Day 25 - Searching, Impossible, Failing

August 25 - In search of impossible light (after Larissa Szporluk)

Music - Interlude VII from Fresh Aire IV by Mannheim Steamroller; The Impossible Dream from Stage Heroes by Colm Wilkinson


Striving
Hand outstretched
Grasping
Searching
Trying
Hoping
In vain
The struggle
To find it
To reach it
That impossible light
That unreachable star
That unreachable dream

What kind of crazy awesome name is Szporluk?  Wow.  I need a pseudonym that is half as awesome.

Day 25 - Failing Better

"No marks on paper can ever measure up to the word's music in the mind, to the purity of the image before its ambush by language."  - Mary Gordon
"What we need to do is think of all our failed drafts simply as steps toward the final one, the one that works."  - Barbara Abercrombie

You have no idea how many times I have bewailed and bemoaned the fact that we don't have telepathic abilities.  Star Trek, you are cruel for introducing me to the idea/possibility.  The images I see in my head and scenes I write have so much more depth and flavor and character and emotion than what I am capable of conveying on paper.  Sometimes I can rewrite or edit in some of what I miss the first time but there comes a point where there are too many words and they begin to obscure the image I am trying to paint/clarify.  See, right there.  We don't have a word to convey the thought/feeling/emotion I am going for so I resort to slashes.  Some day, my friends, I can only hope, some day we will have the ability to convey ourselves perfectly.

I was feeling like this was a little 'blah' so I am glad to be able to include pictures!  And on an unrelated note, I think Barbara is a weird name.  Bar Bar A

Day 24 - Drool in Z-Row Gravity

August 24 - Writer the place the landscape dissolves

Musical inspiration: Fresh Aire V album by Mannheim Steamroller
Songs: Lumen, Z-Row Gravity, Dancin' in the Stars, Creatures of Levania

The door this time does not lead to idyllic pastures and soaring trees.  This door is similarly small and rounded but metal and rivets have replaced wood and scroll-work.  This door is cooler to the touch as it opens on its own landscape.  This is clearly another planet, dusty and dark, stars lighting the silky sky above abandoned monorail tracks.  Behind the door, above us is an abandoned and desolate city, angles and blocks of crumbling metal surrounded by the gentler lines and curves of the track.  Beyond the city is nothing.  Well, nothing artificial.  Spires rise in the barren landscape, stretching to touch the looming, rosy moon, but they are made of rock and stone, not iron or steel.  These will erode some day, not be eaten by rust and time.  While the city sits in tones of grey and black, the spires and land are sepia, brown, red and blush.  The city ends starkly, a line drawn in the sand, but beyond the landscape simply dissolves, dust becoming dust becoming stars.

This is a companion piece to A World of Pure Imagination and both were very inspired by music.  Any of you whom have not listened to Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire CDs (there are seven of them) or Saving the Wildlife (especially 'Wolfgang Amadeus Penguin') I recommend them.  Sunday Morning Coffee and Sunday Morning Coffee: Day Parts are both good too but a little sedate for anything but dinner background music.  :)  My favorites are Fresh Aire V, which is space themed, Fresh Aire 7, based around the number 7, Fresh Aire IV, especially 'Dancing Flames', and 'The Cricket' from Fresh Aire III.  The music is instrumental with definite manipulations mixed with some vocal and natural sounds (rain, a cricket, a fire, etc.).
I don't convey it well in the piece but there is a GIANT moon looming largely over the scene, almost completely filling the sky directly in front of the viewer.

Day 24 -Writing While Drooled Upon

Evidently Ms. Abercrombie got serious about writing after having two children and spent most of their childhood writing.  She isn't the first author I've heard of that started writing after the birth of a child and wrote during their naps and practices and classes.  Thankfully there are also plenty of examples of authors who never had children (Ms. Austen) or had children after they were published.  I want kids some day but I'm not planning on them any time soon!