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Exposer and closer of the extrinsically infistulated.
>>Pascoite
This references an anecdote about the physicist Richard Feynman, who was present at the Trinity test. He related that he didn't wish to use the provided safety glasses, and sat behind the windshield of a truck to watch the blast, which indeed dazzled him but did not permanently damage his eyesight.
My intent with this piece, other than finding a means to compactly versify how such a bomb works, was to highlight how it reflected the rest of Feynman's storied career; stubborn, iconoclastic, rebellious, with the practical search for truth even when it hurts. Rather much to try to squeeze in, in retrospect.
This references an anecdote about the physicist Richard Feynman, who was present at the Trinity test. He related that he didn't wish to use the provided safety glasses, and sat behind the windshield of a truck to watch the blast, which indeed dazzled him but did not permanently damage his eyesight.
My intent with this piece, other than finding a means to compactly versify how such a bomb works, was to highlight how it reflected the rest of Feynman's storied career; stubborn, iconoclastic, rebellious, with the practical search for truth even when it hurts. Rather much to try to squeeze in, in retrospect.
>>Pascoite
The first two lines do reference an exchange in Study in Scarlet, where Watson is amazed to find that his learned friend not only doesn't know that the Earth goes around the Sun, but having learned it is determined to forget it, as it makes no difference to his intended line of work and hence is just a waste of precious neural capacity.
As to the last line, I did bungle that, having written four lines with no zinger to end them, and after fevered searching selecting an obscure name that didn't properly rhyme. I'll see if time gives me a better closure for this benighted clench.
The first two lines do reference an exchange in Study in Scarlet, where Watson is amazed to find that his learned friend not only doesn't know that the Earth goes around the Sun, but having learned it is determined to forget it, as it makes no difference to his intended line of work and hence is just a waste of precious neural capacity.
As to the last line, I did bungle that, having written four lines with no zinger to end them, and after fevered searching selecting an obscure name that didn't properly rhyme. I'll see if time gives me a better closure for this benighted clench.
>>Pascoite
I had in mind, dim arc seen from afar,
A Dyson stripe, a Ringworld 'round a star.
A rare and stately thing to find in Heaven,
A Halo that adorned the brow of Niven.
I had in mind, dim arc seen from afar,
A Dyson stripe, a Ringworld 'round a star.
A rare and stately thing to find in Heaven,
A Halo that adorned the brow of Niven.
>>Pascoite
Save For Their Song
Thanks for the gold, and thumbs up to Quill and Baal, the best of fellow versifiers.
Thanks for the lovely review! I sort of envisioned this as a fragment from a larger piece. I had Chesterton's Lepanto on my mind as I wrote and that inspired the long lines with short snappy 'chorus'.
Don John of Austria
Is met with Oberon!
Save For Their Song
Thanks for the gold, and thumbs up to Quill and Baal, the best of fellow versifiers.
Thanks for the lovely review! I sort of envisioned this as a fragment from a larger piece. I had Chesterton's Lepanto on my mind as I wrote and that inspired the long lines with short snappy 'chorus'.
Don John of Austria
Is met with Oberon!
>>QuillScratch, >>Pascoite
The Awkward Descent
This is largely autobiographical and was composed in a moving van as my friend drove us to a donation center with the sofa in the back. The legs fortunately could be unscrewed, though we only troubled to do this when it was stuck on the bannister halfway down the stairs. Thanks for the critique and praise!
The Awkward Descent
This is largely autobiographical and was composed in a moving van as my friend drove us to a donation center with the sofa in the back. The legs fortunately could be unscrewed, though we only troubled to do this when it was stuck on the bannister halfway down the stairs. Thanks for the critique and praise!
>>QuillScratch, >>Pascoite
If you can't toss it here, you won't toss it there
Thank you for the very lovely comments!
The prompt of this round is taken from a sentence attributed to Einstein, and this round happened during a time of my helping a friend to move while shuffling some old boxes of mine around as well.
The title of this came to me as I looked at an old box and tried to resolve myself to just throw its contents away. I had another thousand mile journey to make and needed to take it easy upon my car as well. I intended to write with this sense of "It's better to discard it now rather than haul it across six states and discard it then," but as I wrote the meaning shifted.
I felt my way into the subsequent rhyme scheme and had intended to prepend a few lines, which wound up not happening.
Even now at my destination I still struggle with letting things go. It's only stuff, it has no feelings, I don't have much space, and I can't fill my house with museum pieces and touchstones arranged around small crooked paths that meander through my rooms. But my old habits inform my new habitat. I am pleased that the piece discovered some kindred spirits.
If you can't toss it here, you won't toss it there
Thank you for the very lovely comments!
The prompt of this round is taken from a sentence attributed to Einstein, and this round happened during a time of my helping a friend to move while shuffling some old boxes of mine around as well.
The title of this came to me as I looked at an old box and tried to resolve myself to just throw its contents away. I had another thousand mile journey to make and needed to take it easy upon my car as well. I intended to write with this sense of "It's better to discard it now rather than haul it across six states and discard it then," but as I wrote the meaning shifted.
I felt my way into the subsequent rhyme scheme and had intended to prepend a few lines, which wound up not happening.
Even now at my destination I still struggle with letting things go. It's only stuff, it has no feelings, I don't have much space, and I can't fill my house with museum pieces and touchstones arranged around small crooked paths that meander through my rooms. But my old habits inform my new habitat. I am pleased that the piece discovered some kindred spirits.
Had a lovely full moon last night, shining down through a cloudless sky over a blue-cast landscape. Great inspiration for this one.
>>Pascoite, >>QuillScratch
A Gleam of Glamour
Thank you for the excellent and perceptive comments! 'Grats to Baal on taking the gold.
I didn't have a strong idea for this prompt, so I decided to use a scene I've had in mind for years about a mage using time magic to redirect the power of a growing tree into shattering a stone barrier. I liked the idea of the taproot piercing a vampire's heart so I went with that in this instance. I sadly lacked the space and time to go back to the beginning and lay the foreshadowing to spark interest in the later elements, but will be sure to do so if I expand this little draft sketch into a full story.
The title was supposed to refer to a phial of fluid magic, but it seems in this case to have had only a tangential connection to the prompt. So it often goes.
Thanks again for your comments and your interest!
A Gleam of Glamour
Thank you for the excellent and perceptive comments! 'Grats to Baal on taking the gold.
I didn't have a strong idea for this prompt, so I decided to use a scene I've had in mind for years about a mage using time magic to redirect the power of a growing tree into shattering a stone barrier. I liked the idea of the taproot piercing a vampire's heart so I went with that in this instance. I sadly lacked the space and time to go back to the beginning and lay the foreshadowing to spark interest in the later elements, but will be sure to do so if I expand this little draft sketch into a full story.
The title was supposed to refer to a phial of fluid magic, but it seems in this case to have had only a tangential connection to the prompt. So it often goes.
Thanks again for your comments and your interest!
>>Pascoite
This is a specimen of the sort of nonsense verse that may tumble forth when one has forgotten about the event all day and only remembered to write at 3 AM. I took care of the sounds and mostly let the sense take care of itself, searching for assonances and failing as described to come up with a closing pun that would justify things. Thank you for your kind words!
This is a specimen of the sort of nonsense verse that may tumble forth when one has forgotten about the event all day and only remembered to write at 3 AM. I took care of the sounds and mostly let the sense take care of itself, searching for assonances and failing as described to come up with a closing pun that would justify things. Thank you for your kind words!
>>Pascoite
Thank you for the kind comment. This was a subject on my mind recently, as I mentioned elsewhere.
Thank you for the kind comment. This was a subject on my mind recently, as I mentioned elsewhere.
>>Pascoite
Convocation
I was trying to do something nonstandard with the prompt and thought of various single eyed creatures; the sparkle in the middle was an afterthought but I like the idea that it's the brightest eye of all, perhaps even vaster than the enormous lens at the top.
No references used, I just eyeballed it.
Convocation
I was trying to do something nonstandard with the prompt and thought of various single eyed creatures; the sparkle in the middle was an afterthought but I like the idea that it's the brightest eye of all, perhaps even vaster than the enormous lens at the top.
No references used, I just eyeballed it.
>>Pascoite
Infinitude
This was drawn from a picture of Leonor Fini. I have long been fascinated by her eyes.
Infinitude
This was drawn from a picture of Leonor Fini. I have long been fascinated by her eyes.
>>Pascoite
I've been keeping up the habit of a half-hour daily walk, which I often take at evening when things are cooler.
On the night of composition, I decided to walk and record any worthwhile thoughts that occurred to me. I wound up with lines of varying length and tried to interleave them attractively, and this is the result. Clouds under the moonlight, quiet houses with their secrets, and endangered habitat were indeed themes that colored my thoughts here. The sodium streetlight behavior is both an accurate description of how it looks and likely metaphoric for mortality and uncertainty about the future, with maybe a hint of transcendence.
Thank you very much for the kind words!
I've been keeping up the habit of a half-hour daily walk, which I often take at evening when things are cooler.
On the night of composition, I decided to walk and record any worthwhile thoughts that occurred to me. I wound up with lines of varying length and tried to interleave them attractively, and this is the result. Clouds under the moonlight, quiet houses with their secrets, and endangered habitat were indeed themes that colored my thoughts here. The sodium streetlight behavior is both an accurate description of how it looks and likely metaphoric for mortality and uncertainty about the future, with maybe a hint of transcendence.
Thank you very much for the kind words!
Under the circumstances, I feel that I am safe to comment that this is a thinly-disguised and spoiler-free ponification of a fascinating detection and horror game, Return of the Obra Dinn, which I recommend to all who enjoy a good puzzle.
>>Pascoite
I only had in mind that I wanted to draw a skeletal figure when I started the sketch, and I used a female skeleton pic for reference. I drew most of it before deciding upon a gesture for the hand. It is intentionally somewhat ambiguous what finger it's extending.
Thank you very much for commenting on the art!
I only had in mind that I wanted to draw a skeletal figure when I started the sketch, and I used a female skeleton pic for reference. I drew most of it before deciding upon a gesture for the hand. It is intentionally somewhat ambiguous what finger it's extending.
Thank you very much for commenting on the art!
>>Pascoite
This is an anole carcass encountered on a driveway in St. Augustine. It looks odd as the rear legs are missing.
This is an anole carcass encountered on a driveway in St. Augustine. It looks odd as the rear legs are missing.
>>Pascoite
Yes, this is Anthony from the TZ adaption of Jerome Bixby's classic story It's a Good Life. This is also a pun on the prompt, the actor pictured is Bill Mumy, who also played Will Robinson, Lennier on Babylon 5, and who was half of the surrealist music combo Barnes and Barnes.
Yes, this is Anthony from the TZ adaption of Jerome Bixby's classic story It's a Good Life. This is also a pun on the prompt, the actor pictured is Bill Mumy, who also played Will Robinson, Lennier on Babylon 5, and who was half of the surrealist music combo Barnes and Barnes.
Also, driving for ten hours from North Carolina to Florida and still forcing myself to write a silly little thing in the wee hours.
Paging WIP