OctPoWriMo 2015: Day 23: Intergalactic Passion

Fair warning, Illsa's going fangirl.

Sorry, not sorry.

Feel free to skip this one if this sort of thing is beneath you.

Intergalactic Passion

Standing by the seascape

The spark lit between us

And so we danced in harmony

As if no one else existed

In the entire Universe

Take me on a journey

Across the entire galactic expanse

Please don't ever leave me

For my yearning would destroy me

Just a chip of you will never do

Illsa, channeling Rose Tyler

OctPoWriMo 2015: Day 19: Dear You

Fair warning: 

This will be really irreverent and possibly downright foolish. If that sounds way too inane to you, feel free to skip this piece! The form is described following the poem.

I've decided to do 26 lines, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some will be personal connections, some will be celebrities, some may even be characters. Dare you follow along? You have been warned, it may get pretty ridiculous!

Dear You

Dear Angus, thanks for the moon shot, it was a real eye opener. LMFAO!

Dear Ben, cheater cheater pumpkin eater. Disappointed.

Dear Cie, friends can tease each other, right? Prepare!

Dear Dylan, thank you for making my man Adam so happy. Hugs!

Dear Elvis, thankyouverymuch. Uh-huh-huh!

Dear Fae, I love you just the way you are. Acceptance!

Dear Gary Stu, I try not to write about guys like you. Sorry.

Dear Hank, I'm so glad you're my brother. Always!

Dear Illsa, you're always dreaming of naps like a sleepy cat. Lazy.

Dear John, wish you were still here to write more songs. Legend!

Dear Kitty, how do you manage to hog the entire bed? Cats...

Dear Leonard, thanks for all the great performances. Respect.

Dear Malcolm, I like you, but it's only platonic, because otherwise Cie would shank me. Ducking!

Dear Noobs on the Writing scene, welcome and keep at it. Encouragement!

Dear out and proud friends, way to fight the good fight. Bold!

Dear PANSI, the Netherworld still loves you. Diva!

Dear Quorthon, the world of music hasn't been the same since you went to the hall on high. Icon!

Dear Robert, the coffee was cold and so was my affection for you. Boring.

Dear Sarah, do you believe the world is better off without your brand of politics? Wingnut.

Dear Tom, it's too bad you turned out to be an asshole. Misanthrope.

Dear Ursula, I like Cappuccino, but I love you more. Sisters!

Dear Vince, the remake of Psycho wasn't bad, but that wedding movie was crashing fun! Cool.

Dear William, your sons made this world come alive. Electric!

Dear Xene, you mostly stay behind the scenes, but we still love you. Shy.

Dear Yeezy, you're actually not a bad guy but you'd be a better one if you'd shut your mouth. Ego.

Dear zany friends, thank you for letting me be a part of this insanity. Teammates!

~Illin' Illsa~

Notes:

From today's OctPoWriMo prompt

Hello again from your favorite structure anarchist! I yet again bring you something with form! Never fear, this one has nothing to do with counting!

Actually this is a form that I kinda made up one day for a poetry class in college, I call it the "Dear," form.

Once upon a time a friend and I were joking about our ex boyfriends at the beginning of poetry class and coming forth from that was what we wrote that day!

How to do it? 

Each line of the poem starts with "Dear (name)"

You get one line to say something to an ex or some significant love, example I did my ex boyfriend, my high school crushes, my (then) current boyfriend, my childhood love, etc. Anyways my list ended up to be about 17 names long.

For each name, you get one sentence plus one word (optional) Example: "Dear Steve, at least you made good coffee. Sorry."

Don't have a long enough list? You can go with a list like your bridesmaids, your best friends in college, deceased pets, etc. I've always liked doing this periodically with the same list to see if my feelings have changed towards any of the memories I have of these people. It's a nice reflective exercise I feel, personally I think it pairs well with a glass of wine.

30 Days of Haiga 2014: Day 18

Click to Enlarge

Original Photo:

Copyright: cynoclub / 123RF Stock Photo

Verse:

Illsa Gorrey

Photoshop Manipulation:

Cie Cheesemeister

Illsa's note:

When I was fourteen, I had a paper route. I actually did have a bicycle, but I never could master throwing and pedaling at the same time so I walked the route. 

My family wasn't by any means wealthy, but we weren't poor either. My father (R.I.P.) worked construction and handyman jobs. He was also a decent mechanic. He could fix just about anything, so even though our house was nothing fancy, it was a place we were proud of. Dad put a lot of work into it.

My route was in a run-down area of town. A lot of people down there owned guard dogs: Dobermans, German Shepherds, Pit Bulls. The majority of the dogs would bark but stay their place in the yard. Some of them actually became friendly towards me over time. But there was this one yard with a low fence and two very aggressive dogs. 

My sixteen-year-old brother started walking the route with me when he realized where it was. I didn't have the route for long. Once my father became fully aware of the situation, he made me quit. He was all fired up to go talk to those people about their dogs, but my mother talked him out of it. She filed a complaint with animal control. Maybe they got ticketed, but nothing was ever done about the dogs.

It's always sobering when I realize that my father has now been dead for almost as many years as he was alive.

~Illsa~

30 Days of Haiga 2014: Day 17

Click to Enlarge

Original Photo:

Copyright: yarruta / 123RF Stock Photo

Tasty Verse:

Illsa Gorrey

Hunger-Inducing Photoshop Manipulation:

Cie Cheesemeister

30 Days of Haiga 2014: Day 16

Click to Enlarge

Original Photo:

Copyright: balaikin / 123RF Stock Photo

Verse:

Illsa Gorrey

Photoshop Manipulation:

Cie Cheesemeister

30 Days of Haiga 2014: Day 1

Click to enlarge

Original photo:

Copyright: rangizzz / 123RF Stock Photo

Words:

Illsa Gorrey

Photoshop Manipulation:

Cie Cheesemeister

R is for RemyLa

Sometimes Its Nobody

I

They say there's someone for everyone

But that's simply not true for all of us

Some of us will live our lives in loveless limbo

Some of us end up with no-one

II

No-one is the one meant for me

No-one is the one for so many folk

No-one gets 'round like Don Juan or Casanova

No-one is my one love, you see

III

See how a hopeful heart has broke

See how dreams of love fade with betrayal

When there have been so many more lives than truths told

Dreams of love have gone up in smoke

IV

Smoke screen put up to hide the sun

My heart don't want to see the loveless light

It would rather hide inside the eternal night

From a love that lies to everyone

~Illsa~

RemyLa Rhyme Form

The RemyLa Rhyme Form, a form created by Laura Lamarca, consists of 4 stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. The syllable count per stanza is 8/10/12/8 and rhyme scheme is abca defd ghig jklj. The first word of stanza 1 must also be the last word of stanza 4. The last word of stanza 1 must also be the first word of stanza 2 and the last word of stanza 2 must be the first word of stanza 3. Finally, the last word of stanza 3 must also be the first word of stanza 4.

This form is named after Laura's daughter, Remy Lawren Lamarca. La is her signature.


Example:
Of Feelings and face

Brushed aside from gladness of gains,
while windows berated internal sights
and emotions exploded before they reformed--
shivers sighed, as silence sang pains.

Panes wept sadness...until they closed,
as previous hues taught her heart to heat
and external facades masked a ferocious fear--
that future failed for facts supposed.

Supposed to choose a tighter way,
as repugnancy dipped its tongue in truth;
so she started to strip a delectable tale
to an aggressor's dying day.

Day crouched on shins, so still and hushed,
while the sound of survival was amplified
and she gathered escapism from filthy fists--
his backhander of hate...soon brushed.

Copyright © 2009 Laura Lamarca

D is for Decuain

Image Source

First mine, then an explanation and a sample.

Insanity

Let's do a blog on the A to Z challenge, they said

"That sounds all right," I replied

"It shouldn't be too hard on my head."

But my wicked team members lied

"Five blogs?" I in horror cried.

"Are you insane?" I demanded.

My brain was quickly fried

To the men in white coats I'll soon be remanded

My mind is full of bread

My sanity's in shreds.

~Illsa~

Decuain

The Decuain (pronounced deck•won), created by Shelley A. Cephas, is a short poem made up of 10 lines, which can be written on any subject. There are 10 syllables per line and the poem is written in iambic pentameter.

There are 3 set choices of rhyme scheme:

ababbcbcaa, ababbcbcbb, or ababbcbccc

For a longer Decuain poem, add more stanzas for a double, triple, quatruple, etc. Decuain.


Example #1:
Dear Heart…

Our dearest Susan has a tender heart,
a mother who’s devoted to her son,
her love and wisdom to him she’ll impart,
so when they are together they have fun;
I know their love shall never come undone.
She’s special to her friends and family,
a gift from God, who’s loved by everyone
for truly she is blessed with dignity,
in this I’m sure that we would all agree
because I know she has been good to me.

Copyright © 2008 Shelley A. Cephas

Hold On To the Dream

 

Hold Onto the Dream

by

Illsa

 

No quarter is given

No means too extreme

When you're trying your damndest

Not to wake from a dream

 

You cling to the branches

Of the storm-shaken tree

Lest you lose your grip

And fall to reality

 

The painful realization

When one wakes from sweet scenes

Cause the Quixotic with great zeal

To hold onto their dreams

 

Falling from great heights

Can cause dire hurt

You plunge from the Heavens

And end up in the dirt

 

The most beautiful of fantasies

Is the sorriest of vanities

 

~Illsa~

 

Mostly Misunderstood

 

Mostly Misunderstood

 

It's easy to look at someone like me and say

"Ooh, she's so weird!"

I may appear common, but I'm reluctant to open my mouth

Because when people know the truth they say

"You have to keep people like her at bay."

Even though I never make a move to do any harm.

 

It's easy to reject when you've never known how it is

To hate everything that you are

To wake up wishing you were dead many days

It's easier to be cruel than kind

When you don't live with a mind like mine

It's easy to say "she's just crazy."

 

The truth is, I know the score

I know the difference between physical reality and fantasy

I also know which I prefer

It's easy to label what you don't understand

Easy to fancy yourself to be grand

When you're stepping on someone already downtrod

 

It's easy to look and say "she's just stupid"

When you see where I live, what I wear, what I drive

It's easy to judge one who has less than you

But does this really make you superior

Does it really make me inferior?

If this is the way you are

 

Then misunderstood me

Doesn't give a damn

About being understood

by the likes of you.

 

~Illsa Gorrey~

 

Cross-posted to:

Crazy Town in Looney Land

Poetry of the Netherworld

Undead in the Netherworld

 

And shared with:

 

Gone Trippin'

 

Gone Trippin'

by

Illsa Gorrey

 

A fellow who frequently trips

With reality could not come to grips

He sought acid and shrooms

And opium blooms

To give day to day living the slips

 

~Illsa~

 

 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: R is for Rispetto

 

A to Z Blogging Challenge:

R is for Rispetto

by

Illsa Gorrey

 

Rispetto is an Italian form of poetry. It is a complete poem consisting of two rhyme quatrains with strict meter. The meter is usually iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd. A Heroic Rispetto is written in Iambic pentameter, usually featuring the same rhyme scheme.

 

First a model poem, then I'll give it a go.

 

Tribute to Tuscany
In old Tuscany, this form of poetry
To stimulate the imagination's muse,
Has been passed down through every century,
To all writers whom the written words enthuse.

Even yet today, some vineyard covered hill,
Hung with clustered grapes, romantic souls instill
With a deep desire to try their hand once more
And resurrect a page from history's lore!

Copyright © 2006 Betty Lou Hebert

 

 

Call me Crazy

 

I do sometimes wonder if I am at all sane

It seems I have something to prove

I do the same foolish things again and again

I thought by my age I'd have found my groove

 

It's true that I stopped making mistakes with romance

It's easy not to make a mistake where you don't take a chance

But I keep trying to make others see my point of view

Although this is an effort which always makes me feel blue

 

~Illsa~

 

I don't think it's the best thing I've ever written, and I'll admit, I'll be damned if I really know what the hell iambic tetrameter is. I just gave it a go. It was honest. I kind of like it, even if it isn't perfect.

 

Peace Out.

 

Illsa



A to Z Blogging Challenge: M is for Monody

 

A to Z Blogging Challenge:

M is for Monody

by

Illsa Gorrey

 

A monody is a poem of lament for the death of another.

 

July 16, 1981

 

Another summer day

Going to the pool with my brother

Sister had to work her shift at Dairy Queen

Hank and I planned to come by after swimming and bother her

 

At two o clock, Mom came to the pool

By the look on her face we knew something terrible had happened

Dad had been in an accident

He was in the hospital

 

There was never a chance

The guy driving the pickup was going 100 miles an hour

On the wrong side of the road, trying to pass the car ahead

The pickup hit Dad's motorcycle

 

Dad was wearing his helmet

He was always careful

It didn't matter at that speed

He was dead on arrival

 

I was fifteen years old

My father never made it to thirty-eight

 

~Illsa~

A to Z Blogging Challenge: M is for Music and Mental Illness

A to Z Blogging Challenge: 

M is for Music and Mental Illness

by

Illsa Gorrey

Hello, everybody. This is going to get kind of ranty, so before I start, I'll just say this. Anyone who reads the Undead in the Netherworld blog consistently knows that we utilize music a fair bit on our posts. You will also notice that a lot of the soundtrack music is hard rock and metal. That's because our stories are more metal than everybody's! ;-)

Winky face so nobody gets all butt hurt and bent out of shape. 

KHEL 666 is our Multimedia blog, so we feature a lot of music there. A lot of that is hard rock and metal too.

We sometimes use music to drive a point home or to illustrate what we're feeling on Crazy Town in Looney Land (one of our Dropout Loser Quitter Blogs that didn't finish the A-Z Challenge.)

We might feature music occasionally on Poetry of the Netherworld. Because music is, after all, poetry in an instrumental setting.

This entry is going to be cross-posted over all of those blogs. Lazy? Whatever. We have other projects and problems. Sometimes we get lazy.

So before I start the rant, here is a playlist of relaxing music. This is the kind of music we listen to while editing, trying to meditate, or just because. We're eclectic here.

"You sound angry, Illsa. So you're not going to whip out the Death Metal on our asses?"

Nope. Not today.

Everyone involved with this series of blogs has a mental illness of one variety or another. Most of the participants have bipolar disorder. We met culling through mental health sites and found each other. Not all of our team members participate in the blogs very often. We have kind of a core group who are frequent participants. You'll see a lot of Tempest, a fair bit of me and Lily. Opal has been fairly active this month as well. Cie Cheesemeister is generally in the background, editing or creating her photoshop images. She doesn't directly post very often these days.

We are all broken people. We are not your happy go lucky chasing dreams and love types. That ship done sailed long ago, that train done left town. We are older, we have been abused, we realize that dreams don't tend to come true for people like us. We're waiting to die, we're just trying to make it more interesting while we wait.

I have discovered that I really hate certain words. Don't give me the "they're just words" schpiel. Let me call you a cuntbag and tell you "it's just a word." But think for a minute what your immediate reaction to being called a cuntbag is. Yeah, words have power. It's one of the reasons why bullying is so destructive. So let's put the "they're just words" bit to rest right now.

"Lazy" is a word that I hate.

I used to apply it to myself, anytime I was lying around so inert that I could barely get up to do anything. "Get up you lazy, stupid bitch! Get up!" 

I was experiencing severe depression. I knew I was sad and miserable and had "no reason to be." I should have been able to "just get up." Or so I was told.

"Loser" is a word that I hate.

Many people are unable to become successful in life. There is too much onus placed on being some sort of superstar. Not being able to achieve a certain measure of success does not make a person a loser. I think there are plenty of really talented people who never become successful or famous.

"Quitter" is another word that I don't like.

People quit things for a variety of reasons. Maybe they give up too soon, but branding them with a label is never good. Many people have enough negative labels applied to them. Perhaps more like negative millstones. I know that all the negative terms that come to mind for myself weigh heavy on me.

Our M of the day is Music and Mental Illness and an admonition to put yourself in someone else's shoes before you apply a label to them.

Peace.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: L is for Limerick

A to Z Blogging Challenge:

L is for Limerick

by

Illsa Gorrey

A Limerick is a rhymed humorous or nonsense poem of five lines which originated in Limerick, Ireland. The Limerick has a set rhyme scheme of : a-a-b-b-a.

The subject matter of Limericks is often bawdy.

Here is my shot at a Limerick.

Once on a night that was icy

Walking was an act rather dicey

Down my back stair I did tumble

With a crash and a rumble

Incurring an E.R. bill that was pricey

Actually, I managed to avoid the E.R. bill as I didn't break anything. But I was bruised and sore for several weeks following the event!

~Illsa~