Some New Poetry – Update #5 – 09/30/09

So this is just some new poetry. It’s only something to post since I haven’t posted anything in a long time. You all can ridicule or compliment this as much as you want, but just know that it is only the first draft of a poem and only something to post on my blog. That’s it. But all the same, I hope you enjoy it. Also, stupid WordPress screws around with my formatting, so some words might be out of order, unfortunately. I hope you understand. Argh.

create oh magpie of the breeze

create oh magpie of the breeze

and weave a webless tale of seven fabrics

remember the young artist

humming happily in a harvest season

through brown fields of memory

and colored leaves of life

tell a story of where he is now

tell a story to the children

begin

below the twisting lurching

vertigo

turnpikes denver of

a corpse

policemen                                                                                with

flashing red                                                                       and blue

SIRENS

clean up carefully and they better too

bland lunch

this restaurant aint as good as it used to be

word on the street anyways

driving same road home quietly

strange how i still think of her

yet she sleeps somewhere nearby

drifting

dreaming

away from me

after a weekend of friends and maybe

one

or

two

parties

idonotramble

depth

long ago lived a dragon with eyes and       of

ethereal light that crouched      tail

maliciously over a heap

of golden life

deep

within

my

heart

and her sword

g  l  o  w  i  n  g   in the light of

authenticity knowledge and beauty

defeated that which stole my life before

andshedidntevenknowitwhichiswhyshesleepssolong

words and butterflies              but often                   flap their wings

and strut their              make no                     stuff and

maintain             sense                          beauty

unless you KNOW or maybe even FEEL

if athena knew her all hell would

breakloose

or   f  r  e  e  z  e   over

rain sulfur

not one sinless citizen

athens crumbles like a cracker

socrates dies anyways

and she remains the same wild and lovely soul

a statue taller than athena

building a stairway to god

and she remains the same wild and lovely soul

still alone though

mmmmmmmm

below the twisting lurching

vertigo

turnpikes denver of

does anyone cry

anyone miss a ketchup stain from a hamburger

an imprint on the ground where a rock picked

up by a child playing war in the backyard

and who played war back

what mother misses that child

did that child love

did he collapse from the pain of being a man

a lonely corpse

thinking of her

looking at gazing at

a lonely tearful bloody corpse

not so different i suppose

the world is what it is

man lives in death

because he never met

life

wake up lazarus

resurrect the dead inside

resuscitate a blue corpse

live again love again

tennyson was right you know

this shadow of a cloud brings rain

mysoul is washed anew

a corpse cleaned up

hearts and ventricles tangled up in violet mist

floating wisps of white light joy peace love

this is to live again

below the twisting lurching

vertigo

turnpikes denver of

a dead corpse

not so different i suppose

oh weaver of the wind

leave me alone

Just Some Thoughts

What if children are afraid of the dark simply because they are innocent beings? Darkness seems evil in the minds of children, and thus, children being more pure-hearted than any other human being, they are afraid of it. And we, having been exposed to evil through exposure to mankind, have ceased to be afraid of the darkness, just as we have ceased to be afraid of evil – because it is so common.

What if American relationships fail so often because of over-exposure to the media? Movies, TV shows, novels, music, all teaches us that relationships are based on feelings of being in love, that recurring fights are normal and can even be healthy, that abandonment of a wife and a family can sometimes be a good thing, that a relationship is for me before it’s for you. In truth, we should be being taught that true love is self-less, that true love is based first on reason and dedication before it is based on feeling, that recurring fights should be nipped in the bud and resolved and should not be met with any other reaction than marital counseling, that remaining with your family is always the right decision with very few exceptions. What if, because of what we are exposed to, and because of what we aren’t exposed to, we have been misled? And thus we do not know what love is, and we are lonely, and we fall in and out of love and our relationships fail over and over and over again?

By now, anyone reading my blog (more than this article) knows that I am a Christian, but also knows that I have more liberal views on the world than most. What if Christians are the leading reason why non-believers do not become Christians? Christians come across as snobby, uptight, stuffy, rule-oriented, judgmental, closed-minded, conservative, boring, sheltered individuals. Non-believers look at that and say “What the hell is the point? Christ seems cool. But these people are nothing like him.” Simply because we have become so over-indulged in what not to do and what rules to follow that we have forgotten how to live Christ. The Bible is good, it is necessary, but living Christ does not mean becoming a modern Pharisee and becoming over-obsessed with rules, with gray-area arguments, with ignorantly sheltered thinking because we’re too afraid to become part of this world. We do not know what showing an example of Christ means. We only know how to follow rules. We only know how to close our doors to the world. We only know how to piss people off with our religious dogmatism, with our conservative mindset, with our unwillingness to become culturally relevant in order to understand the world that we live in, instead of sheltering ourselves because we have somehow contorted Bible verses to support that behavior. Christians do not live Christ. I have rarely met any who do. Even I do not come close, despite how big I talk on the subject. But we must learn.

What if all of us in the world have forgotten what makes us men?

What if life is so much more than what we’ve learned?

What if technology and progress and modernism has only produced more depression and distraction from true abundant life than we ever knew was possible?

What if we’re all wrong?

What if I’m wrong?

What if we all die miserable? Even those who have Christ end with no peace? End with bitterness, sadness, and unrest in the heart? Or even worse: fool ourselves by thinking we know where we’ll go when we die, when in truth we don’t?

What if we’re all wrong?

What if I’m wrong?

What if the world is more evil than anyone could possibly imagine? Even those who think they can imagine are farther from the truth than they even know?

What if I’m wrong?

What if we’re all wrong?

Brief Thoughts and Some New Poetry – Update #4 – 08/17/2009

It doesn’t seem that many have been paying any attention to my Jon Foreman continuances, and thus I think that perhaps I will let those sit for a while, unless I get some more positive feedback…?

Anyways, on another subject…recently I was discussing some writing with a friend of mine at Starbucks. He and I usually exchange poetry and such and critique each other’s work. He had just finished a thesis for school, which, from the brief summary he gave me, intrigued me quite a bit. The basic gist of it was that, as children of God, being made in God’s likeness – a God who was a Creator before he was anything else in the history of our existence…if we are to pursue being more godly people; being more Christlike…then it ought to be our job as mankind to create, in a respectful imitation of our Father.

I hope he will forgive me if I got any of that slightly wrong. Also, I hope he will forgive me for sharing that information on my blog.

Naturally, this is an interesting concept. However, I agree with him wholeheartedly. I believe that those who do not create, whether it be something along the lines of fine art, or whether it be something as practical as carpentry or architecture – those that do not choose to create willingly in the course of their lives truly miss out on an incredible experience. And, I simply have a bias that the arts are intellectually and aesthetically so powerful that they have a far more superior place in our society than most would and ought to recognize.

And so, not having much more to say, I have decided that, in the spirit of that thesis that I have just briefly and summarily shared with my readers, I ought to present another bit of poetry that I am working on.

Occasionally I have received comments from readers telling me that my poetry is crap. I would like to say that I agree with that, considering that I have only ever shared first drafts, which are ALWAYS rougher, unorganized, terribly-written, and very different drafts than my final editions. That being said, obviously, here is yet another first draft of a poem that I am currently working on. I hope you enjoy. (Feedback, if constructive, is always appreciated, by the way).

*

I Am Worn Out

*

Brown grassy mountainsides;

full of yucca and sharp burs and

naked trees – stripped of life.

*

Your buffalo have all been murdered, America.

*

Atop a vertical precipice, the edge

of everything that’s never been,

before a white and faceless

void: the sore thumb of a

boulder. A gray and

ancient troll.

*

There sits a changed and stoic

stranger wrapped in a wool blanket

against piercing winter wind and frost.

Sharing my thoughts. My organs. My perch.

*

Walking along this trail…

there can only be death.

I check my silent moving

watch. Time to turn back.

*

There you have it, friends. For those who may or may not be interested, particularly the rare few of you who read my blog even somewhat steadily: School starts in one week. In other words, I will have little free time on my hands, most of which will be spent pursuing my own interests that rejuvenate the soul rather than wear it out further. Thus blogging will be kept to a minimum. However, I promise I will try to write every once in a while, so as not to give it up entirely. I would never want to do that, believe me. But it will be much more scarce than usual. Just for information’s sake, I wanted to share that.

Jon Foreman Part 2….of many??

Jon Foreman

~Part 2 ~

by Jarred R. Kamin

Well, here we are continuing the topic of Mr. Foreman. As before, I’m gonna touch on just another aspect of his music that I brought up in the introduction (speaking of which, if you haven’t read the Introduction and Part 1, you might want to do that??? Maybe you don’t need to, though, either. I don’t know. You can judge for yourself. Shutting Up.). I think some of the elements that I addressed that are next on the list are his vulnerability in his music – being real with his listeners and not singing about meaningless nonsense, and his admission that he doesn’t have all the answers about life and God – something that I consider rare in a Christian musician these days. So, I believe it is appropriate to now elaborate on what I said and give some examples from songs of his, again.

Jon Foreman

I think the songs “The Cure for Pain,” “Let that Be Enough,” and “The Blues” are perfect examples of both of the above-listed qualities. In these songs he demonstrates both his desire to be real with his listeners and not to cover up how he feels, and also he admits that he doesn’t really know how the world works, how God works, how mankind works, etc. Let’s see if I can’t explain myself a little bit better, in those regards.

Perhaps it would be best to begin by explaining those songs a little bit, for those who haven’t heard them.

“The Cure for Pain” can easily be understood by the title alone, I think. Jon sings beautifully about sadness, explaining that he has spent his life trying to sing his tears away and find a cure for pain. But he hasn’t found one, and his singing hasn’t necessarily alleviated his feelings, despite how much he obviously loves what he does. Thus he is extremely vulnerable: showing without disguise his depression that he evidently struggles with, and simultaneously allowing for the knowledge that he doesn’t know what to do about it, either. He has tried to find a way to bring it to an end, but remains the same man. And yet, there is a resolution in the ending lines “It would be a lie to run away:” he realizes that he has to keep living, keep loving, keep trusting in God, and keep making music.

On a personal side-note: I myself struggle with depression. And a recurring thought that I have had is maybe it’s okay to be sad. Maybe happiness is an over-rated emotion. Maybe we have come to believe that it’s not okay to be depressed because our American culture has always said “If you’re not happy with your life, something is wrong with you.” I know for me, my sadness is what leads to my creativity – it makes me who I am. Without it I wouldn’t be me, no matter how much I might want to be rid of it. And I wonder if Jon feels the same way that I do. I am often reminded that in the Bible it said that Christ was a man of sorrows, familiar with pain and suffering all the days of his life. And that is a comforting notion. Perhaps Jon himself remembers that verse, and thus he ends his song on a hopeful note: “It would be a lie to run away.”

In “Let That Be Enough” Jon sings more about how worn out he is of life, relating “All my sandcastles spend their time collapsing.” I would say he is slightly less sad then he is in other songs, like “The Cure for Pain,” but he is still obviously perturbed inside. And once again, by admitting his thoughts and emotions openly, he remains real with us: the audience. And, once again, by not pretending to be happy and joyful with every aspect of his life, I see it as a subtle way of admitting that life isn’t peachy, and, unlike most Christian artists, he isn’t going to pretend that it is and just sing about how much joy he has found in Christ, and nothing else. This is a incredibly human aspect of him that attracts me to him possibly more than anything else. I personally have become fed up with the Christian music industry, full of singers who sing about almost nothing but joy and the attributes of God. Jon is the opposite of that, for me, and his humanness, his vulnerableness, his truth, is such an incredible quality in a man of his situation in a world like this.

“The Blues” is almost indescribable in its awesomeness, for me. When the “Nothing is Sound” album from Switchfoot came out, I went and bought it right away. I actually had to go to three different stores to find it, because they were all sold out, here in the big city of Denver, CO. When I went home that night, I did my 3+ hours of homework to that album, and then I just sat there some more and played it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And each time, when I heard “The Blues,” I was literally crying. It became my favorite song of all time, and I think I would still say that it is to this day, actually. I would highly recommend listening to it. Get on iTunes right now and buy it (if you haven’t already, for those of you Jon Foreman/Switchfoot fans reading this right now). I have posted the lyrics here, for your entertainment and enjoyment, and I think they speak for themselves in this regard.

And once more, I believe I have said enough? If anyone is unsatisfied with what I am saying in these various posts, please let me know. I am sure there are many hardcore fans out there, like myself, who may or may not like to hear more from me in some way. Give me your feedback, please. These will be continued in the near future… And now, here are the lyrics for “The Blues.”

Is this the New Year or just another night?
Is this the new fear or just another fright?
Is this the new tear or just another desperation?

Is this the finger or just another fist?
Is this the kingdom or just a hit n’ miss?
I miss direction, most in all this desperation.

Is this what they call freedom?
Is this what you call pain?
Is this what they call discontented fame?

It’ll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

I’m singing this one like a broken piece of glass,
From broken hearts and broken noses in the back.
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

You push until you’re shoving
You bend until you break
Do you stand on the broken fields where your fathers lay?

It’ll be a day like this one
When the world caves in (Repeated many times).

Is nothing here worth saving?
Is no one here at all?
Is there any net left that could break our fall?

It’ll be a day like this one
When the sky falls down and the hungry and poor and deserted are found.
Are you discontented? Have you been pushing hard?
Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?

It’ll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

Is there nothing left now?
Nothing left to sing?
Are there any left who haven’t kissed the enemy?
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues?

And nothing is okay
Until the world caves in (Repeated many times until the end).

The Abundance of the Spirit (or Life and Death)

by Jarred R. Kamin

I sometimes think that this Nation is far too obsessed with the realization that death is inevitable. It seems that musical artists cannot refrain from singing something about the topic, painters focus on the grim realities of the future demise of man, countless movies are made about the chances to cheat death, to kill God, to trick the Devil, even about learning how to cope with the death of a loved one. I myself know that too often, for some strange reason, when writing poetry, my mind will automatically turn to the end of my life, and I can’t help but express my thoughts there and then. But why do we do this? Why can’t we forget about it and just let it go?

I believe that if we spend too much time worrying about death, we forget to live. Don’t we? I think that God has called us to live abundant life, without fear, without regret, without worry. He has called for us to walk in the moment, apart from all thoughts of materialism, of obsession, of anxiety, of death. But let me depart from the death thing, because that’s not what I really want to focus on, here. I want to focus on life and living.

Here is the truth. People in this modern world are afraid of living, because they feel safer in Church. They feel safer in their luxury-brand cars. They feel safer in their corporate jobs that bring in the dough without any worries. They feel safer without emotional attachment to people (sure, they have lots of friends, but how many of them really matter? Two or three? Or are they all real and worthwhile friends?). They feel safer without stepping outside the box of social norms and living as themselves without a care about whatever anyone else thinks. They feel safer to live like everyone else, because that must be how to live life, right? Because everyone else does it that way?

Life – real life – means being yourself, first and foremost. Yet, as Bob Dylan once said, “All I can be is myself, whoever that is.” I think 99% of us really don’t know who we really are – who God made us to be, each individually and especially. After you can accurately learn how to be that which you are meant to be, you can worry about what you’re supposed to do with your life.

Brennan Manning, in his book “Abba’s Child,” relates a story in which he traveled to the Colorado Rockies and spent 20 days in a cabin by himself, in silence and solitude, in an attempt to alleviate stress, to have time to himself for therapeutic and spiritual reasons, and in an attempt to find himself. Keep in mind that this is a man who was a Catholic monk for many years, and a priest for, I believe, (don’t quote me on this one) 20-some odd years. It wasn’t until the end of this time period by himself that he finally discovered who he really was: he called it “shredding the False Self, saying goodbye to him, and saying hello to the True Self, in all his glory and abundance.” How I long to experience something like that! But, unfortunately, this world that we live in makes such situations almost impossible, it seems, because of the demands on our souls – the busy, never-ending schedules that we subject ourselves to by not learning how to say “no.”

Many psychologists, psychiatrists, pastors, counsellors, writers, politicians, etc. often quote the concept that “the leading cause of depression and uncertainty in America is the lack of time that individuals spend with themselves, alone and quiet.” There is a story told of how a young man went and visited a doctor, telling him that he was miserable. The doctor told this man to spend one hour alone, each night, and that would most likely cure him. The man, for two weeks straight, spent his evenings locked in his study, listening to classical music and reading literature. After those two weeks, he went back to the doctor and told him that it wasn’t working. The doctor asked him what exactly the man did during his hour a night. The man replied by telling him about his experiences with music and books. The doctor shook his head, saying “Young man, I meant that you must spend time with yourself, alone. No musicians, no authors: just you. Yourself.” The man replied “I can think of no worse company!”

Jon Foreman says “If we spend our time obsessing with the future or regretting the past, then we will never live. We are as walking dead men. Tomorrow will always be tomorrow and yesterday cannot be changed. There is so much more to living abundant life.” I desire to live out my life exactly like Jon describes there. As I said above, I believe we are called to so much more.

I’ve said a lot, and most of it was very jumbled, and unorganized. I do that, unfortunately. My apologies. My point simply is that people (Americans in particular) need to “wake up and hold their mistakes up,” as The Arcade Fire sings. Life needs to be more, and if it were, I believe the culture that we currently raise our children in, the culture in which politicians and the law run amuck steeped in corruption, the culture in which we expect to be significant, would be what we desire. I’m not calling for a Utopia. I’m simply calling for us to cease our ignorance and live like Christ – without boundaries, without rules, without fear, without a need for security, without conservative living or liberal living, without religious mumbo-jumbo. I want life to be what it ought to be: not a focus on death or sadness, but a focus on joy, peace, love, and that which is necessary for the world to thrive on. And I guess that’s all I can ask. And all I can say for now.

Jon Foreman/Switchfoot…”Part 1″ of many?…

Jon Foreman/Switchfoot

~Part 1~

by Jarred R. Kamin

So, hopefully any readers of this article have already read my introduction part, as this is now the “sequel” to that bit of blogging. This is part 1.

To be honest with all of you, I do not know ahead of time what I’m going to write about. See, it’s usually hard enough for me to write a blog, because I have problems organizing my thoughts, and thus I tend to bunny trail all over the place. And with Jon Foreman and Switchfoot it is even harder, as I have so many thoughts concerning them and their work, it’s incredibly difficult for me to not just randomly start spouting out everything I know and/or feel. So, anyways, with that in mind, let me begin my completely unorganized appraisal of…well, specifically of Jon Foreman. I would probably name him “Man of the Decade.” Or “Man of the Century,” especially seeing as how we are now in a new century, aren’t we?

In my “Introduction” I ended by saying:

After all of this introductory mumbo-jumbo with me doing my best to speak eloquently in an attempt to make you, the reader, feel like Foreman is this amazing guy, I think I should actually give some tangible examples of some of the things I’m talking about. How about I do that, now? Let’s do it….

So I am going to try and systematically go through some of the points that I brought up in the Introduction, and go a little deeper with the ideas and characteristics that I addressed.

The first description of Jon Foreman/Switchfoot’s music that I wrote stated that the songs are thought-provoking and/or emotionally-driven pretty much all of the time. Let me give some specific examples of that statement.

Fall - EP by Jon Foreman

One song that really comes to mind right away is Jon Foreman’s solo song “Southbound Train,” which was originally released on his Fall EP in November of 2007. I’ve posted the lyrics here, and there is also a link to my favorite live performance of it on Youtube:

Oh! I guess they’ll say I’ve grown.

I know more than I wanted to know.

I’ve said more than I wanted to say.

I’m headed home.

Yeah, but I’m not so sure that home is a place

you can still get to by train.

So I’m looking out the window,

and I’m drifting off to sleep

with my face pressed up against the pane.

With a rhythm in my heart, and a ringing in my ears:

It’s the rhythm of my southbound train.

Oh, well the wind starts
To look like her hair
And the sun
And her bright blue eyes
As the sea
And the shore fall and rise
Like her breast
As she breathes by my side
And the moon is her lips

And the sun is headed
On down to the sea
Like her hair
As she lays down on me
Until we reach ocean side
Over and over
I hear the same train
With the rhythm of my heart
And my sleepy girl’s breathing
With the rhythm
Of my southbound train

Oh, I suppose
They’ll say I should’ve known
Or maybe I’m just feeling old
Like a lawyer with no one to blame

I’m headed home
Yeah, but I’m not so sure
Home is a place
That’ll ever look the same

So we gather up our things
And we head out in the cold
And your eyes
Are where you carry the pain
And I hear the whistle weeping
It’s crying to the sky
It’s the rhythm
Of the southbound train
It’s the rhythm
Of my southbound train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9mX0I4P31I

(By the way, I recommend listening to the studio recording. Much better than the live version).

This song is really a perfect example of both the way he provokes the brain to deep thought, and at the same time emits strong emotion. Here are some detailed examples of this in the song:

First of all, he talks about how home may not be a place that can any longer be reached by train. I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s not referring to going home literally, but rather to the fact that he has changed as he’s grown older, and going home will no longer be the same – it can’t be reached by train anymore. In this song, unfortunately, that’s about as deep as he goes, “thinking-wise.” Some others of my favorite songs in which he really gets people thinking would be songs that he does with Switchfoot, like “Lonely Nation,” “Circles,” and lots of others.

Now, on another note, this song is (hopefully) quite obviously emotionally-driven. In the second verse he sings eloquently about his wife, how beautiful she is to him, and how in love with her he must be. When you listen to his voice (especially found in the studio recording), you can not only feel the emotion in the lyrics, but hear it strongly in his voice. And then, at the end of the song, he refers to “Your eyes are where you carry your pain. I hear the whistle weeping, it’s crying in the sky…” To me, at least, these are very evocative words expressing deep sorrow and depression. Again, as before, when you listen to his voice you can especially hear the emotion he feels, aside from how obvious it is in the lyrics as well. 

Wow, I’ve said a lot today. Hopefully it’s been effective. We’ll have to continue later, I guess, as this blog post seems very long to me. So, I guess, look forward to Part 2, coming soon, hopefully. Very soon?…

To be continued…

Jon Foreman/Switchfoot Introduction (More Parts Coming)

Jon Foreman / Switchfoot

~Introduction~

Oh, where to begin?

This is a subject that is incredibly close to my heart, as many know. So close, in fact, that much of the music and the sayings and the concert experiences (among other things) have become part of me – completely ingrained in my noodle, as it were. Foreman is an artist that I fervently admire, as do a handful of other countless millions of fans out there in the world. His music is thought-provoking, and oftentimes emotionally-driven, as well; his words come from the heart and thus he makes himself vulnerable through his music. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers: a rare quality in a man who is a professing Christian. He doesn’t sing only about his faith, but asks questions concerning all elements of life, embracing the fullness of human emotion and thought. And when he does shout out about his Savior, he does it in a way that somehow does not offend his non-Christian listeners; yet another rare tactic that most others are incapable of pulling off.

Jon Foreman

Taking a step back from his music for a minute. This is a man who practices what he preaches; he refuses to sit around with news reporters or celebrities or politicians discussing what needs to change in the world. Instead he goes out and does what he thinks is necessary to make the world a better place, and he saves his words for later. Foreman rarely shies away from speaking his mind, regardless of who is listening. He stands up for his faith blatantly, shouting “Music is what I do. Christ is why I do it.” And yet, he has plenty to say that the modern American Christian Church probably doesn’t want to hear, as well. I might touch on that a little later. He lives free of the rules of any institution or society. He lives free of all but God’s law. And he loves every minute of his life, living for Christ alone and no one else.

One fantastic example of the traits of Foreman can be found in an observation that a blogger made not too long ago. I think this quote accurately sums up a lot of what I have already said, as a starting point. Unfortunately, I do not know the blogger’s name, as I received this quote from tertiary sources, so I cannot accurately site him/her. I hope they will forgive me for borrowing what they said, though:

…Switchfoot, the band, seems to have found the most ideal existence that humans can have. Im so envious of their joy and freedom and just general love of life. I think it’s God. I think he gives them this peace but I’ve not found it in anyone else i know. I saw it on their faces that night so I know it’s out there and i feel like im close to finding it.
It was interesting, at one point during This Is Home (a calm thoughtful song, not one for antics) there was this drunk girl who flopped up on stage and started dancing. Mr. security guard put her kindly back off but she stayed pretty crazy you could tell Jon was kinda awked out but instead of doing the easy thing and just trying to ignore her, he just took a moment and asked her ‘What’re you doing? Why’re you so excited?’ A completely honest question. I didn’t see her answer but I liked that he didnt try and avoid a potential problem. He was interested in her and wanted to understand what was going on in her head. Consequently she calmed down, having gotten the attention she was hoping for. He singlehandedly difused the situation and all the while was producing this glorious sound with his guitar. These kinds of people are rare…

After all of this introductory mumbo-jumbo with me doing my best to speak eloquently in an attempt to make you, the reader, feel like Foreman is this amazing guy, I think I should actually give some tangible examples of some of the things I’m talking about. How about I do that, now? Let’s do it….

To Be Continued With “Part 1″

More Artwork

I’ve been pursuing my “artwork” some more, lately. I’ve gotten pretty into it, I guess. I’ve been working with not only modifying my existing photography of the forest by my house, but also overlaying pictures of people and/or places from other photos of mine as well. It’s been fun. And I’m very pleased with the results.

I was talking with a friend of mine about these pieces and he had something really good to say: He said “True art doesn’t have to be skillful. You don’t have to be the best at what you do to be an artist. Thus, using computer effects and things is just as artful as anything else. An artist has an EYE for what looks good aesthetically.”

I really appreciated him saying that, naturally, as I think it applies to these pieces rather well. So, in addition to the other piece that I already displayed, here’s some more to look at, if you so please.

oh my queen i have found the tree of life and it is dying...

And this next piece, I confess, I borrowed a clipping from a work of art by Riceboy Sleeps. However, I promise this is a temporary element of the piece, as I have a perfect photo of my sister to replace it. I just haven’t done it yet. *Sorry guys. I hope it’s not violating any copyrighting or offending anyone.* Besides, I’m not getting all serious about these and mass publishing them or anything. I will later replace it with the overlay that is rightfully mine. But anyways, I still wanted to clarify that for posterity’s sake. By the way, Riceboy Sleeps’ artwork is eclectically awesome!

oh the first snow and the heavyhearted journey...

oh the memories that haunt us because we forgot them…

Hello, everyone. I wanted to share with you all a piece of artwork that I have been working on for a little while, which I recently finished. I entitled the piece “oh the memories that haunt us because we forgot them…” I hope you like it. I used a number of different overlapping texture techniques with a photo that I had taken a while back, and after scanning it onto the computer, I finished the rest with some photo-editing software like picnik and other things. I have never done anything remotely like this before, so please let me know what you think. I’m not sure what anyone will get out of it, but please enjoy!

Some New Poetry – Update #3 – 07/10/09

I have very little to nothing to say about anything lately, so I thought I might as well give y’all some more poetry to read for right now. This is a poem that I cranked out a couple days ago. It’s a poem written for my favorite poet – a man who had an incredible power of word choice and description. It’s only a first draft of a poem, so it’s pretty lame and not very well revised at all – definitely not worth the time of day for publishing or anything like that. But let me know what you think, please.

For Rainer Maria Rilke

These rising, falling, endless tides of life,

in which is only found small pearls of worth

perhaps but once in many countless years.

Throughout the bitter nights, crammed full with tears,

I perched alone, within mine darkened cage –

yet found such solace from the grief and strife.

In thee, Great Poet: with such power of page,

arrives a giant shape of splendorous awe:

a form no other artist may thus claim.

Within thy children’s many flawless frames

there lies a grace still unaccounted for;

that God endowed his gifts in thy presages!

Still Life will, without ceasing, keep its roar,

but I shall not forget thee, dearest mentor.