I lied: I'm never done with you Never finished, Never lost, Never not yours Did I lie, Or tell the truth, A truth beyond my comprehension? Because We've changed I'm never not yours, Yet, I belong to myself alone You're never not mine, Yet, you do as you wish, too The complexity of truth is maddening: Worlds beyond "true" and beyond "lies" Paired mirrors, we are, Face-to-face: Ever-ongoing, Ever-lost, Ever-abandoned Ever grey And Ever blue
I have cancer. Assistance needed, and love gratefully accepted.
It’s really hit me:
I HAVE CANCER.
I woke to a dream that my cancer had spread to all parts of my body, and the doctors were conversing about what to do – meanwhile, I had been given, somehow, responsibility for tending to Amanda Palmer’s chest of pre-marriage items and I didn’t know what to do about them, either.
I interpret it all as:
I have cancer and I’m scared AF and I have so many important, artistic things to do –
And I have CANCER.
Yes, it’s thyroid cancer –
But, in case you haven’t done the research (and why would anyone unless you or someone you loved had it?), DOCTORS call it “the good cancer” because it’s easy for them to cut a bunch of things out and give you a radioactive (YES, like NUCLEAR!!) iodine that kills all of the thyroid cells and then they give more medicines…
But what about those of us (and there seem to be LOTS) who are super-sensitive to chemicals or who just don’t respond as they want us to respond to their inadequate, relatively-new thyroid replacement medications?
My life will be stolen from me, killed by medications.
I’m looking for an alternative. I need help – be it money for alternatives or information or money so I can look for information and alternatives.
In case you didn’t get it: I have cancer. And i have cancer after having been abused by my husband and my my son for twenty years.
I thought I was free – and instead, I have cancer.
I want to write books and help people with nonprofits. I want to love and travel and sail and share beautiful things with everyone —
But, instead?
I have cancer.
I’ll be 46 two days before Halloween 2020
And I have cancer.
If you can spare anything, please, please, please help. Share, like, share again, please.
Thank you for sharing this, liking it, for reaching out and loving me.
Thank you for your little donations or your big ones.
Thank you for your information
And thank you for reading.
I love you, truly – because most of what I am is love.
Please make donations to:
Unsplintered
Eventually, you’ll know that I wrote this for you – though I’m publishing it because I’m not the only one in the world who needs, who deserves, who craves to be inspired by, reminded of, enlightened by an example such as you.
I just asked you the hardest questions ever about our budding relationship. I stated the hardest truths – unique to us, but not unique; and they may very well be the hardest truths we ever face.
It’s the second time today we’ve struggled through strong, heavy, deep emotions. Trudging through tidal waves in old rivers that promise to pull us under if we lose hold of each other, if we fail to keep aware, I led us this morning and again this evening.
It would be easier, of course, to slip into something comfortable and let the tide carry us away, swept on the surface of our emotions without ever diving beneath the rippling waves.
I’m not like that, though.
I don’t trust the way others live their romances, ignoring life and living, believing only what’s above the surface, pretending nothing exists beneath; then lying about where they’ve been when they delve into depths with other friends or lovers – or by themselves.
I’ve tried to lead men in this way before.
Countless times (very literally), I’ve been accused harshly for speaking the truth. Countless times, I’ve been hammered down for fearing, for feeling, for expressing my anxieties, my heartfelt wishes, my anguish-strained memories.
I was alone when you found me, this time, for a reason:
It never worked, before. I’ve countlessly been abandoned. I’ve endlessly been blamed, misunderstood, rejected.
It’s a lot, I know. Where once I was silent, afraid to speak a word about the rippling of my heart, reigned in the tidal waves of fears and tears and love and dreams because I was used to being beaten, I speak it all, given liberty to do so. I ask, still, rather than presuming. It speaks highly of… everything.
Not that any of that matters, now.
What matters is that you looked at your life, at our love, at the difficulties that lay ahead of us and, rather than hiding anymore, rather than accepting what is untenable, rather than asking that I accept something equally or more untenable, you took the lead.
You don’t know how proud I am of you for this, for what you did for me. For us. For you.
And you let me give this to you.
This, also, speaks highly of everything.
I know it’s not easy to face your truths. I know it’s not easy to change one’s life, to walk out into the unknown.
But you did it. You took that first step.
I’m so proud of you. As hard as it is, as deep as this hurts, I’m so proud of you for accepting responsibility for your life. For not evading anymore. For accepting yourself.
You’re not splintered anymore.
They never taught us how to love
So we use our pain
To comfort us
And we never practice what we preach
Instead, we find
Someone else to teach
We try not to see with our eyes
We fill our plates
With dozens of lies
We try so hard to keep it in
We turn away
From what lies within
We are splintered
And we are rotten
Deep within the walls that we've forgotten
All the answers
To all our problems
Lie within the one who tries to dodge them
Ooooh, ooooh
Ooooh, ooooh
We're so afraid to be alone
So we hoard our pain
And call it home
They never taught us how to look inside
Only how to run and how to dry our eyes
We dig ourselves into a ditch
How many of us die
And pretend to live?
We stop the life from leakin' in
When we turn away
From what lies within
We are splintered
And we are rotten
Deep within the walls that we've forgotten
All the answers
To all our problems
Lie within the one who tries to dodge them
We are splintered
And we are rotten
Deep under the floorboards we've forgotten
But all the answers
To all our problems
Lie within the one who tries to dodge them
Ooooh, ooooh
Ooooh, ooooh
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Aisha Badru
The Beast in Me
Come to me, you wild beast, You whirling storm of beauty Battered, scarred, bruised and teased You grew beyond majesty Wide, cold skies weep for you In pain, relief and sorrow Rage rumbles, deep and true No gods will reign tomorrow Nor hold you trapped in caves Where man’s faithless, dank pride grips Where the ceaseless lie staves Off a small apocalypse Come, fly free, fly stronger You’ve broken stone and cruel fate Breed your courage longer Your kind, for you, yet await Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 6 - 2pm EST Prompt #6: Picture Prompt
No Pressure
Relaxation (i remind myself) is the key to Beauty timed tests and pressures might create infinite diamonds (but only over time) fissures cracks flaws (We must realize) are the inevitable result of TOO MUCH TOO FAST TOO SOON There are bromides for everything Fences sat upon in great uncertainty As winds or breezes, ice or snow rain or sunshine fall As the sense of infinite plausibility wends round-and-round A fence to guard A carousel A barrier for safety or for holding back wishes? Draw strength from your uncertainty embrace the miasmic Nonsense that wakes you stalls you shields you and realize that in the exchange - in the embrace - in the reverse lifestyle (from all you’ve been urged) YOU DEVOTE YOUR LIFE TO BEAUTY Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 5 - 1pm EST Prompt #5: Use at least 8 (or all) of the following words in your poem: fence, uncertainty, devote, ice, draw, reverse, nonsense, exchange, infinite, relaxation, wind, bathtub, lifestyle, guitar, realize
Blue-and-Red
Blue sand underfoot
Chilled children’s drinks drain away
Boiling crabs blush bright red
Quarter Crazy Marathon
Quarter 3 - 2020
Prompt 4 - 12pm EST
Prompt #4: Write a poem about blue sand and red crabs
**This prompt came from Writerswrite.com
Silver Linings
There were so many moments shared with you Long walks through Montreal, Toronto, too Night drives on cobbled streets in Buffalo And never, then, did others know of you I shirk to show the bruises, faded, old And gone from view; so much I never told ‘A silver lining,’ ‘True Love Conquers’ - so I lived, trusted your eyes of em’rald-gold I trusted in your reason and your mind, Expected love - but never love maligned The whirlwind I became to remain free Upheld, punished - still, through all, I was blind A silver lining brightened every day But not from you and that tumult’ous play The brightness, love existed but in me Your bitter words spawned with me dark affray We should have parted, been no more than friends If but we wished to find harmon’ous ends Yet, all I have now is a memory Devoid of hopes to, one day, make amends With no way back, with truth, I move ahead Peek back proves I, that silver lining led And I, my own responsibility Free from the man I wish I’d never wed Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 3 - 11am EST Music Prompt - Response to My Silver Lining by First Aid Kit Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos
A Sonnet in Pink
’Tis true, I never thought to think, to dream, To find the words while crafting this, midstream; And yet, t’was but one color that did seem To reach, inspire, set my mind agleam: Soft, cotton-candy clouds in summer skies; The bright, exotic skin that dragons prize; The flesh that lovers yearn to tantalize; A sweet explosion calls to butterflies - All wild, soft or misty gleam is theirs. How can one dare to own, when the world shares, When all of femininity are heirs, When cyan, tangerine burst fiercer flares? And still, I find I cannot double-think The myriad, effluent hue of pink.
Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - August 15, 2020 Prompt 2 - 10am EST Write a Sonnet Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos
numbers divided
five days ago i wrote to you wishing I’d hear from you three weeks ago you wrote to me but, one word will never do nine years ago we scened but once i fell so hard for you eight years age-difference seemed zero there was none one could do in all that time and all these years i never wished from you to part and i will say this honestly: i couldn’t muster a fresh start t'was hardly fair to you or me - what rules a lover’s heart? when memories, day-terrors shook, took hold, our mind and lives we thwart and dismay now is lasting grief so little left, have we to show from years of love of dreams dreamt well shoved into corners, urged to grow this madness left of why we split of i insisting that you’d go was spawned of love for, split we were now, negative is all i know
Quarter Crazy Marathon
Quarter 3 – Saturday, August 15, 2020
Prompt 1 – 9am EST
Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos
Muse
We write; and it is not with a blind eye that we see ourselves, nor with deaf ears that we hear the cries of our hearts and souls – and those of others whom we love: mother, father, sister, brother, cousins, aunts and uncles, friends and strangers. We write; and we catch a glimpse into the emotions we already know, the pains and sorrows, the joys and fathomless depths of those around us whose lives swirl like dervishes that only barely brush our cheeks, that only briefly caress and embrace us. We write; and a moment lasts forever, every microsecond of emotion held within our bellies to nourish our lives forever, to nourish others who might read – or to upset the stomachs of the guilty who might recognize, in this, their wrongdoing.
We write; and the world exists.
For, there may be billions, trillions of truths – one for every moment that exists with prismatic possibilities; but all are lost to the depths of darkness unless we capture, for a moment, this.
And so, I write, am spurred to write; and understand, in this fuzzy state of emotion brought on by salty beer and sadness at the loss of one so great as The Great Gatsby’s Fitzgerald, why it is that he drank and felt this to be the only state in which greatness might be achieved: For, it is hard, so often, to swallow the same truths that linger in our minds and memories as we recount for the world what it is we see. They are painful truths, even the most beautiful.
For, if we were living, now, we would not write; and if we did not write, we would, somehow, cease to be.
Might Makes Wrong
Sociological systems are intriguing to explore, especially if one can fully immerse oneself in them. The danger, of course, is the pain and heartache one can experience, the trauma due to social behavior – which, if one has to actually physically immerse oneself, can result in physical trauma and possibly death.
Nonetheless, social experimentation can still be effective in closed groups within relatively-safe environments – such as the various MU*s available on the internet. Text-based, as they are, means that communication and interaction is slowed – which, for me, meant there was time to process more. And, if one is looking into a glass box with a bunch of ants – even if one has decided to join that little ant-farm – a slower pace means the mind can pick up more information.
I didn’t truly intend to make a social experiment out of this latest game that I recently left. It may have hurt less, been easier to leave if I had – but I likely wouldn’t have learned so much, as the focus of one’s mind, when one has firm agendas, tends to eliminate what information one has deemed unnecessary. However, when one is fighting for one’s life – real or imaginary, the mind picks up on so much more.
This one, like so many, had a monarchical political setting. Hierarchical in nature, there were high lords, princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, marches, counties, baronies and peasants – as well as other countries with their own levels of hierarchy.
The result was, looking back on it, inevitable: A strong struggle for power between the levels of hierarchy led to infighting, lies, manipulation, back-stabbing, sexual exploits and tensions created to weaken the political or social standing – and influence – of others. Many players, even OOC (out-of-character), devolved into bullies as their need to keep their characters high in the social standing of the game (and with staff members) became more important even than the loosely-maintained rules NOT to bully other players outside of the game environment. Promises and delivery of TS / ERP (Tiny Sex / Erotic Role Play) earned favors from staff members and other players, alike; and withdrawing such attention and affection could be extremely socially-damaging, no matter what the reasons – again, both IC (in-character) and OOC.
To be fair to staff: Having created a sandbox that – by its very nature – condones, supports and breeds social tensions and hostilities, it is extremely difficult to curb player tendencies to carry their hostilities to other players when not actively playing. Cliques and bands of players both consciously and, perhaps, accidentally would gang up on others both IC and OOC as the lines between reality and play blurred. Some are careful to actively express that IC was IC during hostile RP. Others most certainly derived enjoyment from destroying or hurting other characters – and players – in their search to be the top, best, most-feared, talented and/or perceived to be beloved.
Eventually, I had enough of being the kicking-dog of a certain portion of the group. I had, with my character, moved faster and farther with her “secret” than most; and players were complaining to staff. There was no malicious intent on my part; there was no cheating. I simply shared information – and was shared with, in kind. I simply trusted and was trusted, in kind.
This, of course, was contrary to the hostile nature of the game. I was breaking an unspoken rule (or rather, an accepted and oft-spoken OOC habit): I shared EVERYTHING. I was inclusive of everyone. I meant no harm to anyone; and my character was – while anxious because of her secret – never angry. It was more than an OOC choice; as a writer – and one who intensely values psychological consistency and logic even in illogical emotional behaviors, the fear my character had for those she loved – including the society she lived in – was greater than her need to hide herself. So, she shared. She invested in others and in protecting them through giving truth about what ill might come to her or because of her recently-remembered past associations.
I broke the code, you see; and this was threatening to those who had played for years longer than I. This became not only an issue for players jealous over this attention and hasty rise in one of the coveted spheres of influence (knowledge and secrets); but, because no one – not staff nor players nor characters – could actually stop this continued increase in my character’s depth of knowledge and influence because of it, my character became a threat to other PCs (player-characters). She simply became known to be a vital link, and the PC who had been known, previously, to be that vital link felt her hold on it slipping.
Not that this was true, necessarily; but people act in very strange ways when they feel their influence is being lost; when they feel they’re not the most important person.
I write stories. Bear this in mind; and I write stories of logical psychological and emotional responses. Yes, there were other responses possible – but I did not consider them, at the time; and there was no going back, once I had set upon a path. Some things cannot be mended without the help and consent of others.
The need of the PC – and perhaps the player – to be the top, single most needed and beloved heroine led her to corner and threaten my character in the presence of someone who would back her up, who would lie for her and belittle my character. One may wish to belittle this occurrence or say it’s “just a game” – but, whether it was a sandbox social environment or a real-life need to be the most important, it is a social environment with very real humans playing it from their very-real psychological perspectives. These aren’t psychologists toying with ideals or ideas; they’re common people who choose the motives of their characters. As such, the responses are very real, in many cases.
Someone told me, after I left the game, that leaving only gave strength to the other side; that, by leaving a situation I no longer wished to participate in, I had “lost the argument,” by default. In effect, what they were saying is: Might makes right.
Of course, we know this isn’t true.
What is true, though, is the overarching understanding that American forefathers, Aristotle and other philosophers have come to understand about the nature of political and social systems over thousands of years:
What is condoned and cultivated by a social and political structure – of any kind – breeds the mentality, the psychology and the behaviors of the people within it; and goodness is defined by effectiveness – so, if one wishes to create a harmonious whole, goodness is only yielded when that harmony is upheld, valued and defended.
Might doesn’t make right – unless the right are mighty. Social acceptance of a principle doesn’t make something right. It only makes it socially-accepted. And, in that world in which I played? There was no wish for balance or goodness. Even the staff, in the end, defended the hostilities – which says a lot for what is intended, the social structure being upheld and condoned.
There is a lot that can be understood about the effectiveness of a society to uphold, condone and cultivate peace, liberty, justice – simply by by looking at smaller fragments of that society. If the society as a whole is healthy, the fragments will be, by necessity and of a whole, healthy. If it is unhealthy – as we see in these recent riots throughout the United States, the evidence of that lack of health will be glaring – no matter how much it is accepted, dismissed or condoned.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834-1902)
Rush
Yes, It came and went so quickly: A storm that passed between, Swept us up in a dream -- And, in a climactic scream, Emptied Us Both. Beautiful perfection Existed for a moment, Faltered into an abyss. What a pity. There's a mirror somewhere around, When you want to look into it.
Rush
Yes,
It came and went so quickly:
A storm that passed between,
Swept us up in a dream —
And, in a climactic scream,
Emptied
Us
Both.
Beautiful perfection existed for a moment,
Faltered into an abyss.
What a pity.
There’s a mirror somewhere around,
When you want to look into it.
Tumultuous Vibrance
Nothing grand was ever so achieved by waiting patiently, nor ever found its fulness in life completed alone.
Tumultuous vibrance is not the easiest way to live, but unruffled waters will never carry one to any destination. This is what I’ve learned of sailing, of life, of love.
The flood of my emotions has caught up with me, bringing one upon another man to me: men I have loved before, for whom my heart will never cease to beat, of whom my memories never fade; and this, as yet another silent shism slices through me, brought again by my own actions, by the need to show in actions what lies silently beneath.
Because words can only reach so far, n’est pas? Words sate only so much need. And, in truth, the pursuit of happiness is a noble endeavor reachable only by daily effort, assessment and reassessment, by the integrity of words and deeds… not by waiting for something to someday slip upon your shores.
Nothing grand was ever achieved by waiting patiently, nor ever found its fulness in life completed alone.
An Open Letter to a Nigerian CatFisher
I’ve been thinking of you, this morning.
Since the day I found out you weren’t real, when I looked into the real doctor, I’ve been thinking of how to write to you – to the real you.
Underneath it all, there’s a real you. I’m sure I touched upon it – with my poetry, with my writing.
So, I’m writing to the real you, this time — although, truth be told, I was writing to the real you, all the time.
Though you weren’t you.
Except in your responses to me; in your responses to my poetry.
“Charmed by your writing,” you wrote to me. That, I believe.
So, here I am, writing to you — to the human in you.
I told you, that first day, that I was skeptical of you. My senses were accurate; you were deceiving me. I don’t know why.
I’m told, and there are ways to learn, to surmise what your purpose was. I’m just a humble writer; just a humble poetess. I’ve not money to give you; only time. Only my time, and my writing.
So, I’m writing to you — for myself, this time.
Let me be open with you, for I am open (and that, incidentally, is why you’ve not hurt me):
I love what is real… and it was the real in you that kept me intrigued, that suspended my time with you, that suspended my disbelief.
It will never make sense to me that people deceive — whatever the reason, be it for money, for love, for attention. I am too real, too honest, too guileless to want in my life anything but what is real…
Even if a sweet romance with some intriguing man is beautiful to me.
For better or for worse, reality is what draws me; and honesty is what gives me strength. For better or for worse, truth, not lies, captivate my mind; beg me to enter any relationship, for any reason, and hold me, bind me to anything.
Birdsong; wafting breezes; thundering planes roaring through the sky. Chills from cool mornings and the heat of the sun in warm afternoons beckon me to stay, to indulge, to brave all else that may call to me. Truthful conversations, real reactions: these things draw me from whatever else I may feel — and not because I wish for something to happen, but because something is happening. Something real is happening.
And I am not afraid of shifts in weather, of shifts in personality; but only, ever, does deceit eat away at such things, for deception is the death of anything.
So, I ask you this: Why deceive? Why continue a deceit, a ruse when it was clear that you had nothing to take from me, when I could give you nothing more than time, when so much of my writing was yours, already, to read?
It is curious to me, for it was you who was caught in a trap of reality… and I have certainly been accused — before, by others to whom I gave my reality — of spinning a web in which they became caught.
You thought yourself the spider, and I the fly; but truth shows a mirrored reality: that truth, not lies, not deceit binds people. And it is truth, reality, openness that keeps us, nourishes us, gives us life — and love.
I get tired of the secrets; they’re only good when they’re revealed, in any case.
I’m intriguing only because I’m real, open, honest, vulnerable; and my vulnerability keeps me safe because I choose to be vulnerable — but not unwisely so, not naively so.
Conscious vulnerability is the safest place in all the world… because in this act, alone, I can see best all that there is to see; because I can see others’ shields sparkling, and I can see where vulnerability remains. I can see it, and I choose to prod those spots gently… not to cause pain, as others might; but to give life, to encourage increased vulnerability — with me, if with no one else.
So, take from me this:
You have a choice to be real, to be vulnerable, as I have seen you to be. You have a choice to read and respond, or not to respond and remain in your dark secrets.
But I live in the freedom of life, and I can feel the breath of breezes touching me; while you and all of those who shield themselves — in others’ skins, as you tried with me, or behind the walls of their other fictions — feel only what slips beneath the seams of your various armors.
I am real. And that is honestly the most valuable thing I have… but you cannot have all of my reality, nor anyone’s (not even your own), if you do not remove your own armor first and step into your own reality.
I hope, for your own sake, that you abandon this fruitless cause that isolates you so deeply.
Daydreams
And the world is blue without your arms And grey, without your mind; It’s red, without your kisses, fine, Refined by stalwart art My mind creates a land of charms With vibrant greens and gold Despite the chill of winter’s cold, Brown swallows dash and dart Amidst white clouds and shining things, A rainbow hangs above; And sing a bird’s song, bright, of love, Into this brand-new start Come hither, where the church bell rings With every passing hour And bring to me a springtime flower, And in my life, take part And the world is blue without your arms And grey, without your mind; It’s red, without your kisses, fine, Refined by stalwart art My mind creates a land of charms With vibrant greens and gold Despite the chill of winter’s cold, Brown swallows dash and dart Amidst white clouds and shining things, A rainbow hangs above; And sing a bird’s song, bright, of love, Into this brand-new start Come hither, where the church bell rings With every passing hour And bring to me a springtime flower, And in my life, take part
Into My World, A Shadow Falls
Into my world, anew, a darkness drew — Fell, near burning fires, a shadow’s gaze Upon my weary count'nance; and I knew: This shadow's grip would claim me, all my days And stole into my mind and heart, it's true; Gave up to me the secrets of its ways; And promised shining things: the morning's dew Could never shine so bright, nor yield such praise And still, my mind and heart were warmed anew, A wav'ring shadow wandered in its plays Until a darker threat ran its soul through: Pure jealousy chilled the shadow to such craze And madness, took the shadow's mind and blew A word of banishment to me, did itself faze When love eternal, promised I to you; Retreated beyond life, into its haze — But, what, pray tell, are gentle souls to do When anger only turns a soul to blaze, For shadows grow in strength and number too... Obscure, oblique... This life is but a maze... And I am lost, and all the shadows, too Should I find on my skin thine sharpened blades And I would find my skin turn tanned to blue 'Fore I would e'er journey to dark malaise ...Though shadow distantly, coldly withdrew, Though shining heart is mine, my soul ablaze, I find neither shadow nor I can yet undo What binding tied our souls, those fateful days
Mine Is the Life and the Love
You all know it. You all fear it. You all want it. You all can have it In a moment In a madness In a sadness Stilled by memories Stilled by thoughts Stilled by dreams Yours is the life and the love of things Lost to all but love of dreams Realizing dreams of dreams of things Open up your hands and see Open up your hearts and dreams Open up to everything Fingers chilled on autumn nights Deer and stars stand, silent, by Life, intensity lives in mine
Ode to White
Tucked into nearly-nothingness The fall of snow, I must profess - Aside from chill that does repress My eager heart and mind - May be of Nature's best success The purity does quite impress With wafting swirls in great excess Despite those quarantined The color, fine, in evening dress Is perfect as love's faithfulness, Blended light made to coalesce As none others less refined For white, alone, cannot oppress A canvas on which to express Each step of life's minute progress - With white, I am aligned.
Cascades of My Heart
Why ache, my heart when love is come so quick? Why fever's pitch? Or are we both homesick? And yet, the fire's heat melts all this pain to shades Of rainbowed beauty flooding o'er the world, cascades Of my heart, pulsing with the long passage of time And all I hope is: I am yours, and you forever mine