Tuesday 22 April 2014

Mind


Razor wire slips

From my cerebrum

To welcome dreams

Of past dreams.

Fragments,

Moments,

Re-animated,

Again and again and……..



A path amongst flowers;

A dark haired woman;

A house of mirrors;

Corridors to nowhere;

And that face always that face….



Smiling,

Taunting,

Beckoning,

Stretching out a hand

To lead me into the Dark,

Alone and not alone...parted,

Forever.



Sunrise.

Tears flow as amber rain.

Awake, the dreams remain

To taunt the present

From the past.

The razor wire returns

To hold the soul in pain.



Thursday 17 April 2014

Shadows of Truth



Dark shadows of lies flew like black snowflakes on a winter day.

At first they were small lies, small misguided moments of untruth but as they grew in size and depth they became dangerous. 

Lie gathered upon lie to form a drift of pure misery that would remain to taunt all those who chose to believe in them.

Shaped into reality the lies sometimes looked real to many who saw them, but the evil ones knew exactly what they were and the power they gave. 

Reading or listening to the lies was an art not taught to many, it was more of where to start that was important, perhaps more than the content. 

Different chosen ones began retelling the lies in many places and so the stories that grew were different while the content was similar. 

Each faction believed its own stories and held that all others were nothing but lies, which in fact they all were. 

Time shaded and darkened the gaps until all the stories made from the drift of lies became real to those who read or heard  them. 

Minds darkened, refusing to accept that other stories were possible. 

When those minds became so dark and twisted that nothing was thought to be real bar the stories, then came the wars. 

Man against man, beast against beast until all the lies were laid to rest and there was not one person or beast left to make a story.

The lies had won as they always do.
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Rage on a Page


I am in a grumpy mood caused by something that has rankled with me for ages but has now seen that particular pot boil over.


When a writer constructs a novel or story you expect to be so entranced by the story that the characters and the locations meld seamlessly  into the narrative. I expect to be able to remember each character and where the various incidents take place due to good writing and not forget who is who or where is where.


If I open a book to be confronted by lists of characters, where they live, who is related to whom and so forth plus in some cases maps of the story realm then I switch off.

Is the story so complicated and huge that I as a poor reader cannot be expected to remember any of it? It is an insult to the reader to think this way and it shows that some writers just have no ability to engage their audience by use of good writing instead of lists.

Then we come to another area, the invented word. I will grant some credence to words invented by combination of existing common words to create a meaningful new word but I am totally opposed to the invention of nonsense words used mainly to create a language only used in a particular book or story.

There is a book currently being promoted on social media that is a fantasy novel about animals which has invented words that are incomprehensible unless you refer to the glossary so thoughtfully provided. This book is aimed at younger readers, readers who are still learning English in all it's complex forms, so to use made up words in such a book in indefensible. It would have helped if those words were even vaguely related to English words but they are not.

I do not want young people using invented words that appear nowhere else, all it will do is confuse the reader and quite possibly put them off for life.  Another point , as this book is aimed at younger humans then it may be read aloud to them. How embarrassing for the adult human not to be able to translate one of the invented words with out reference to a glossary -- how to make dad or mum look dumb !