The WonderArt Thread

[Mendalla]

In a now famous commencement speech at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the author Neil Gaiman (yes, him again) ended with the following advice to the grads:

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

So this is the thread where the denizens of Wondercafe2 are invited to show how they are taking Neil's advice. Post your original stories, poems, pictures of your visual art works, or whatever else you consider to be your "art".

A few guidelines/rules:

- Must be ORIGINAL works by YOU. If you want a thread to share art by others that you admire, we can start one. This thread is for YOUR work.

- WC2 Code of Conduct rules hold, so nothing too NSFW (Not Safe For Work/Wondercafe2, i.e. go easy on the foul language, no overly explicit sex, keep the violence within reason). That said, I do ask that the mods to go easy in this thread as I don't want this to become a battleground over community standards.

- This is not a thread for critiquing the work being posted (though a simple like or brief supportive comment would be okay). I want it to be a safe, friendly space for people to exercise their creativity. Put discussions, reviews, critiques, etc. of the works posted in another thread.

- Copyright remains in your hands. Put a copyright statement on it if you wish. I recommend it myself so if it gets scooped on to another site (yes, it goes on), you have something to point to when you send a take down notice. I also ask that we respect each other's intellectual property rights. I know not everyone on WC2 believes in the idea of intellectual property, but I hope we can agree to respect it in this thread out of respect for each other.

- If you have things posted on other sites that you wish to use, best to link to them rather than repost. This is more advice than a rule, though. The other site may have rules about reposting and linking and you should respect those so check before doing so.

Incidentally, the full commencement address is mandatory reading for anyone aspiring to the arts IMHO. Neil has some great ideas on how to be an artist.

Now, go make some art.

 

[Mendalla]

And I shall kick things off with one of my poems (which may have been posted here or on WC before).

Stars by the Sea

The stars shine above
Looking down on the shore
Kissed by waves
Marked by our feet
A temporary memorial to our passage
That will fade when the tide rises

Hand in hand we walk the sand
Talking in hushed voices
Dancing on the beach
Splashing in the waves
Sharing the joy of love
The love of beauty
The moments together

Life is not eternal
Youth is not forever
But eternal beauty fills the Cosmos
And love burns in the shining hearts
Of the stars
As it burns in our hearts
Here below

 

[Mendalla]

Wrote this one last Fall as a Hallowe'en poem but have never posted it anywhere before. It's spooky and creepy, or at least that was the goal, so be warned. Skip over this if you react badly to ghost stories. The inspiration, in retrospect, was the 1962 movie Carnival of Souls.



White Faces

White faces at my window
In the middle of the night
Making scary noises
Giving me a fright

White faces in my mirror
In the middle of the day
I scream and scream so loudly
And turn to run away.

White faces all around me
As I'm walking down the street
Looking strangely at me
As each one of them I meet

White faces now surround me
And I cannot get away
Smiling strangely, sweetly,
They beckon me to play.

 

[Mendalla]

All material that I post here will be under Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative license.

That is, you may repost or link to my postings in this thread BUT you must include an attribution to me (a link to my WC2 profile would do), must not make money off it (well, unless you're going to share ), and must not change it or incorporate it into your own works. Ideally, you would ask permission or at least shoot me a link so I can see where it's been displayed.

 

[Waterfall]

All material that I post here will be under Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative license.

That is, you may repost or link to my postings in this thread BUT you must include an attribution to me (a link to my WC2 profile would do), must not make money off it (well, unless you're going to share ), and must not change it or incorporate it into your own works. Ideally, you would ask permission or at least shoot me a link so I can see where it's been displayed.

Oh shoot, I just tweeted your poetry to Trump, my bad......

 

[Mendalla]

Debated posting this next poem but decided it was okay. It was written for another site (for a Valentine's Day competition IIRC) but rarely gets read there. It's also a bit sexy, due to the theme of both competition and site, though not graphically so.

Meditations in a Little Flat

In this small room,
We first did kiss,
In a moment of exquisite bliss,
When first your sweet lips did meet mine,
And you became my valentine.

In this small room,
In bed we lay,
In moments of erotic play,
And bodies nude became as one,
And Eros' power shone like the Sun.

In this small room,
You caught me there,
With the lovely girl from down the stairs,
My body pressed against the girls';
An intruder in our blissful world.

In this small room
You did forgive
And once again you let me live,
In the heaven that was our life,
And took the title of "my wife".

To this small room,
I have come home,
Though far from it you and I have roamed,
To think on how I became thine,
How I became your valentine.

 

[Mendalla]

Oh shoot, I just tweeted your poetry to Trump, my bad......

Oh, that's quite legal as long he knows I wrote it and didn't pay you for it. Doubt he'd appreciate it anyway. I imagine dirty limericks are more his speed.

 

[Jae]

(Are photos considered art for the purposes of this thread?)

 

[Mendalla]

(Are photos considered art for the purposes of this thread?)

Of course. As a fan of Robert Mapplethorpe and Annie Leibovitz, I have long considered photography an artform.

 

[crazyheart]

ummmmmm, ART is in the eye of the beholder

 

[Luce NDs]

Of course. As a fan of Robert Mapplethorpe and Annie Leibovitz, I have long considered photography an artform.

A short question: "are Leibovitz related to bovine complains?"

I.e. what's the beef in never, never land?

 

[Luce NDs]

ummmmmm, ART is in the eye of the beholder

Isn't this all ... old originals under the axiom ... there's nothing Nus under the sun ... thus falls?

 

[revsdd]

A few years ago (2012), strangely inspired, I wrote this poem, I wrote this poem that I called "Today I Will Be Adam." Trying to imagine the wonder of seeing and experiencing creation for the first time.

Today, I will be Adam -
At the beginning, alive but never having lived,
Open to all possibilities, amazed by all things.
For nothing has ever existed to me.
I see the sky: blues and whites and greys.
Clouds floating, birds soaring.
I see the ground: greens and browns and yellows.
Grass growing, ants crawling.
I see it all in wondrous tones of being.
I hear the sounds around me;
I feel - everything: wind, sun, hot, cold, pleasure, pain.
I feel in my heart: love, joy, hurt, pain, fear - perhaps even hate.
And all (again) for the first time.
All new, all exciting, all disturbing.
Today I experience my God again -
The One Who brought me forth:
Who walks with me; Who talks with me; Who never lets me go,
Though I may sometimes wander.
Today I am part of everything.
And everything is a part of me.
It is for me, and I am for it.
God is for me, and I am for God.
Today, I will be Adam -
And not just today,
But every day.

 

[revsdd]

A year later I wrote "The Early Morning Contemplation," which came to me - logically enough, one early morning as I sat outside with a coffee, gazing at the sky.

Morning. Early morning.
The dark; the quiet; the peace.
The dreams of the night fade away; the dreams for the day fill the mind.
Dreams from all our yesterdays are crushed or fulfilled.
What will tomorrow's dreams hold? A question mark at best?
And for today? Who knows.
Joy. Or sorrow. Life. Or death. Hope. Or grief.
So many possibilities.
But always God, in the midst of it all.
The sky glows in the east.
Pink. Red. Orange.
The light of the sun, already eight minutes old as it appears, calling us:
"Wake up! Start anew."
It drives the sleep away.
It signals a new beginning.
With God. With friends. With strangers.
Strangers who may become friends. Or not.
For who knows what the new day holds.
But the light breaks into the darkness.
The day begins.
Again.
Anew.

 

[revsdd]

This one, which I called "One Rose - A Poem For Lynn", I wrote for my wife on our 24th wedding anniversary in 2015.

I saw one rose, and thought:
How perfect!
One rose:
One woman, one partner, one best friend,
One lover, one soulmate.
One rose. There's no need for more.
One rose sums it up:
One life together.
One rose is all I need.
One rose says it all.
One rose.
One love together.
The two become one.
One rose - and all it says about us.

 

[Northwind]

Talented people here.

As many of you know I'm a knitter. I am finishing up a sweater for my husband. I used a pattern and some improvisation. He approves. It has a zipper now.

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

 

[Luce NDs]

Some abstract required to see how the tusk Annes mesh ... allowing a towering bite ... if you suspect a nibble ... run man, or porgy I'll have you for sch'noodle ... composite of Pi! Just icon of becoming stuff ... then we'll be beautiful entities beyond recognition .. as the being state does go there ... thus they can't see it ... abstract that is ... by then you blanketed ... or part of the coven ante ... as afore sayd! St Aid afore the mast Anne Marie ... just plowing through the waves and not knowing where were steered to my the master of the poop deck ... the trump card?

Favourite expression; "if you don't know, fake it with great emotion" thus Seders and fetes settle in ... as notables ... on things to question ... expect no answers from them with the motto:

• Don't look
• Don't listen
• Don't speak about it

Conclusion: nothing was consubstantiated ... directed matter? Material chaos ... from off in the mental aria ... just AUM' nite up ... and the Shadow arises as dissonance beneath the patchwork ... Eris chi ez!

 

[Mendalla]

Had I written this a month earlier, I could have entered this in a competition on another site. The muse does not always play nice with deadlines, though, so I'll let WC2 enjoy it instead.

Love

I am drunk on your love in this crazy crazy world,
I am drunk and in love with a crazy crazy girl,
I am drunk and this love is making my head whirl,
I am drunk,
Drunk on Love.

I am high with the thought of a lover in my night,
I am high with the ecstasy of kisses oh so light,
I am high so high in love and it’s giving me a fright,
I am high,
High on Love.

I am powered by the flow of our purest ecstasy,
I am powered like a starship fuelled by quantum energy,
I am powered with the love that you keep on giving me,
I am powered,
Powered by Love.

I am freed by your love from the prison of my past,
I am freed like a broken leg rescued from its cast,
I am freed by a love that I am praying’s going to last,
I am freed,
Freed by Love.

 

[Luce NDs]

Sounds very Charles Baudelaire-ish ... did you allow this as a "quelle" or germane source?

Is you disagree X Q' seme ...