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
Category Archives: CHAOS
Poetry from Chimezie Ihekuna
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.
Poetry from Andrew Cyril MacDonald
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.
Essay from Zara Miller, author of the YA novel I Am Cecilia
HERO VS. VILLAINS
“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.
I am Cecilia is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/I-am-Cecilia-Zara-Miller-ebook/dp/B094519D7T/ref
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!
Poetry from Mark Young
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.
Poetry from Hongri Yuan, translated from Mandarin to English by Yuanbing Zhang
Four Poems By Chinese Poet Yuan Hongri Translated by Yuanbing Zhang Give You A Bottle of Nectar From The Kingdom of Heaven Ⅰ 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.
Fay Pappas reviews Michael Robinson’s poetry collection From Chains to Freedom
“From Chains to Freedom: A Journey of Freedom for the Black Male” is a quintessential example of Michael’s singular ability to distill his most private emotions onto paper in a way that instantly draws the reader into his shoes. In a recent interview with NPR, film director Barry Jenkins noted the potential for movies to become “empathy machines”; mechanisms by which total strangers are effortlessly pulled into the lives of others with very difference experiences than their own. To Michael J. Robinson, poetry is his “empathy machine”.
Take for instance, “Being Black”. There, he dives the reader straight into a world of sorrow, paranoia and pain (all based in reality and the poet’s own personal experiences) before yanking the reader back out of a bleak depth like a fish reeled from the ocean when “he remembers his mother’s kiss.” The line “He sees himself as others don’t” stands out as a note of defiance in this weary world.
“From Chains to Freedom” is not a comfortable read. “Comfort” is not the point. Removing the readers from their comfort zone is. Yet for all Michael J. Robinson’s description of a struggle shared by far too many and perpetuated far too long, the poet concludes on a remarkably hopeful note. Indeed, my favorite line out of the entire work comes from the second to last piece, titled “Some Place Special”: “There is a place where the sun speaks to the moon”. It’s this beauty amongst the pain, sorrow and death that would be dizzying or worse, exploitative, in less adept hands. But Michael J. Robinson doesn’t just know how to use his words, but he understands why he uses them.
I believe that makes all the difference because Michael’s ultimate message to his readers is that despite the pains of today, hope exists all around us should we heed it. Afterall, he reminds us, “there is a place where the sun speaks to the moon, while the mountains listen to the winds’ singing. Life is found in the trees as the sun whispers[…].
Fay Pappas is a practicing attorney and the former editor of Brushing, the literary magazine of Rollins College (Winter Park, FL). From Chains to Freedom can be ordered directly from author Michael Robinson by emailing him at mjrobinson@rollins.edu