Waters

the  waters  why'd  they  welcome  me  into
the  crux  of  my  troubles  such  that  we  do
see  the  stars  they  fall  and  watch  and  kill  and
myself  and   their  killers  they  watch  me  still
their  climbing  and  running  over  my  will
to  stop  so  cold  and  watch  my  friends  so  frail
so  dead  but  not  so  why  they  live  my  mail
inbox  is  crowded  space  is  flowing  so
jump  and  catch   the  star  that  kills  it  falls  and
stops  the  death  that  we  my  friends  that  we  INSTILL

______________________

I hope you enjoyed that! This is undoubtedly the most complex poem I've written in a while, at least from the perspective of authorial intent. I don't usually leave these little notes at the end of poems anymore, so as to leave the matter of interpretation up to the reader, but considering the thought that went into these verses, I felt I had to mention a couple things. First off, the grammar. There's no grammar and punctuation in this poem, basically making it a giant run-on sentence. In fact, in line five the word "they're" has been misspelled as "their", a common typo in unedited writing. This was very intentional. My hope with this piece was to create what might almost be described as a lazy conversation with language, and to shed light on the structural importance grammar has to writing. The lack thereof only serves the purpose of making things more ambiguous, not "easier", as many English students seem to think. In fact, it probably makes it harder. I invite you to add more grammar to the piece and to find the meaning change substantially each time.

There's also a bit of freedom in the lack of grammar, something contrasted with the almost strict meter and form. Form and freedom have always had a bit of an intertwined and ambiguous relationship in poetry. I guess ambiguity is arguably one of the deeper themes of this poem. Here you'll find the verses written in good old iambic pentameter, with the last line a single syllable extra, something I considered rectifying several times. That extra syllable alone can have multiple meanings. It's part of a critical word in the poem, arguably the most important, and there's really no easy way to take it out without impacting both the form and the freedom. I'll leave you to ponder that further.

I think that's all I have to say. I could say much more (I haven't even begun to talk about the actual "meaning" of the poem, for instance, or even the rhyme scheme), but I don't think I have any special authority there. I gave the poem meaning, I gave it substance, and now it'll be subject to whatever you want it to be subject to. In short, I have nothing of value to add that you can't add yourself. I talk about this more in my post "Some Thoughts On Art" if you're interested.

Welp, that's all I've got for you guys today. Be sure to leave your comments below! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next post.

Avalanche On A Summer Day

Hello, dear readers! I have something a little bit different for you today. As you probably know by now, I love writing poems. I've written quite a few on this blog. But art is all about trying new things, and for a while now I've wanted to do something different with my work, to try and freshen up my content a little bit. So, today, I have for you a song. Yes, a song! Keep in mind this is an experiment, so as always let me know what you think in the comments below.

Now, I haven't put music to this yet, but I plan to very soon. You can probably expect that in a week or two. But for now, please enjoy the lyrics to Avalanche On A Summer Day.

________________________________

[Verse 1]

I was standing at the foot of the hill

The sweet sun was setting

You and I, we watched the blue skies

You must remember the rest

[Verse 2]

You pointed at the aging sunrise

Oh, I didn't know what you meant

Then I heard the graven rumble

That the good lord above had sent

[Chorus]

There's an avalanche on a summer day

It's blinding bright so don't look away

The mighty snow is rolling along

We'll dance the night till its wrath is gone

[Verse 3]

Oh, avalanche on a summer day

What did I do, what did I say

I know where to run so don't give it away

Just take my hand and come my way

[Verse 4]

Yes, grab my hand, let's run let's ride

We'll hide together if we have to hide

Don't flee the snow all on your own

We're stronger together than we are alone

[Chorus]

Cause' there's an avalanche on a summer day

It's blinding bright so don't look away

The mighty snow is rolling along

We'll dance the night till its wrath is gone

[Verse 5]

I've said it to many, I've learned it from few

I'm dead and lost if I'm not with you

If the cold kills us there'll be nothing to do

And we'll keep dancing forever,

Just you, me, and the Grim Reaper too

[Chorus]

Cause' there's an avalanche on a summer day

It's blinding bright so don't look away

The mighty snow is rolling along

We'll dance the night till its wrath is gone

We'll dance the night till its wrath is gone

We'll dance the night till its wrath is gone

[Fade out]

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July, guys! If you're American, at least. If you're not, well, happy Tuesday. Either way, there's cause to celebrate.

How've you been doing? We're smack dab in the middle of summer now, so I hope you're enjoying yourself! I for one have had tons of time to write, so you can look for tons of new posts soon.

To be fully honest, I'm just popping in because I wanted to share this awesome fireworks simulation I made with Javascript. It was a fun little project, so I hope you enjoy it. Other than that, I'll be posting my regular content on the weekend.

Happy Fourth of July!



If you're curious, by the way, this program was made in p5.js, which is a Javascript library. I'm sharing it with y'all using OpenProcessing, a website that provides embeddable code to put into blog posts such as these. You can view the source code for the program by clicking on the icon in the code window.