Nervous Norvis' Café

Image Source

Ode to Nervous Norvis' Café

by

Trent Lane

Nervous Norvis has excellent taste

In coffee at his little place

Norvis’ caffeinated café

Will blow you away

Like a rocket heading for space

~Trent Lane~

S’up, Netherworld Caffeine addicts? I wanted to write this epic limerick to tell you about my boss, Nervous Norvis, ‘cause he’s totally rad.

Norvis is a thoroughly modern mummy. His pyramid sits right behind his café, cutting down on commute time. His backyard is just a few steps away, so he can take a quick break to tend to his little dog Pharaoh if the need arises.

Norvis sells only fair trade coffee, so you can feel good about catching your A.M. buzz. Or P.M. Whatever.

For unfortunate souls like The Cheesemeister who can’t drink caffeine, Norvis also has decaf. It doesn’t taste like frog piss, the way a lot of decaf does. Not that I actually, like, know what frog piss tastes like or anything. I just figure it probably tastes a lot like decaf coffee, you know.

So, like, what I’m saying is that even though work is a four letter word and stuff, working with Norvis actually doesn’t seem like work, so I don’t mind doing it. So come on down and let me make you a latte sometime. Or an espresso. Whatever.

Trent Lane

For

Encyclopedia Netherworld

A division of FOGNL/UNDEAD Media Services

And

Miskatonic University Netherworld

Cross-Posted to:

Encyclopedia Netherworld

Poetry of the Netherworld

Your rad reporter, working out a melody for my cool new lyrics

Peace in Solitude

Still I seek to find

Peace in times of solitude

Peace within myself

~Polly~

Cross-Posted to:

One Love

Poetry of the Netherworld

Shadorma for the Netherworld

Netherworld

The sixth dimension

Home to its

Myriads

Of things and souls discarded

From the living world

~Aurora~

 A shadorma is composed of six non-rhyming lines (sestina or sextet) and the syllable pattern is 3-5-3-3-7-5.  It can have as many stanzas as you like, just as long as each stanza follows the syllable pattern mentioned above .

For a longer explanation of what the Netherworld is, see this post. 

Cross-Posted to:

Encyclopedia Netherworld

Poetry of the Netherworld

Be True To You--And Your Creations

No Con-Crit Rule

I recently added the caveat above the comments that we are not looking for con-crit (constructive criticism) on our posts. No-one here is a professional poet, and we are not wanting to travel back in time to high school English class. Either you enjoy the poem or you don't. Please don't pick it apart.

Teammate Wanda wrote a poem, and several people took umbrage to the last line for whatever reason. I'm not sure what Wanda is going to do at this point. I hope she won't rewrite the poem, because I think it's fine the way it is. I also hope she won't pull it, and I definitely hope she won't become reluctant to contribute poems in the future.

The members of Team World all live with mental illness. Wanda and I both have depression and anxiety issues. It can be very difficult for us to come out of our shells. We have our blogs for the purpose of enjoyment and catharsis. Life has not been easy for any of the team members. We simply want a way to express ourselves and to leave reality behind for a while, because as The Cheesemeister/The Real Cie (our founder) is fond of saying, reality bites.

I'm aware that no-one was intending to be cruel with their words. However, in the future, we request no con-crit on our work. Thank you.

Ursula Andromeda

for

Team Netherworld

L is for Luminous

Lovely, luminous lady Luna

I dreamed you landed on the seashore

Compelling me with your soft, pale light

Pulled into the sweet sensation of your celestial embrace

I never wish to break free from your orbit

**********************

This poem is written from the perspective of one of the Netherworld's best loved characters to his wife. They are fugitives from a horrible Dystopian future. She spent the first seventeen years of her life in a bio-dome on the moon. He often writes romantic poems referring to her origins.

These characters were most recently referenced:

Here, at The Netherworld

or

Here, at Undead in the Netherworld

~Wanda~

Prompts used:

Alphabe-Thursday: Letter L

Five Sentence Fiction: Luminous

Theme Thursday: Sensation

Note from Wanda:

I put the poem back up under protest. Several of the other team members asked me to do so, and I suppose removing it wasn't fair to all the people who came by and said nice things. I appreciate those of you who did. 

I should not have published this poem here, or at any rate, I should not have shared it on blog hops. I thought it was cuter than it actually turned out to be. In reality, it's not very good. I was trying to write from the point of view of one of our characters. It was a stupid idea. I will not do anything this ridiculous again in the future. I'm pretty sure the Vogons could write better poetry than this drivel.

I'm not a very good poet. I wrote it for fun. To those of you who bothered coming here to read this shit, I'm sorry. The last time I published a poem here was October 2013, in memory of my father, who will be gone ten years on the 28th of this month. Fortunately, the times I wax poetic are few and far between, because I'm terrible at it.

My father taught English comp and literature at a high school level. He's probably hiding his head behind his wings in shame from the other angels because his daughter is such a talentless hack. I'm sorry I let you down, Dad. I'm not very good at much of anything, I'm afraid. I will always love you. I wish I could have made you proud in some way.

~Wanda~

Update August 10 2014

I changed the last line. Maybe the change will be more to the liking of the readers.

I'm trying to give the poem a chance. I still don't like it very well at this point and I'm still wondering why I thought it was a good idea to write and/or share it.

Thank you to those who expressed supportive thoughts. Nobody really said anything mean. I'm way too sensitive in the first place, and I've been having family and money problems to compound everything. It was a straw that broke the camel's back thing to have my writing criticized. I overreacted and I'm sorry.

~Wanda~

For My Father on Butterfly Releasing Day

Long gone from this place

Leaving only memories

Cobwebs in the sun

~Cie~

There was a butterfly release ceremony at Mountain View Park in Boulder today, sponsored by Family Hospice of Boulder. I purchased a butterfly in honor of my father, who died on November 28, 2010 after six years of progressive physical and mental deterioration following a devastating hemorrhagic stroke on June 4, 2004. My father would have been 78 years old this year. 

My son and I attended the service. We released the butterfly. I had intended to watch its flight path, but it was eager to go and flew right in my face, so I lost track of it almost immediately.

Following the service, we drove to Golden, where there is a memorial bench in the cemetery, honoring my father. We placed the carnation we had received on the bench.

Butterflies have a special meaning to us. When the family was gathered for Dad's memorial service at the cemetery, we hired a bagpiper to play Amazing Grace at the end of the service. He walked off into the distance as he played, representing the departure of the spirit from the living world. A butterfly landed on the bench for a moment, then flew off, following the bagpiper. I previously wrote a poem about this event here.

Dad taught me to respect all life, including the lowliest of creatures, such as insects and spiders. Thus, the photo of the cobwebs inspired me. He is gone from the world of the living, leaving only memories. I don't claim to understand what happens after death as I am not particularly religious, but I do believe that something continues after the death of the body. Spirit or soul is a good enough word for it.

~Cie~