, admittedly 30 years old, Concise Oxford Dictionary, & found the definition given there was "the refuse of coffee beans."
Since this was nothing like what I was expecting (& started to wonder if I had, in fact, the right word) I moved on to the ten years younger Shorter Oxford & found two definitions; "The action of sorting according to quality" which is much closer to current usage although apparently an older meaning since the second definition was "coffee beans of the third or lowest quality."
& putting them together I came up with a new job, a "triage specialist," who wanders the waiting areas of ER words, oops, wards, inspecting empty coffee cups to see if they can divine in the leftovers what the patient's ailment might be…
mean time
The red eyes of rabbits
Denise Levertov: The Springtime
The rabbit's eyes aren't blue.
Or are they?
The red-eye flight gets you in
early in the morning.
That means that unless you're
some sort of piston
pumping ramrod-straight
along a longitude
you'll need to wind your watch forward
to make up for the time you've lost.
Who knows what might have happened
in those over-looked hours?
geographies: the Mackenzie River valley
Peat forests are especially
carbon-dense, but their
curated selection depends
upon those attributes which
abound in the current season.
Data is king. Social plat-
forms abound. Yet there is
no one size fits all solution
when it comes to new in-
formation technologies.
For Veterans’ Day,
Donald J. Trump had
a sweatshop in Myanmar
run him up a Buddha
the size of the ones that
used to be at Bamiyan.
Had a hand at the end
of an elevator arm in
which he was carried
up from the stage to a
height approximately
equal to 2000 bodies
stacked one on top of
another. From where
he delivered a speech
that was amplified /
televised / digitalized /
YouTubized so that the
whole world could
know what the sound of
one hand crapping was.
Four Poems
By Chinese Poet Yuan Hongri
Translated by Yuanbing Zhang
Give You A Bottle of Nectar From The Kingdom of HeavenⅠ
Give you a bottle of nectar from the kingdom of heaven
Let your flowers of soul blossom
Let your bones be white and transparent
Let you bathe in music of the kingdom of heaven
There will be no more earthly night
Let you forget that fragrance of soul
That's in your home of soul
That giant's yourself that are sweet and free.
Ⅱ
The strings of heavenly gems
Embedded on your golden crown
You are the giant's king from the of the Kingdom of Gold
Your land is vaster than billions of seas.
3.6.2019
赠你一瓶天国的琼浆
一
赠你一瓶天国的琼浆
让你的灵魂之花绽放
让你的骨骼洁白透明
让你沐浴那天国的乐曲
再也没有尘世的黑夜
让你遗忘那灵魂的芬芳
那在你的灵魂的家园
那甜蜜自在的巨人的自己
二
这一串串天国的宝石
镶嵌在你的金冠之上
你是那黄金之国巨人的王
你的国土巨大胜过亿万座海洋
2019.3.6
Our Souls are Free and Magical
Our souls are free and magical
Which can reach many heavens without wings
Every Kingdom of Heaven has sweet memories
Oh, where there's no the word of death
To protect your childhood sun
The teenager's starry sky is light from the Kingdom of Heaven
And in the deep of your bones
old gods are smilling at you
Their words are music from the Kingdom of Heaven
3.6.2019
我们的灵魂自由而神奇
我们的灵魂自由而神奇
不需要翅翼而能抵达诸多的天国
每一座天国都有甜蜜的记忆
哦 在那儿没有死亡这个词语
保护好你的童年的太阳
那少年的星空是天国的光芒
而在你的骨骼深处 古老的
诸神向你微笑
他们的话语是天国的乐曲
2019.3.6
The Stars of The Dawn
When the sky gallops like the rivers
you stand in the street of the city on the world
look up at the sky and you could almost hear the singing of the stars
summoning you in the depths of space.
And the Heavens of the gods
are towering lofty cities like the mountains
on gold coast of time;
And on the mammoth ship of platinum
the rings of light twine around giant's necks of men and women
their eyes are like the stars of the dawn.
2016.4.28
黎明的辰星
当天空疾驰如江河
你站在人间之城的街道
向天仰望 仿佛听到群星的歌声
在太空的深处向你召唤
而诸神的天国
在时光的黄金海岸
矗立山岳般的巍峨之城
而白金的巨轮之上
巨人的男女 项佩光环
眼眸如黎明的辰星
2016.4.28
Only the Eternity is Equal to It
I am a singer from the heavens
my song is silent, only the soul can hear it.
Those ancient gods are the mountains behind me,
they gave me the flowers of millennium from paradise,
let my song mellow and sweet as the smile of the heavens;
let the face of time blush and lift the veil of death;
let the ancient earth reveal the true face of gold.
Oh, you'll see another you,
as old as the sun, as young as the dawn
his kingdom is huge and only the eternity is equal to it.
4.04.2015
唯有永恒与之齐名
我是一位来自天堂的歌者
我的歌曲无声 唯有灵魂听见
那些古老的诸神 是我身后的山岳
他们赠我千年的仙果
让我的歌声芳醇 甘美如天国的笑容
让时光的脸儿羞红 掀去死亡的面纱
让古老的大地 露出黄金的真容
哦 你将看到另一个自己
古老如太阳 年轻如黎明
他的王国之巨大唯有永恒与之齐名
2015.4.4
-
Bio
Yuan Hongri (born 1962) is a renowned Chinese mystic, poet, and philosopher. His work has been published in the UK, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, and Nigeria; his poems have appeared in Poet's Espresso Review, Orbis, Tipton Poetry Journal, Harbinger Asylum, The Stray Branch, Acumen, Pinyon Review, Taj Mahal Review, Madswirl, Shot Glass Journal, Amethyst Review, The Poetry Village, and other e-zines, anthologies, and journals. His best known works are Platinum City and Golden Giant. His works explore themes of prehistoric and future civilization.
Yuanbing Zhang (b. 1974), is Mr. Yuan Honrgi's assistant and translator. He is a Chinese poet and translator, works in a Middle School, Yanzhou District , Jining City, Shandong Province, China. He can be contacted through his email- 3112362909@qq.com.
