#bible ephemera

[vwv7]

[libraryofva]

Recent Acquisition - Postcard Collection

Magdalena. Passionsspiele Oberammergau, 1922

[wutbju]

On the next page of my Bible, you see my Mom's writing up there. She says:

May 21st, 1972 Second Birthday Spring, 1975 Baptized

You can also see that I got this Bible for my 12th birthday in 1980.

And to add to my signature collection, I have:

Ron "Patch" Hamilton

Shelly Hamilton

Major Ron Brooks

[misforgotten2]

Have you read any good books lately? I sure haven’t.

Alden's Christmas Book  -  1960

[in-peace-and-sleep]

“For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

[gettingsoaked]

Mormonism 101

One of the reasons for this project is that Mormonism, through its global missionary program, shows like South Park and the Book of Mormon musical, and the music of Donny Osmond, is a very visible religion, yet at the same time its basic tenets, beliefs, and practices are almost totally unknown to anyone except initiates. Most people are aware of Mormons, but couldn't tell you much about the religion. So what is Mormonism? Let's start with terminology. While "Mormon" and "Mormonism" are well-established, people who are usually called Mormons are actually members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Mormon" is a nickname or exonym drawn from the religion's principle scripture, the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official name of what to most people is "the Mormon Church." The term "Mormon" is discouraged, as is the abbreviation LDS. Official Church sources stress that the full name should be used whenever possible, but suggest using the abbreviations, “Church of Jesus Christ” or “Christ’s Church,” which seem more to me like ambiguous theopolitical statements than useful short forms. Apologies to any LDS readers, but I'll be using "Mormon," "Latter-day Saint," and "LDS" more or less interchangeably.

Mormonism is a Christian restorationist denomination, which means that Mormons believe their religion is a restoration of primitive (in the sense of first or original) Christianity. Mormonism is a Christian religion to the extent that its central figure is Jesus Christ, but has several major differences from mainstream Christianity, which we'll get to in later posts. (I personally believe that Mormonism originates in Christianity, but is not Christian in the same way that Christianity originated from Judaism but isn't Jewish.) The Church was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr, who hailed from upstate New York and is regarded by believers as a prophet similar to the way Jews & Christians view Moses or Muslims view Muhammad. Smith had visions from the spirit world telling him to organize his own church, as all Christian creeds were an abomination in the eyes of God, and leading him to a new volume of scripture, the Book of Mormon, written by some of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas on golden plates, and buried on the Hill Cumorah. Smith allegedly translated this record, the Book of Mormon, through the gift and power of God. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, a collection of Smith and other Latter-day prophets' revelations called the Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price, consisting of some excerpts from Smith's revision of the Bible and other ephemera, constitute the open Latter-day Saint scriptural canon. After Smith's assassination, his successor Brigham Young led the Mormons to Utah, and eventually the religion grew to become a global faith. The Church is headed by a president that adherents consider a modern prophet, seer, and revelator, and they consider themselves the only true, authorized church on earth today. They have many distinctive teachings on the nature of God, the afterlife, health and diet, finances, and other matters that I plan to cover in future posts. (Any corrections are always welcome, but I think this is pretty accurate!)

[laurelwen]

Breakdown and Comparison of the Books in Like Minds

So a careful viewer will notice that Nigel's bible and Alex's bible are clearly two completely different books. As @currentlyonstandbi also pointed out to me, the movie soundtrack underlines this by having two separate tracks titled "Nigel's Bible" and "Alex's Bible". The difference between the two is obvious in the two photos below.

We get glimpses of a few pages inside each of these books, and a side by side comparison will show that while they are different books, there are certain shared images that are suggestive of a few conclusions.

The first commonality is the use of the map insert seen above. Both maps appear to be exactly the same image, depicting the Mediterranean and the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades when the Templars were active. The map in Nigel's book is clearly larger and from the color of the paper seems to be somewhat older. Alex's map seems to be pulled from a different, newer source.

Both books also contain the same image of a man: Thomas Becket. It is hard to tell if this is merely the effect of the difference in lighting in each scene, but Nigel's version again appears somewhat yellowed, as if it was cut from an older book, while Alex's version seems more like a photocopy. Included below is the original of that image, as well as the art added in Alex's version, depicting the murder of Becket.

When Alex returns from his thwarted date with Susan, he throws Nigel's book across the room. It opens to this page, with an original pencil or charcoal drawing of a modern girl, and artwork depicting a skull inside a chalice or grail.

Alex's book also contains the same skull and cup image, but no copy of the sketch. This stands to reason, given that it appears to be an original drawing rather than an image pulled from an existing text. The same difference in paper color between the two versions is noticeable.

When we look at the images of the cover of Nigel's book (as seen in the Maraclea image above) we can see that the spine is smaller and that the pages seem to be full or nearly full. Alex's book seems to have a wider spine, and is clearly only partially filled, with many more blank pages remaining.

Conclusions and Analysis:

There are a couple different lines of thought one can pursue with this information. First: what happened to Nigel's book? We know that Alex can't have gone back to his room after Nigel died and therefore had no opportunity to hide it. We also don't actually know if he returned it to Nigel after reading it. One imagines that it would have been in either his room or Nigel's secret room, but we know from his conversations with Sally that it was found in neither location. It is possible that Alex is correct in his assertion that the Order removed it before the police could find it, or that the police chief (who was a member of the Order) had it removed from evidence.

The other possibility is that Alex was the true mastermind behind the events of the film, and that Nigel's book was an invention/exaggeration based on his OWN book to serve his depiction of Nigel. This seems less likely for one important reason: where was his book when the police investigated? Surely it would have been found, unless he had previously hidden it in some secret location never mentioned in the film.

The simplest explanation is that Nigel's book existed and was removed by the Order to preserve their secret lore, and Alex used the 9 months after Nigel's death to recreate his book from memory. We know from his conversation with Sally that he was completely engrossed by Nigel's book (though he tries to back pedal immediately after that). Obviously, he wouldn't have been able to recall or track down every piece of ephemera used, particularly not the metal badge or coin or the snippets of original documents or rare texts.

He also couldn't include the original drawing of the girl, probably done by Nigel himself and clearly placed next to the skull image as a reference to the Maraclea legend. Was this drawing meant to be Susan herself? Given that the moment this image is shown is almost certainly concurrent with the murder of Susan, it seems clear that a parallel is being drawn by the filmmaker. But unlike Susan in the movie, the hair is braided with bangs (Susan has no bangs and never appears with a braid), and the girl has an open collar showing a necklace with a cross pendant (also not in line with how Susan dresses in the film). We must also consider that this page is closer to the front of Nigel's book, implying that it has been there for a while. It's possible the drawing could have been pasted in later over whatever was on that page previously, or it could have entirely predated his interactions with Susan and Alex.

The end of the film highlights the fact that Alex believes in the Maraclea legend and obviously implies that Susan was his Maraclea. Nigel's 2 page Maraclea spread would have stood out in Alex's memory given the circumstances under which he first saw it and then the events which later transpired. While he couldn't have recreated the same drawing for his book, it is notable that he didn't attempt to create a similar spread with the skull/chalice image using another drawing or picture of a girl, including one of Susan herself.

Why didn't he?

The movie will never answer this question, but I'm firmly convinced it is because Nigel is his true Maraclea.

[Like Minds Masterpost]

[greenerteacups]

From what I've seen online, the major consensus amongst HP fans is that Cursed Child is NOT canon ( and many simply pretend it doesn't exist). I remember when it first came out and was being promoted, both the stage show and the published script, and everyone was really excited for new HP material... until we realised that it just... wasn't canon... at all. Yeah, the idea of Voldemort as presented in the HP novels having any sort of romantic relationship with Bellatrix and having a child is simply ridiculous and certainly just exists as a way for him to have a secret child for reasons of the wacky plot... it's very tween fanfic and also very Disney channel sequel (like the og villains all having kids we never heard about is totally a real Disney channel thing).

I remember it being very clear at the time that it came out that any "pointers" or "ideas" JKR provided to the actual writer of CC must've been the very barest of bones, the tiniest of shards perhaps, because it simply read like a sort of AU fanfiction written by the most casual of fans... which, as I understand, it really was. At the time when it came out, it was pretty clear that she had very little to do with actually writing it, though I suppose more was made later of her 'involvement' to legitimise it. I heard since that someone asked her if it should be considered canon, and she said yes? Not sure how this interaction actually went down as I don't particularly care to look into it (since nothing will change my mind that the AU of CC makes no sense within the context of HP canon and lore and it was probably some kind of marketing tactic in support of the stage play) but as she clearly didn't actually write CC herself and it contradicts many things from the books she did write, I'm pretty happy to continue ignoring its existence.

What do you think of Fantastic Beasts in comparison? Personally, I put Fantastic Beasts in a separate category where I can kind of accept aspects of it as canon expansions of the lore and worldbuilding... I can see JKR's style clearly and the inconsistencies with timelines and certain characters being in places and times they shouldn't be don't bother me as much as the straight up character assassination we see in CC. To put it another way, I think CC feels like it belongs to a totally different IP and was written by a different author (because it was) while FB definitely still exists in Rowling's wizarding world, it's just the timeline is kinda off.

this is interesting context. I think she kind of has to say yes to that question in context, because like... who's going to shill out £150 to see some random dude's AU fanfiction play (if it isn't even good)? of course, JKR's stamp isn't nothing, but even she can't weld extra content into the canon by declaring it so. i see TCC like church ephemera: i'm sure SOMEONE finds it interesting or relevant to what we're doing here, but that doesn't mean it's part of the Bible.

i feel the same way about fantastic beasts, but to a lesser extent. i actually enjoyed the first fantastic beasts movie, i thought it was playful and charming and (with the exception of the dumb polyjuice plot) the perfect way to revive harry potter as a storytelling vehicle. like, yeah, it fucked up by trying to go too big too soon, but if you can remove one (1) subplot or narrative thread and have a solid movie, then as a writer, you've still done okay.

Fantastic Beasts also annoys me because it does feel like harry potter, in terms of tone and mouthfeel. it's got the sauce. it just heinously drops the ball in later installations. in particular, it starts getting nervous about holding the audience's attention and throws stuff in that just wouldn't make it in a natural, organic script — most of the shit from the original series is contrived and ill-suited to the dramatic tenor set by Movie About Funny Man Collecting Magical Animals. (e.g. going back to hogwarts? leta lestrange's secret white father revengeplot triple-rugpull? human nagini?? secret undead dumbledore brother raised by american evangelicals???). i like the idea of it very much. i'm honestly drawn to it as a creative space, because unlike TCC, there is potential there. it's just badly abused.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

I know this is a super broad question, but; I'm in Chicago this weekend for MPCA/ACA and was wondering if you have any recommendations on what I could do in my freetime? Any smaller/niche museums or bookstores or whatever. Anything you think is interesting/nerdy. And food, of course! Food recommendations are always good :)

Oh man, I wish I had less touristy answers to give you, but I live just enough outside of the city that I mostly do touristy kinds of things when I go down there, and I've only been once since the 2020, so a lot of my answers aren't open anymore/didn't survive the pandemic.

BUT: I do have one that's not touristy! If you're into crafting or found objects at all, there's a secondhand crafts supply store called The WasteShed on Kimball Ave. that's very cool. My favorite thing there are the collections of donated old family photos and slides that people just sort of... give away, when someone in their family dies and they don't want to keep the personal effects(?????). I found an amazing pair of gorgeous family portraits from 1928 in Tokyo last time I was there. The family's names, ages, and the date are all written on the back in both Japanese and English. I'm glad those portraits didn't go into the landfill. But I'm a Small History person who loves things like ephemera. They also have tons of stuff for every type of art or craft imaginable!

Greektown also used to be super cool, but I don't know whether it still is. AFAIK the big tentpoles all didn't survive the pandemic, so don't quote me on that one.

I'm also always going to hype the fairy castle at the Museum of Science & Industry. It was created by and for Colleen Moore, the flapper and silent film star, and she used to tour the country with it to show at children's hospitals. It's fucking amazing. There's a 1" actual Guttenberg bible in there. There's a polar bear rug made of mink and mouse teeth. There's mother-of-pearl chairs made from her earrings from the set of a movie. There used to be running water on the Weeping Willow, but they had to turn off the water in the '90s because it was eating through the materials after 70 years. It's truly my favorite dollhouse, and I've seen the Nutshell Studies.

...I also love American Girl Place but that's literally just a me thing. I also sort of hate-love it, because they have Lost Their Way Severely.

I also am a big fan of the Field Museum -- I know, I know, museums evil, but it does genuinely seem like they're trying to course-correct and make amends -- and the Shedd Aquarium (same). You can touch a manta ray. You can see otters. You can smell penguins. I mean, you can also see them, but boy can you smell them. And Sue (the t-rex at the Field) is an unofficial Chicago mascot.

This is a good list of cool bookstores in the city, which I have to say I haven't explored as much as I should. I've been to a ton of cool bookstores in the Twin Cities, New York, and Staten Island, and some in the SF area and Seattle, but I haven't really explored the ones in Chicago too much because there used to be THE BEST children's/YA bookstore in my suburb and it was where I spent my entire life. This list looks like it has good options for many neighborhoods in the city, though, so wherever you're staying there should be something near-ish to you.

Which is kind of the other reason I haven't explored Chicago as much as other cities in which I've lived, despite living here the longest: public transit here FUCKING SUCKS and I hate city driving more than anything in the world. Maybe you'll have a better experience with the L than I ever do, though, so don't let me being terrible at the L put you off trying it out. I just am not good at it. I can do the subway! I can do trams and the Skyway! I can do street maps okay! I cannot do the L. Somehow every single time I try, I miss a stop and have to circle all the way around again.

Ooh, one other fun thing I did in like 2019 in the city was go ax-throwing, so if you want to try that, they have that right near the symphony building. That's surprisingly fun and not scary.

Food-wise, Chicago is full of good food. Pretty much everything I've ever eaten in the city was great, from the popcorn at Union Station (YOU MUST GET THE CHEDDAR AND CARAMEL MIX AT UNION STATION. IT IS THE BEST POPCORN.) to the $600+ per plate price fixe at Alinea (the only good thing I ever got from an ex). I feel like Sam @copperbadge has a more "a la minute" (hyuk hyuk) set of opinions about Chicago dining than I do -- like I said, a lot of the places that I really liked didn't survive the pandemic or they're outside of the city itself.

Oh! And it is sort of touristy but also very nerdy: the International Museum of Surgical Science. There's an exhibit right now about Frankenstein!

Honestly, looking at the MPCA/ACA website, I'm just jealous you get to be doing/seeing that all weekend. I feel like that's the nerdiest and most fun-seeming ticket in town. What are you there to present or see specifically?? I'm so intrigued!

[adultswim2021]

Metalocalypse #27: “Dethwedding” | April 1, 2008 - 1:15AM | S02E07

Hey it’s been a little while since we got to watch Metalocalypse. In this one, Pickles brother Seth invites Dethklok to his wedding, which already advertises the fact that the wedding “features” Dethklok. His video invitation is hilarious. Seth is dressed in his Sunday best set against serene backdrops while he brags about his sobriety. Pickles is mortified to the point of despondency. The other band members just think it’s very, very funny. 

The tribunal explains what American weddings are during one of their meetings. These scenes can be a pointless reminder that there is such a thing as the tribunal, and it also lends a false sense of gravity to the plot of each episode. It also serves what might be an accidental function of supplying future-proof context; let’s say there comes a day when the once-standard American wedding becomes an obsolete curiosity.

Or, let’s say this episode is being shown to a species of aliens who have no idea what a wedding is. You know the type of aliens I’m talking about: the kind that mock our god, oppressively holding up the Holy Bible and remarking “HUMAN PROPAGANDA”.* Just by satirically describing what a wedding is brings all those weirdos up to speed, even though it seems gratuitous. The tribunal actually declare that they will not intervene. Why would they? Dethklok’s just going to a wedding, for fuck’s sake. 

*I am actually making a very specific reference to a circa-early-2000s episode of The Outer Limits, where a robot does this. I don’t know the title of the episode, but Heather Graham is in it. 

Things are tense between Pickles and his brother. Seth immediately starts drinking again. He has scumbag friends who suck. Seth constantly asks for money. Dethklok perform a song with a little music video accompaniment (for us watching on television at least) featuring a married couple decaying and then eventually mutating into one another, getting all Cronenbergy. Dethklock get Seth a blender, which is just an item on his wedding gift registry. When Seth chews out Pickles for cheaping out, Pickles beats his brother up. Later, he feels bad, so he installs Seth as the head of Dethklok Australia, whose leader was recently assassinated by the Revengencers. Over the closing credits we see Seth thriving in his new position at the absolute expense of Sydney, Australia, which is practically in ruins while he surveys his land, doing a big smile like a tyrant would. 

This one is very good. Metalocalypse’s misanthropic sense of humor really shines. The show will often show spectacular examples of gore and mayhem, but nothing is treated with grim incapability like family is...treated. With. Fuck. You know what the whole not ending your sentence with a preposition thing is lame and bad. It’s not that I’m bad at writing. I’m taking a stand.

The show has been taken down from HBOMax since the last time I watched it. It’s currently streaming on Adult Swim. At a glance it seems like it’s streaming in its entirety. It may or may not require a cable log-in. Actually, I’ll check in a private browser. Hang on. Okay. I did it. It played! It’s also on DVD, which is nice, but my copy’s digipak has shattered disc hubs so the discs are not fully secure in the box. Not good. Is there a way to fix this? Wait. Let me google it myself. Okay. Huh. I found something called “adhesive-backed spider DVD/CD disc hubs” that literally might be the exact thing I’m looking for. Wow. Well, you learn something extremely important like that every day, don’t you?

EPHEMERA CORNER

Robert Zunes In (2007)*

Remember when I was asking about the Robert Osbourne host intros? I’m guessing these are what that wiki was talking about! Either whoever wrote that got confused (these were taken from a ZUNE that Adult Swim gave away I guess with select episodes of select shows loaded onto them), or they repurposed some of those intros for the April Fools stunt. Neat! Thank you Kon for finding this and showing me them. Thank you.

*JOKE STOLEN FROM LONDON ARBUCKLE BECAUSE I DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO ASK IF I COULD USE IT

[vwv7]

***New*** IN MY PRINT SHOP: Pink Bible Scripture Journal Index Cards. I designed these to be pretty but simple with the typerwriter font. They can be used in your junk journal or they can be used to memorize scriptures. They are good for grandmas because the print is big. CHECK THEM OUT. Don't forget, after purchase it is a downloadable file that you print. The great thing about this is you print and they are ready for your use. Coming soon a more masculine set of scripture cards for the guys.

[blairwarbler]

Glee TV (225+) Rare On-Set Cast Documents:Blaine,Marley,Kurt,Quinn, Santana,etc (x)

Glee TV Genuine original, totally unique cast and crew production documents (225+, some multi-page, total sheet count presumed 250+). Includes numerous detailed daily call sheets and individual episode cast lists from multiple episodes and seasons, for Blaine, Marley, Quinn, Santana, Kurt, Sue, Brittany, Rachel, Will, Finn, Mercedes, Tina, Sam, etc, etc, virtually all principal cast members plus many special guests as well. Obtained directly from the on set, production wardrobe crew files, which were provided to the auction house Profiles in History in order to facilitate the sale of all 6 seasons of Glee original costumes. Also included are master change sheets from numerous episodes (not a copy, the actual master) from the wardrobe bibles documenting the costume in detail. The entire body of approx. 250 pages of documents and ephemera will be shipped in an original wardrobe department episode continuity binder, that of the second regular season episode of the very first season.

[wutbju]

The July 1988 Fundamentalist Journal (Falwell’s publication) used the old “make a living” v. “how to live” mantra.

No, they didn’t get it from Bob Sr. Everybody got it from Booker T. Washington.

[okayplanetary]

they don't call them "transformative works" for nothing.

I particularly love this idea that what constitutes "art" is not just the 'original' work and not the fan work or even both of them together, but also the way we experience it individually and the ways we communicate it back to each other.

Literary scholars generally and book historians in particular have long considered marginalia and ephemera crucial for understanding old texts, because they show how an audience would have received, interpreted, and interacted with a work (this applies to everything from gemstone-laden bibles to erotic paperbacks).

Postmodernists would tell you that art is shaped by the way it's experienced (la mort de l'auteur and all that), but I think Chuck is taking this one step further in saying that each work of art is a collective human endeavour—part of a web of inspiration—I find myself agreeing.

Drawing on a recent example (I promise to stop talking about this soon) (jk I will never stop)… essentially everything related to Goncharov (1973) was both fanwork and also undeniably the original work itself. Not just the drawings and stories, but the whole participatory experience of it, everyone who logged on and thought "?? like the shoes?" was part of an enormous act of creativity that was (and is), itself, art.

People love to assure each other that Goncharov (1973) is not real (the delusions of tumblr's hivemind can't hurt you, they write in their newspapers) but I honestly disagree. It is real. Matteo JWHJ 0715 may not have written a script, but every single person who shared and talked about and felt inspired by Goncharov (1973) turned it into real art.

Art, then, is a thing that lives and grows in the collective human consciousness and connects us across space and time. It is transformed by each person who experiences it and expresses it—if you and I see the same art, we have a connection. And even just by talking about it, together we're changing a tiny bit of what that art is permanently, by tweaking our shared experience of it.

Here's an extreme example of the force of fanon: in HP spaces, how many times have we all heard about "the Golden Trio" or "the Marauders" when the original text referred to "the Marauder's Map" and never named either group? The letters on the pages won't change, but even the original author has adopted the fan names.

Any work that "bans" or tries to discourage fan works is a cold, stunted, dead thing. Worse, it's a leech on the web of inspiration that it (and all art) benefitted from for its creation.

to clarify about fan fiction

to clarify something chuck said in post about being PRO FAN FICTION, some buds have asked if i misspoke when i said ‘fan fiction is part of the original art’. i did not misspeak. i really truly believe this.

if i write a story and you read it an this moves you to paint a picture of snabe and harriet porber, that WHOLE EXPERIENCE FROM ME TO YOU is its own mixed media piece. the medium is motion (getting up and getting the paints) visual (painting) literary (reading the book in first place and then writing your own commentary when you post about it later). it is drama and performance. it is meditation. it is dance in its own way.

i very much mean this: art does not begin and end on the canvas or the page. it is what you had for breakfast the morning you wrote those words, or the story that stuck in your head after watching a show the night before. art is the buckaroo who was moved to pen a whole five page romance story about your characters having a kind picnic in the part.

we are here to create as we push back against the blank empty void, and we prove love is real every time we fill this blank space with little pieces of us. i will not stand in the way of that, and it is an honor to fill this space with this web of inspiration from one bud to the next. ALL OF THIS TIMELINE is a piece and we are one big writers room. there is no shame in this and it is a group project i am proud to be a part of.

[beautytreats]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 75x Scriptures Prayer Journal Starter Kit Faith Scrapbooking Stickers Notebook.

[vormov]

Skipping Like A Stone (Idle Minds)

200—part 1 they must have left thoughts for me in the mysteryium it's funny how things work out after you've gone so far (ive always been alone) with all these second minds showing me; tangential

we always whispered of their existence, like mere quarters fallen back to the below the deck we take these steps to become beacons. (***) i dunno who's listening but this is important, the past is done being passive. ( let it go… ) you'll know when you feel it. (lengthy instrumental break) *** im sorry i never circled back for you, a coward i was, leak it to the medium failure disguised as an amalgamation of self, we should have know better. i always felt the winds against the mountains it rolls right beside us everyday and gets to be free a renegade blowing through all the checkpoints.

indescribably i'll drift forever sailing upon these ethereal tones with no directions, but i know that i feel something now like it blisters my ghost, so hot let me die engulfed like that. at least to see the vision again like i saw before, in the pure moments of inspiration and now i am left to derive

like the words i said were forever; how can a mind bind together thinking of such holes in the cosmos, like this cosmic ephemera lets us go wild a tone stretched ad infinitum mirrored to the grandest of listenings we've ever done, we'll never see such reply. so what speak the words anyway. (***) the tension is sent out like a wire spiraling from a null point tethered in either direction by a web basically rendered your movement moot, and slowly we had to realize our faults, like a quicksand devilish speakers came to lament us as we sank, we could pay them no mind. and as we could sink further than we knew we could, our bodies flooded by it so much couldn't find a reason to survive, then i should have died but for some reason i am alive. *** i only heard them speak of the ancient songs i never heard them; but one day i might would you realize such a song before your ancestors take flight with it as they noted how appropriate it was that you were their heir? feel these winds aglow with haste they dance intensely upon us the living enticing us to speak to dream. they left out the good parts, and we drift aloft like a broken plane sinking into the Atlantic heavied by these accrued weights, like a stone pillar immovable in the sunlight stoic and serene, a garden bled with the efforts of those who were forgiven a time or two. (LET THEM SPEAK coward won't even show his face 'Then we danced the dance 'til the menace got out'*1)

we heard a voice in the distance calling out to us it whispered some great truth that we weren't meant to know, arbiter of the future seek this sent placard, won't you heave it into the sea? in a great fervor the winds returned from the mountains and poured a great and refreshing rain into the deserted valley, to invoke the bible story. (***) i dunno who's listening but this is important, the past is done being passive. ( let it go… ) you'll know when you feel it.

this is when you know to get out like a siren were blaring its glare upon you merely moving the specs we are can't quite see that far… *** (06/01/24—Title is in reference to the song Idle Minds by Skyharbor as well as a reference to the Chemical Brother's song Skipping Like A Stone (feat. Beck). The quoted phrase with the *1 is lyrics from the REM song Harborcoat that I've teased several times now. This is my 200th original post as well as my 10th anniversary of writing Stream of Consciousness poetry. I'm so excited to see where the words take me next. Cheers and here's to another 10 years of indescribable nonsense. 10+ years ago a good friend told me to keep writing, so i did. Yall have Asa to thank for all of this. Please post a thank you in the comments if you'd like to see this continue. I'm going to do it regardless of whether you encourage me or not.)