life as a journey: AtoZ

Showing posts with label AtoZ. Show all posts

Sunday, September 15, 2013

R is for Repetition & Rice

inspired by the A-Z Blogging Challenge i started to revisit my published works... today is R. R like road, red, run, river, rule, ring, rhyme, radio, reason... and r like repetition and rice:

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Repetition

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Rice

“And now, step into the water,” the tour guide says, “and plant your bundle of rice.”

The group tour, it had sounded okay at first. At this point, I wish I could skip it.

“Such fun,” someone says.

The guide waits patiently like a droid until all and everyone has planted their bundle of rice. There is neither escape from the ritual, nor from the obvious symbolism: our bundles will grow together from this day on.

We move on, to the next task points. We construct a paper bridge. The droid walks across it. We follow, one after another, like sentences in a story.

We learn to say rice in alternating tongues.

“Reis.”

“Riso.”

“Arroz.”

“Riz.”

“Baikoku,” I add.

No one answers.

When we are finally done, there is a buffet waiting for us. White bowls, filled with steamed, stir-fried, sauteed combinations of rice and other stuff. There are drinks, too, and the usual speeches.

We sit at round tables. I try to play along. I even pretend that I like the jackets we are all wearing now, a liquid green fabric with a pattern of solid white paisleys.

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R-Notes

Repetition is a colaborate visual, created with Jeff Crouch. it was first published in HA&L magazine: repetition.

Rice is a short story that is based on a dream fragment. the story was first published in Metazen, where it is still online: Rice. more about it, including a short story: rice words

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A to Z
this A-Z walk through the archives started here: A to Z Blogging Challenge upcoming, the collected entries are online as life as a journey from A to Z

...and 2 extra links: AtoZchallenge tagboard & AtoZchallenge / twitter
...a list of all r-words, from 2 letter ("ra", "re") to 20 letter ("radiotelegphically")

Thursday, August 15, 2013

P is for Predatorium + Postcard from Naples

inspired by the A-Z Blogging Challenge i started to revisit my published works... today is P. P like pause, peach, podcast, precious, point, pain, power, pure, positive...

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Predatorium

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Postcard from Naples, FL

Interstates. They were built to connect cities and places. Their sign is blue, and they cross through green fields, silver glades, red forests. And abroad cities who found a twin home here. Like Naples. That’s where we are right now: Naples, Florida. The place where Interstate 75 intersects with Highway 41.

Other cities along the 75 include St. Petersburg - the American version, not the Russian one - and Venice, featuring mangrove channels and Italian avenues. And all this, along the Gulf of Mexico. In Florida. It's somewhat unreal, this State, especially when seen from the road. We should have known it, even though we didn't trust the sign that told about it at the airport. "Need magic?" it said. “A map and a car would do it for the start,” we answered.

And there they unrolled. Okeechobee Road, Alligator Alley, The Bee Line Expressway, Florida’s Turnpike, and of course, Highway 1, this road that leads down to the Keys, and up to Jacksonville. From there, take Interstate 10 to get to two more twin towns: Havana and Panama City. Then back East, to get to Salem and Santa Fe, also the Florida versions, who neatly connect to Interstate 75’s entry number 404, just two stops from Highway 441.

All those roads, connecting to another. All those places, connecting to the next. Like a string of moments waiting to unfold when you least expect it. Just like the crossings that come up while you are still reflecting the place you are just coming from.

To cross tomorrow: Highway 41. The Tamiami Trail. Leading through the Everglades, and back to Miami again. And I want to go. And I want to stay.

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P-Notes

Predatorium is a photo that was inspired by the poem in Referential magazine - and then turned into part of the page there: in the absences of stars.

Postcard from Naples is a short travel essay that got published in the magazine Suitcase Generation, which isn't online any more.

PS... The aquarium photo actually was taken on the "Postcard from Naples" trip, so the two of them finally are together on one page.

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A to Z
this A-Z walk through the archives started here: A to Z Blogging Challenge upcoming, the collected entries are online as life as a journey from A to Z

...and 2 extra links: AtoZchallenge tagboard and AtoZchallenge / twitter

Thursday, August 8, 2013

O is for Only Choice + Or, A Moral Inventory

inspired by the A-Z Blogging Challenge i started to revisit my published works... today is O. O like one, orange, omega, oligarchy, or, orbit, oven...

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only choice

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Or, A Moral Inventory

A mistake of familiarity:
concrete for miles, yet
to leave it or part it
I tried to make like the cobblestones:

a cube with flat-palm walls
and tucked-in thumbs
in front of the razor-wire
out there, you don’t know that yet,

and beyond: garrafones, cap wrappers,
sapphire and prismatic pigeon’s wings
or, a moral inventory

at last: that kind of
dusky flight
the light bringer, the dawn star,

the energy in the match head
a false lift off, on the pier
of the beach they call: Los Muertos.

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O-Notes

Only Choice is a hyper poem, it was first published in the magazine Rumble, which sadly isn't online anymore. But a copy of the poem is still playing here: only choice

Or, A Moral Inventory is based on lines from the poetry collection “A Foal Poem” by Rose Hunter. It was first published in Found Poetry Review, with 2 audio versions

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A to Z
this A-Z walk through the archives started here: A to Z Blogging Challenge upcoming, the collected entries are online as life as a journey from A to Z

...and an extra link: AtoZchallenge tagboard

Thursday, August 1, 2013

N is for Negative Harvest + The Neverlast

inspired by the A-Z Blogging Challenge i started to revisit my published works... today is N. N like night, name, no, nature, notorious, nine, north....

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negative harvest

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The Neverlast

A bubble rises. Forty three. The next one forms. Forty seven. Then another, this time tiny. Fifty three. And another one. Fifty nine.

June turns to the other side, closes her eyes, and tells herself once more that she really aught to sleep. Now. Sleep. Now. Sleep. But the little machine in her head keeps calculating, like a program on the run. Sixty one. Sixty seven. Seventy one.

It is hopeless. And the line of prime numbers is eternal. One night, she had reached four hundred something. Her mother hadn’t believed her. “You are faking this,” she had said. Only that June wasn’t faking. She wasn’t forcing it, either. It just happened. Somewhere in her mind. Seventy three. Seventy nine. Eighty three.

At ninety seven, she opens her eyes again. At one hundred seven, she gets up and walks to the kitchen. She pours a glass of milk, adds a spoonful of honey, and puts the mix in the micro wave. Then she opens the window, to look for the moon, but the shape of it isn’t visible. Instead, she hears voices from below. A couple walks by on the street, the man in a black suit, the woman in a lime green dress, her voice as angry and pointed as her steps, yet June can’t understand them. All she can pick up is a half sentence, “I thought that was the last,” before a car appears and drowns the rest of the words.

“I thought that was the last,” June repeats, standing at the window, sipping the warm milk. Time, she guesses. Or maybe chance.

She empties the glass, leaves it on the table, and gets back into her bed. The lava lamp, it is still birthing bubbles in an orange glow. Perfect round useless globules, born to rise and fade. Weekend of July, the machine in her mind suggests, while another bubble forms. Matter to consider. A queer one, next. Sleepless Night.

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N-Notes

Negative Harvest was first published in the magazine negative suck, and is still online in the negative archive: negative sunset + harvest

The Neverlast was first published in Cautionary Tales, which sadly isn't online any more

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A to Z
this A-Z walk through the archives started here: A to Z Blogging Challenge upcoming. The official challenge ended in April, but the overall twitterstream of the challenge is still ongoing at #atozchallenge.

ABCEFGHJKLM.... the collected previous entries are online as life as a journey from A to Z.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

I is for Iceland + invision

Earlier in April, as part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, i started to revisit the archives from a new and unexpected alphabetical view, and reposted the most interesting works. Today is: I. I like invision, Insides, and: I like Iceland. A short story i wrote during a flight, published by Hobart magazine.

Below is a screenshot and more notes, and here's the story link: Hobart - Iceland.

The photo included is from the very flight, too. When I remember it right, I first focused on the clouds, and tried to take a flight picture that conveys the atmosphere - all the silent open space outside, and in contrast, the flight cabin filled with people and their emotions and voices.

And two other "I"s that connects to it: invision (in Juked) - an in between / through the window reflection with an on-the-road touch:

"in between, throughout, the world moving, commuting in constant ceaseless circles, all those planes, all those cars, all those people going, from here to there, eastwards westwards, up and down, all those houses, waiting for their hosts to come home, like dogs waiting, like cats waiting, all day all day, all this empty spaces, all these drive through places, and how would it feel if the world would come to a halt, just for one day, just for one white day..."

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The Archives ... A to Z

A is for Alpha + August
B is for Berlin + Butterflies
C is for Crow Woman + Con Text
D is for Deduction
E is for (R)Evolution
F is for Fountain Lights and Fragments of Flavour
G is for Geometry + Generation Effect
H is for Homage + Headed
archive notes: the ABCD of it, or: changing from daily to weekly
and some statistics: from the 15 publications i revisted so far, 9 are still online, 6 magazines went offline.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

F is for Fountain Lights & Fragments of Flavour

Fragments of Flavour

The sound of coffee being grinded. The screeching sound of something solid being transformed into a powder that is about to be transformed into something liquid.

I have never done this before, she says, to no one in particular, to herself. So this is how it feels, she thinks, while she keeps turning the grinding wheel. Or is there another word for it. Crushing wheel. Stirring wheel.

The sound of moments being flavoured. The subsiding sound of something unsubstantial being transformed into an instant that is about to be transformed into something lasting.

A rose is a rose is a rose, someone once wrote to her. Fragrances are substance, someone once said to her. When you smell a rose, it is particles of the rose becoming a part of your system for a second, for a century. The taste of a rose is a rose becoming part of you. The taste of smoke is smoke becoming part of you.

That is how you remember: a part of you holding the moment inside. This part unfolds when touched by the same taste again. Or when touched by the thought of the moment.

She tries to picture it, the fragment of the latest memory in her mind. Brown and tiny. Tasting like the coffee she is drinking now, in little sips, in concentrated doses.

This is becoming me now, she explains to the reflection of her body in the window, in the way you explain things to pets, knowing that it doesn’t matter what you say. They won’t understand the meaning of your words anyway, they will only recognize the tone of your voice.

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F-Notes

"Fountain Light" ... the photo is taken in front of the opera house in Stuttgart, Germany. the light effect is caused by the setting sun. The photo was first published in Pequin Magazine, which is on hiat, but the pages are still online.

"Fragments of Flavour" ... was a print publication in Snow Monkey Magazine. They also have a blog: Snow Monkey.

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A to Z Links

List of all participating A-Z blogs
B is for Berlin + Butterflies
C is for Crow Woman + Con Text
D is for Deduction
E is for (R)Evolution
and some statistics: from the 10 publications i revisted so far, 6 are still online, 4 magazines went offline.

Friday, April 5, 2013

E is for Evolution

during April, i am joining the A-Z Blogging Challenge - each day, i will revisit the archive of published works from a new alphabetical angle, and repost an image and a text. more about the plan: A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, April 2013

Today is: E. which is for (R)Evolution - a hypertext, created together with Karyn Eisler and Lawrence Eisler. It got published by Wheelhouse Magazine. For all of us, this also was an exploration of hypertext. Click the image to enter & then click again to read and enjoy:

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Some Notes on (R)Evolution

This piece started as a visual poem, and then morphed into a poetic hypertext. A major impulse for the step into hypertext came through Susan Gibb, who wrote about the fascination, possibilities and difficulties of hypertext in her blog at: elation + (dis)comfort: hypertext. And for more about the hypertext piece, and extra links, visit the Notes on (R)Evolution.

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A to Z Links

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

B is for Berlin + for Butterflies

Butterfly Show
for Dorothee Lang, written by Molly Gaudry

These transparent paper butterflies are so beautiful I want
to walk the few blocks west to the art supply store in order to
purchase several handmade sheets of paper, all blue -- shiny,
royal blue, baby-blanket blue, tissue-paper blue, turquoise
and periwinkle blue -- and cut, with tiny gold scissors, some
butterflies of my own. I will buy a length of thin gold ribbon,
the kind with the wire edge, and make a day-long braid of it;
I will drop dots of hot glue to the underbellies of my butterflies
and press them gently against each strand of the braid and let
it dry by drifting in the wind, then wind it around the bars
of our gone baby's crib. I will do all of this because it is March,
because soon it will be April, and then Mother's Day and the
rest of the summer that reminds me of when I was pregnant.

One of the worst things I ever saw was at the Conservatory
during the butterfly show; children everywhere, the way they
reached to touch and roughly stroke or crush the butterflies
after luring them with their fingers and noses, which had been
brushed with sugar water. So many crumpled bodies all over
that botanical wonderland; so many smeared streaks beneath
those children's sneakers. But it wasn't this that bothered me
as much as the image of one small, blue butterfly, high in the air,
her desperate wings beating against the crack in the domed glass.

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Butterfly Symbolism
This is interesting: while visiting other A-to-Z blogs, i came across 2 other B-posts with butterflies included, which lead to some notes on butterflies and their symbolism in the comments. I don't know much about their symbolism in other cultures, though, and now did a web search, here are some takes from different cultures:

Generally: "cultural myth honor the butterfly as a symbol of transformation because of its impressive process of metamorphosis."
in ancient Greece: "The ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul" or "mind"
and a similar image in Japan: "In Japan, a butterfly was seen as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead."
in China: "the Mandarin Chinese word for butterfly is "hu-tieh". "Tieh" means "70 years", therefore butterflies have become a symbol for a long life"

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B-Notes

The image Berlin past present ... was inspired by the Blue Fifth "Black/White" issue, and turned into the title image of the Blue Fifth Fall Quarterly - Black. For more about the photo, the place, and related notes, visit this Berlin blog note.

The Butterfly Show - is special. I thought I lost those lines, they aren't online any more, and it was while looking for A-stories and adding links to my archive list, that i found them again, copied in an archive file. The poem, it started with a blog note: "For $1.00, I will write you a poem and post it here", poet Molly Gaudry wrote in a self-created poetry challenge. She also asked for a couple of keywords. We only knew each other fleetingly. The poem still touches me.

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A to Z Links

B-Blogging in other blogs, some recommended links: Another Butterfly (with beautiful photos), Belgrade (travelogue with photos), Be Like Water (writer blog), Beaches (travel blog), & Bonair (island travelogue with butterflies)
List of all participating A-Z blogs
A is for Alpha & August

life as a journey

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